ADB cites PHL conditional cash transfer program as cost-efficent
A new study by the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Independent Evaluation department cited the Philippines’ conditional cash transfer program as an exemption to most social protection systems in Asia which “fall far short of meeting the needs of the poor and vulnerable even though better safety nets can be affordable for poorer countries.”
According to the bank’s Social Protection Strategy study, “In the Philippines… the government’s conditional cash transfer program to uproot extreme poverty costs less than 0.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, yet reaches 15 million people.”
It described the Philippine process as “regular cash payments to mothers conditional on their children attending school and public health clinics.
“After just three years of implementation, evaluation findings show positive results on elementary education school enrollment and beneficiary households spending more on the health and education of their children,” the Manila-based multilateral lender noted in a statement Tuesday.
“Governments around the world tend to scramble to adopt social protection programs in times of crisis,” said Independent Evaluation director general Vinod Thomas. “But comprehensive systems built in stable years are much more effective in coping with the human impact of future economic or political crises or natural disasters,” Thomas added.
The banks said that “despite high economic growth in much of the region, public spending on social protection in Asia and the Pacific is lower than in any part of the world except for sub-Saharan Africa.”
This was because of “recent economic and financial crises, food and fuel emergencies, and the rapidly increasing frequency of natural disasters [which] have starkly exposed the inadequacy of the region’s national social protection systems to guarantee a minimum level of subsistence and meet people’s basic needs.”
The ADB study found convincing evidence that social protection programs, especially well designed safety nets that transfer resources to the poor, can reduce the depth and severity of poverty and inequality.
Widening wealth gaps are also drawing attention to the need for greater social protection in Asia, where income disparities over the past two decades have widened in 11 countries that account for more than four-fifths of the region’s population, the bank said.
However, in India, the government distributes food, fuel, and fertilizer instead of cash, and these subsidies are vulnerable to misuse and leakage, the bank noted. In addition, such subsidies generally cost more, benefit the better off than the poor, and are politically difficult to unwind.
Rapid social and demographic changes are highlighting the need for affordable pensions, health insurance, and childcare. As such, social protection needs to be higher on their development agenda, according to the study.
Its main author Joanne Asquith said that “social protection systems are not best built by providing a one-off response to a crisis, but that’s when political support for social protection is usually highest.
“Development partners need to step up their engagement with governments to sustain political support for social protection in stable years,” she added. — EST/VS, GMA News
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