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IBON Media Release / 22 August 2011

IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City Philippines

Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail: media@ibon.org,

http://www.ibon.org

Reference: Mr Sonny Africa (IBON research head) Mobile 0928-5053550

NO COMPREHENSIVE STUDY TO JUSTIFY PHP39.5 BILLION CCT BUDGET FOR 2012

The Aquino administration still does not have any major studies on the impact of the

conditional cash transfer (CCT) program even as it is seeks a Php18.3-billion or 86%

increase in the budget for CCTs to Php39.5 billion in 2012.

According to research group IBON, the huge budget increase is unjustifiable in the absence

of conclusive studies about program implementation and impact.

A day before the DSWD budget hearings in Congress on Tuesday (Aug 23), the World Bank

released a statement reiterating its recent projections, which noted that these were based

on simulations and that an in-depth evaluation was still ongoing. The World Bank came

out with a policy note in July 2011 that speculated about the impact on poverty of thecountrys World Bank-supported CCT program. Using an approach that it admitted had

important shortcomings and [without] data on compliance at the household level, it

hypothesized that the program could increase annual incomes of beneficiaries by 12.6

percent, resulting in the reduction of poverty incidence among them by 6.2 percentage

points.

According to IBON, this only underscores the lack of comprehensive studies of the program

after four years and after some Php44.4-billion worth of implementation (by IBON

estimates) by the end of 2011.

The rapid expansion has taken place without benefit of any major studies onimplementation or impact, said the group. The Department of Social Welfare and

Development (DSWD) only had two studies at hand last year when it requested its large

budget increase in 2011 a report by the Ateneo de Manila Institute of Philippine Culture

(IPC) and another by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The IPC was a qualitative study conducted in January-May 2010 covering just 297

respondents selected from a mere 18 barangays in three provinces (Nueva Ecija, Northern

Samar and Agusan del Sur). The SWS in turn conducted pilot spot checks in January 2010 of

just 760 households, 57 schools and 16 health facilities selected from 33 barangays in only

one province (Northern Samar). The two studies have rich qualitative data but are very

small compared to the ambition of the multi-billion peso CCT program which aims to reachas much as 4.6 million households in 79 provinces nationwide. They also already pointed

out various implementation problems that continue to arise today.

Initial IBON estimates show that the program (as currently designed) will cost some Php250

billion over a decade. According to the group, the more money the government spends on

the programs uncontrollable expansion, the harder it will be to look at the program

objectively. A four-fold budget increase in the program from Php10 billion in 2010 to

Php39.5 billion in 2012 is reckless in the absence of a meaningful assessment on how well

this money is being spent or indeed better spent elsewhere. The country for instance has

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considerable backlogs in classrooms, teachers, desks, public hospitals and health workers,

and rural infrastructure. (end)

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides

research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.