The Philippines is one of the fastest developing economies in the East Asia and Pacific region. With expanding urbanization, a developing middle class, and a giant, young population, the Philippines’ economic dynamism is underpinned by a strong call from customers to be supported through tough dynamics. labor market and large remittances. The personal sector remains buoyant, with positive results in the sector, including the outsourcing of commercial processes, wholesale and retail trade, the real estate sector and tourism. The poverty rate decreased from 23. 3 percent in 2015 to 18. 1 percent in 2015. with a penny in 2021, despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global obstacles, such as high costs of raw materials worldwide and the tightening of global monetary conditions. The Philippine government is seeking greater investments in human and physical capital to drive medium and long-term policies. term growth.
The Philippines’ economic recovery is on track, with expansion expanding from 5. 7% in 2021 to 7. 6% in 2022. In the medium term, customer expansion will continue to be supported by strong domestic demand, driven for a physically powerful labor market, the public continued. investment and the positive effects of recent investment policy reforms that may gain momentum consistent with personal investment. As a result of continued recovery and reform efforts, the country is back on track from a lower-middle income source, with a gross national income source consistent with the diversity of capita income sources of US$3,950 in 2023, to a country with a top income source consistent with the middle income source (consistent with the diversity of capita income sources of US$3,950).
Last update: November 21, 2023
The World Bank’s partnership with the Philippines spans 78 years and provides assistance to the country’s growth systems and projects. Since 1945, it has mobilized finance, global knowledge and partnerships to support the Philippines’ efforts to reduce poverty, promote agricultural progress and modernize infrastructure. , health, nutrition and education, develop resilience to climate changes and natural disasters, promote peace and global competitiveness. The Bank is an active partner in helping to stimulate the growth of the private sector, specifically in the agricultural sector, expand engagement with civil society, and herald peace and progress in Mindanao.
The National Partnership Framework (MPP) for the Philippines for 2019-2023, extended through the Performance and Learning Review until 2024, prioritizes investment in Filipinos (health and nutrition, schooling and social protection), competitiveness and task creation, and addresses key vulnerabilities. building peace and resilience, with governance and virtual transformation as cross-cutting themes. The Bank provides technical assistance and allocations that strengthen community-based progress, adding service delivery and linking remote communities to markets; announce human progression; and addressing the causes of conflict. The CPF is also a coherent technique for Mindanao’s progress and intensifies efforts to engage the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
At the end of October 2023, the active portfolio of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD or World Bank) in the Philippines consisted of 14 operations with commitments of $5. 78 billion. The funding portfolio covers other sectors: Agriculture and Food (21%); Finance, competitiveness and innovation (18%); Health, Nutrition and Population (15%); Macroeconomics, industry and investment (10%); Sustainability and social inclusion (10%); Urban planning, resilience and land (9%); Social coverage and employment (8%); Water (3%); Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy (2%); Education (2%); and transportation (2%).
The Philippines’ portfolio of funds accepted as true includes 87 active grants with a total commitment of $113. 9 million.
The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has invested $6. 2 billion since 1962 (including $4 billion on its own) in more than 170 projects in the Philippines. IFC provided advice focused on climate finance, digitalization, monetary inclusion, crisis insurance, improving the investment climate, and facilitating private sector investments in the country. IFC’s strategic priorities in the Philippines are to reduce the effects of climate change, deepen monetary inclusion, sell sustainable infrastructure, and strengthen the capacity of the personnel sector.
Last updated: November 21, 2023
Since the Philippine government obtained its first loan from the World Bank in 1957, the Bank’s advancement projects in the country have produced significant effects for the people. In recent decades, the Bank’s assistance has expanded to include a wide range of projects and analyses, policy advice, and capacity building on the country’s progress agenda.
Project Highlights and Results
The Philippines’ COVID-19 Emergency Response Project supported the country’s efforts to expand domestic vaccination, strengthen the country’s health systems, and overcome the impact of the pandemic, especially among the most deficient and most vulnerable. It helped the Philippines boost vaccination by supporting the procurement of at least 33 million vaccine doses. The World Bank-funded vaccines are among the first vaccines used for pediatric immunization and benefit 7. 5 million young people in the Philippines. The acceleration of vaccination allowed the government to open up more economic activities, allowing the country to enjoy a 5. 6% expansion in 2021. It facilitated the procurement of 500 mechanical ventilators, 119 portable X-ray machines, 70 infusion pumps and 50 RT-PCR machines. . Have 69 ambulances, as well as other medical equipment and materials needed to improve the country’s response to COVID-19. It also built isolation rooms with strain-negative systems and reference laboratories, so that the country is better prepared to deal with infectious diseases.
