Duration:
Jan 03, 2022 to Mar 31, 2024
Funding Agency:
PIDS
Focus Area(s):
Human Development, Labor Markets, and Poverty
Project Director:
Abrigo, Michael Ralph M.

As of December 31, 2021, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reports that the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program (“Pantawid Pamilya”, “4Ps”) has already covered more than 5.2 million households since its inception in 2008 (DSWD, 2022). Based on the same report, the program is catering to around 4.1 million currently active beneficiary households. The coverage of the program accounts to around a fifth of the household population of the country. The wide coverage of the program, as well as its sizeable budget allocation over the past years, has generated regular inquiries as to whether the program is delivering its target outcomes. So far, there have been three rounds of rigorous impact evaluation studies on the 4Ps or Pantawid Pamilya that aim to assess the program’s impact on its desired outcomes. The past evaluations showed that the 4Ps / Pantawid Pamilya is reaching most of its key objectives of improved education and health outcomes. Consistently observed in the evaluations is the increased school participation and attendance of school-age children, which notably become more consistent in older children in the more recent evaluations. Some of the key findings on health are increase in vitamin supplementation of children, availment of maternal health care services, uptake of deworming pills, and growth monitoring of children. However, there are also conflicting results in health such as the reduction in stunting in the first evaluation and the increase in incidence for the same indicator in the 3rd evaluation. The evaluations also did not observe impact on immunization consistently in the three rounds of impact evaluation. In terms of labor outcomes, the evaluations consistently show no reduction in labor force participation. Positive impact on household welfare indicators and some behavioral indicators related to the program’s family development sessions (FDS) were also observed in the evaluations conducted (DSWD and World Bank, 2014; DSWD, 2014; Orbeta, Melad, and Araos, 2021). Republic Act 11310 or the 4Ps Act, enacted in 2019, has also mandated the periodic assessment of the program to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and other aspects of its implementation. Specifically, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies has been tasked to conduct the periodic assessment of the program. This research is the main study of the 4th round of impact evaluation (IE4) of the program overall and the first round of evaluation after the enactment of the law. Similar to the previous evaluations, the central policy question for the 4th round impact evaluation is whether the program is still able to achieve its desired outcomes in education, health, household welfare and other socio-behavioral outcomes.

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