Publication: Making Payments More Efficient for the Philippines Conditional Cash Transfer Program
Date
2019-09-29
ISSN
Published
2019-09-29
Author(s)
Abstract
The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program
(Pantawid Pamilya) has rapidly expanded to become the
largest social protection and human development program in
the Philippines. Over the last decade, the evolution of the
Pantawid Pamilya was not only about its size and coverage,
but also related to the program design and the quality of
implementation. Payment is one of key elements which
improved over time; however, severe challenges that hamper
their efficiency remain unaddressed. For instance, the 4Ps
has not taken full advantage of the existing payment system
in the Philippines yet. The Pantawid Pamilya has great
potential to increase the use of electronic payments, which
significantly saves time and removes paperbased
documentation. Thus, this note recommends the Government of
the Philippines to develop a strategic payment reform
agenda, under which 4Ps should allow beneficiaries to
receive payments at any transaction account of their choice.
In parallel, it is key to revisit business processes and
invest in the management information system to reduce manual
transactions to achieve more efficient payment. Beyond
efficiency, the Pantawid Pamilya program can also
strategically leverage different financial
modalities/service providers to promote the financial
inclusion agenda for beneficiaries. While service providers
currently see the Pantawid Pamilya payout as a goodwill
rather than a business opportunity, there is great potential
for beneficiaries to become the customers of their products
and services with a mainstream account.
Citation
“Acosta, Pablo; Endo, Isaku; Garcia Garcia Luna, Jose Antonio; de Guzman, Aisha; Okamura, Yuko. 2019. Making Payments More Efficient for the Philippines Conditional Cash Transfer Program; Making Payments More Efficient for the Philippines Conditional Cash Transfer Program. World Bank Social Protection Policy Note,no. 20;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32540 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”