In order to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of low-income households, the Philippines’ FIRST Beneficiary Social Protection (BFIRST) allowance was introduced to assist the government’s flagship conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. , known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P). BFIRST’s task aims to strengthen the country’s social coverage delivery formula to make it more adaptable and efficient, focusing on the progression and implementation of a virtual transformation strategy for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), as well as assisting with monetary grants for the 4Ps.
The allocation of BFIRST is also facilitating the adoption of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), which first enabled facilities under the DSWD’s 4P program and assistance to Americans in crisis situations. By adopting PhilSys as a valid proof of identity, DSWD will be able to delight its beneficiaries through a streamlined procedure of access to welfare facilities while preventing fraud and leakage. The benefits of adopting PhilSys come with the digitization and streamlining of DSWD beneficiary registration and registration, the creation of a unified beneficiary database (UBD), the identification and removal of duplicate or ghost beneficiaries, and the option of monetary inclusion.
The allocation also promotes the use of virtual banknotes in the distribution of coin assistance. In the past, 4P beneficiaries obtained their grants by taking flight coins through an ATM or at the counter with their Landbank payment cards. Earlier this year, DSWD switched to transaction accounts for grant distribution, allowing beneficiaries to obtain budget from other sources, store their currencies, and make electronic budget transfers, such as paying expenses online. As of July 2023, 3,493,827 4P beneficiaries have access to transaction accounts.
The 4Ps are the Philippine National Poverty Reduction Strategy and a Human Capital Investment Program that was institutionalized with the passage of Republic Act 11310 on April 17, 2019. The program helps low-income families to invest in education and fitness for young people up to the age of 18. The program has had a significant effect on reducing overall poverty and lack of food confidence among beneficiaries, and has become one of the largest CCT systems in the world, helping more than 6 million families. since the beginning. As of July 2023, The 4Ps provided services to 3,978,736 active families and were being implemented in 148 cities and 1,481 municipalities in 81 provinces throughout the country. The BFIRST allocation supports the 4Ps’ efforts to enroll new families who have fallen into poverty, particularly due to the pandemic, and to facilitate the transition. of families leaving the program.
The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Social Service Delivery (Kalahi CIDSS) has received support through the Bank since 2002. Starting in 2014, it obtained investments under the KC National Community Development Project (KC – NCDDP) with cumulative loans. of 779 million dollars. The KC-NCDDP Supplementary Financing (SF) was approved through the World Bank Board of Directors in December 2020 and will close on December 31, 2024. The KC-NCDDP is being implemented in the poorest municipalities in the Philippines, together fundamentally located in spaces characterized by a maximum point of contamination. Climate replaces hazards and limitations to livelihoods. Its goal is to empower disadvantaged and disaster-affected communities to participate in more inclusive local planning, budgeting and implementation and their access to critical services. Of the 948 poor municipalities in the Philippines, with a poverty incidence of 26. 3 or above (2009 poverty line), 828 municipalities or 87% (a total of 19,647 barangays) were covered through the KC-NCDDP, and 676 municipalities (13,934 barangays) are covered through the AF.
The effects of the impact evaluation (IE) indicated positive effects on the admission of families that contributed to poverty alleviation with an increase of 12% in line with capita expenditure among beneficiary families and an even greater increase (19%) for families known to be income deficient. start with the task. above. KC-NCDDP has so far funded 39,831 network sub-allotments in critical access service spaces (e. g. , village roads, footpaths, and footpaths), followed by social hubs (e. g. , daycares, classes, fitness kiosks); environmental coverage (e. g. , flood and river control; and production services and network utilities (e. g. , electrification and multi-use buildings). Approximately 319,968 indigenous families benefited from the subawards. Implementation network subawards have also benefited women, of whom 34. 8% are suballotment implementation staff. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the KC-NCDDP has funded 2,654 isolation kits and supported the education of barangay fitness emergency reaction in 86% of the barangays. More than 2. 1 million network volunteers have been mobilized in positions since 2014. The task also contributed to improving local governance by offering a mechanism for closer engagement between Municipal Local Government Groups (MLGU) and communities 99% of Municipal Local Government Groups (MLGU) have poverty alleviation action plans based on the KC- NCDDP. .
After Typhoon Haiyan in 2014, KC-NCDDP introduced a state-of-the-art response to help disaster-affected municipalities through the Disaster Response Operations (DROM) modality, which was previously used for COVID-19 and other disasters.
To increase the government’s capacity to manage threats such as climate change, natural crises and epidemics, the Bank granted the fourth Disaster Risk Management Development Policy Support Loan with Deferred Disbursement Option (Cat DDO4). The operation is supported by a technical assistance program to help (i) institutionalize the use of rehabilitation and recovery plans for groups of local governments (UGL) to request and temporarily access investments from the National Fund for Reduction and Management Disaster Risk Management (DRRM); and (ii) integrate meteorological and crisis threat data from LGUs into the national government’s core threat awareness formula (GeoRiskPH platform).
