MANILA: The World Bank on Saturday approved US$450 million of funding for the Philippines’ flagship anti-poverty program, which would provide basic healthcare and education to millions of families until 2019.
The financing, under the bank’s Social Welfare Development and Reform Project II, is to cover about 7 percent of the total cost of implementing what is known as the conditional cash transfer program.
Manila has allocated about 62.7 billion peso (US$1.32 billion) from this year’s budget for the scheme, which is expanding this year to cover 4.6 million households. A quarter of the Philippines’ 100 million people live below the poverty line.
