Since the Philippines government received its first World Bank loan in 1957, the Bank has financed development projects which have produced significant results for its citizens. In the last three decades, the Bank’s assistance has expanded to a wide range of projects and analytical work, policy advice and capacity development in support of the country’s development agenda.
The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), started in 2015, has been helping raise rural incomes, enhance farm and fishery productivity, and improve market access throughout the country. It has been supporting provincial planning, rural infrastructure and agriculture enterprise development. It uses tools such as geotagging, value chain analysis and expanded vulnerability and suitability assessments to help guide public investments toward a modern, value-chain oriented, and climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries sector. To date, 81 provinces have developed provincial commodity investment plans to guide the project and other agricultural investments in the provinces. Based on these plans, 28 rural infrastructure projects have been completed, 149 are under construction and an additional 185 are nearing approval. These will directly benefit 427,000 households. Construction has generated more than 5,800 short-term jobs so far. Early impacts indicate about a 60 percent reduction in travel time and 50 percent increase in road usage. With support from the project, 589 enterprise subprojects, which are at various stages of implementation, are assisting 826 enterprise groups and a total of 109,800 beneficiaries, 45 percent of which are female. For enterprise development activities, average enterprise income have increased by nearly 56% attributed to a rise in production volume and farm gate prices. Users of farm-to-market roads meanwhile have seen a rise in average household income levels by nearly 60% and nearly 79% increase in their on-farm income level.
The Participatory Irrigation Development Project (PIDP) has been supporting the improvement of 58 irrigation systems throughout the country. Since it started in 2011, the project has rehabilitated and modernized irrigation infrastructure that serves 111,900 hectares, benefiting more than 178,600 farmers and their families. It has also provided organizational development and capacity building activities to 928 Irrigators Associations.
The Bank has been supporting the government’s education agenda through the “Learning, Equity and Accountability Program Support (LEAPS)” project in the areas of early grade reading and math (with a focus on disadvantaged children). Significant improvements have been recorded in reading and math scores of Grade 2 students. The project has also successfully supported the development and roll-out of a department of education-wide financial management and operations manual and has trained 14,121 target schools in the new performance incentive scheme. Approximately 8,000 schools have received training in the new school report card utilization and have reviewed two education programs focused on supporting disadvantaged learners. A recent Bank study has presented new evidence on the critical role of job seekers’ “socioemotional skills,” or “non-cognitive skills” in successfully finding employment.
The first Social Welfare and Development Reform Project (SWDRP) has helped bring almost universal enrollment (98 percent) of poor children from ages 6-11 in areas covered by the project. It has also been promoting the increased use of health services for children up to five years old and for poor pregnant women. The project has supported the government’s conditional cash transfer program (CCT) or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, which is helping poor households invest in the education and health of children up to 18 years old. The program has made significant impact on reducing total poverty and food poverty among beneficiaries, and has grown to become one of the largest in the world, supporting more than 4.4 million households as of June 2017 . An important feature of the project has also been the design and roll out of Listahanan, the national household targeting system for poverty reduction in the Philippines, that reaches three out of four households across the country. The objective selection of 5.2 million poor households in 2016 has helped ensure that government programs are better targeted for those who need it most. Given the project’s success, the Bank has provided funding through a second project (SWDRP II) that contributes to the government’s financing of health and education grants for poor households nationwide from 2016-2019.
The poorest communities have benefited from projects that address their priority needs through a community-driven development approach. The KALAHI-CIDSS National Community Driven Development Project(NCDDP) covers about 5.3 million households and channels additional resources to support 847 poor and disaster-affected municipalities as of March 2017 . Currently, 21,042 projects have been prioritized for NCDDP support, 79 percent of which have been completed. Supported community projects include basic access facilities (access roads, footbridge), basic social services such as health clinics, schools, day care centers and water systems as well as facilities for flood/erosion control and environmental protection.
To manage the risks posed by natural disasters, the Bank has provided a contingent line of credit for moderate to severe disasters, as well as an innovative catastrophe insurance coverage for the most severe and infrequent events. This is combined with technical assistance to help strengthen investment planning and regulations to reduce disaster risk, particularly through support for the revision of the National Building Code. The innovative financing helps ensure that resources are available for the government’s development programs in the aftermath of a disaster. With its global expertise in post-disaster reconstruction, the Bank has been working with development partners and the government in helping develop effective disaster recovery programs and building back better infrastructure and communities.
The Bank’s assistance has also extended to conflict-affected areas in the country, helping support better governance, access to services, jobs creation and enhanced citizen security and justice. The Mindanao Trust Fund-Reconstruction and Development Program has been supported by a range of development partners in providing access roads, farm equipment and post-harvest facilities, water supply systems, and bridges. The program has also promoted social cohesion for around 633,212 Muslims, Christians and Indigenous People in Mindanao – 52 percent of whom are women – since 2006. As of early 2017, 321 conflict-affected communities across Mindanao have benefited from 599 community infrastructure, livelihood and functional literacy projects.
The Bank has also been actively supporting the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front through technical and advisory services to various bodies set up to implement the March 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. Ongoing analytical work such as the Mindanao Jobs Report supports job creation, while advisory work supports land conflict management, financial inclusion (including Islamic finance), and conflict resolution.
The Bank has also been helping the government achieve its goal of improving quality and access to basic water supply and sanitation services, and institutionalizing integrated water resources management. In Metro Manila, Bank-supported projects have contributed to a dramatic increase in 24-hour water supply from 26 percent in 1997 to 99.9 percent at the East Concession Area and 99.8 percent at the West Concession Area in 2015. Sewerage connections also increased from just over 20,000 connections in 1997 to 176,000 in 2015 in Metro Manila.
Outside Metro Manila, the Bank has been assisting water and sanitation service providers in improving efficiency and sustainability. It has also been helping strengthen local governments’ accountability and management systems on water supply and sanitation services for all, while harnessing private sector participation. The Bank has been supporting the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) in professionalizing small water utilities through the Accredited Technical Service Provider Program. NWRB has trained and accredited 78 service providers which facilitated piped water access to about 44,000 Filipinos across the country. In rural areas, more than 1.48 million households have gained access to improved sanitationwhile 165 municipalities in 75 provinces have actively participated in eradicating the practice of open defecation through the Zero Open Defecation campaign as of February 2017.
Last Updated: Oct 05, 2017