The Ready to Rebuild (R2R) program was introduced to empower communities to better prepare: build a culture of preparedness to help governments and local communities anticipate the effects of failures and prepare recovery plans even before failures occur. of 350 provinces, cities and municipalities in the country’s 17 regions, including those affected by Super Typhoon Rai. This translates into 1,800 governors, mayors and technical staff. Another 450 technicians from 150 local governments have been trained in using the GeoRiskPH platform to integrate hazard and threat data into local crisis threat relief and control plans.
Technical assistance supports the strengthening of the implementation of a community-based RCMP-related vocational and technical education (TVET) programme to equip others in vulnerable local government units (LGUs) with critical and specific skills to be able to respond temporarily. and crises; increase compliance by national government agencies (NGAs) and LGUs with climate and crisis budget labelling; Integrate climate change adaptation and crisis threat relief measures into local investment systems and provincial commodity investment plans.
The Bank is supporting the Department of Science and Technology of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, in collaboration with the National Council for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, the Office of Civil Defense and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, in the Progress and implementation of PlanSmart in a position to rebuild an automated planning tool for crisis rehabilitation and and. This web-based application was developed to help the government formulate and implement systems and projects that take into account hazards and hazards to better prepare for and deal with crises. So far, more than 400 participants from the National Capital Region, Central Visayas Region, Caraga Region, Southern Tagalog Region, and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have been trained. 128 LGUs on the GeoRiskPH platform.
The investment also responded to pressing desires created through the COVID-19 crisis. This is combined with technical assistance to help build the capacity of national and local governments to expand effective reaction mechanisms through emergency cash transfers and a COVID-19 consultant with recommended methods. and investment features to help communities from the effects of the pandemic.
The Bank’s assistance extends to conflict-affected spaces in the country, offering help with service delivery, skills progression and the improvement of participatory procedures. With the support of five countries and the European Union, the Mindanao Trust Fund (MTF) (2005-2021) aimed to promote peace and progress in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao. The MTF funded a series of three Reconstruction and Development (RDP) projects, which fostered inclusive social and economic recovery, social esprit de corps and participatory governance through a networked progression approach, primarily in the domain became the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in 2019. Muslim Mindanao. More recently, the World Bank, through the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), decided to administer a new multi-donor fund to assist normalization, the component of the peace process that covers dismantlement. and conversion of camps into peaceful and productive communities. The new Bangsamoro Standards Trust Fund (BNTF) will build on the achievements of the MTF.
The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) has helped increase rural incomes, agricultural and fisheries productivity, and market access across the country since its launch in 2015. It supports provincial planning, rural infrastructure, and agricultural enterprise development. It uses equipment such as geolocation, price chain analysis, extended vulnerability and adequacy assessments, as well as climate hazard vulnerability assessments, to strategically direct public investments towards a modern, price-driven, climate-resilient agriculture and fisheries sector.
The allocation supported provincial investment plans for priority agricultural products in the country’s 81 provinces. Since 2015, the allocation has benefited more than 739,000 beneficiary farmers and fishermen (97% of the final allocation target), 49% of whom are women beneficiaries. The task has also built and rehabilitated more than 1,950 kilometers of roads connecting farms to markets (about six hundred kilometers more are under construction). This resulted in a 61% relief in time and a 23% relief in transportation costs. The effects of a household survey imply that farming and fishing families benefiting from completed agricultural infrastructure and commercial sub-allocations saw their genuine source of annual income grow by 36%.
In June 2021, the PRDP secured $280 million in additional investments and €18. 3 million in grants to build on the gains made through the PRDP. A new $600 million IBRD PRDP expansion allocation was approved in June 2023.
In June 2020, the World Bank approved the allocation of Support to Land Parcels for Individual Titling (SPLIT) in the Philippines. The objective of this allocation is to ensure security of land tenure and to identify sound asset rights for the beneficiaries of agrarian reform. Funding for this allocation went into effect in October 2020. As of September 2023, the allocation had effectively distributed some 46,200 automatic individual titles. The rights will cover more than 1. 3 million hectares of land, which in the past were distributed under collective titles under the Philippines’ Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The SPLIT allocation plays a very important role in promoting equitable land distribution and empowering agrarian reform beneficiaries by securing their rights to the land they cultivate.
In the personal sector, IFC is a leader in the development of the thematic bond market in the Philippines, helping banks factor green bonds since 2017 for climate-smart projects, adding renewable energy, green buildings and energy-efficient equipment. IFC also supported Ayala’s first social bond in healthcare for the Philippines’ first green cancer hospital, as well as Union Bank’s social bond to finance micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. In April 2022, IFC supported BDO Unibank’s issuance of blue bonds to help combat marine pollutants. and keeping water resources blank. It is the first blue bond for the Philippines and the first for IFC globally.
Last updated: November 21, 2023
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