Evaluation of the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Conditional Cash Transfer Program

The Pantawid program provides cash transfers to poor households, conditional upon investments in child education and health as well as use of maternal health services. Eligible poor households were identified by the survey conducted by the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) that used a proxy means test (PMT), which estimated per capita household income on the basis of observable and easily-provided information, including household size and physical dwelling conditions. Households with estimated per capita income below the poverty line were classified as poor. From this subset of poor households, Pantawid identified eligible households as being those with children 0-14 years of age and/or a pregnant woman at the time of the assessment. Poor and eligible households receive a combination of health grants and education grants every two months ranging from PhP 500 to PhP 1,400 (approximately 11 USD to 32 USD) per household per month depending on the number of eligible children in the household. The maximum monthly transfer of PhP 1,400 represents about 23 percent of beneficiaries’ household income. Besides family size, the exact transfer amount is also determined by the compliance behavior of the household with respect to the health and education grants.
The health grant aims to promote healthy practices, improve child nutrition, and increase health care utilization. Poor households with children 0-14 years old and/or pregnant women receive up to PhP 500 (about US$ 11) per household per month, conditional on fulfilling the following requirements: (i) all children under the age of five follow the Department of Health (DOH) protocol by visiting the health center or rural health unit regularly; (ii) pregnant women attend the health center or rural health unit according to protocol; (iii) all school-aged children (6-14 years old) comply with the de-worming protocol at schools; and (iv) for households with children 0-14 years old, the household grantee (mother) and/or spouse shall attend Family Development Sessions at least once a month.
A key difference between Pantawid and many other cash transfers is that in addition to growth monitoring through increased health service utilization, Family Development Sessions are expected to play a growth promoting role. Nutrition is a major topic covered in these sessions; parents are actively encouraged to increase children’s consumption of nutrient-rich foods, in particular dairy, and deemphasize the consumption of packaged foods. In addition, these sessions provide information on good parenting practices, such as exclusive breastfeeding and treatment seeking and home remedies for basic illnesses like diarrhea.
The education grant, of up to PhP 300 (US$ 6.50) per child per month aims to improve school attendance of children 6-14 years old living in poor households in selected areas. Households can only receive the grant for up to 10 months/year and for a maximum of three children in the household. Beneficiary households receive the education transfer for each child as long as they are enrolled in primary or secondary school and attend 85 percent of the school days every month.

2009-04-01

2011-12-31

Infant and maternal morbidities
Child nutrition outcomes, including anthropometry.
Child education outcomes, including enrollment and attendance
Cognitive development
Motor development
Household consumption, including consumption of key child development commodities
Subjective household welfare

In anticipation of an impact evaluation study, a set of 8 municipalities in the pilot areas were selected to be study localities at the time of initial program implementation. These municipalities are in four provinces (Mountain Province, Occidental Mindoro, Negros Oriental and Lanao del Norte) that were purposefully selected to represent the country’s macro regions. Two municipalities in each of the four provinces were randomly selected. Half of the villages within each municipality were randomly assigned to participate immediately in the program, and the other half were to participate after a delay of approximately one year—in the end there are 65 “treatment” villages and 65 “control” villages. Data collected from these study localities form the basis for the RCT evaluation.

THE RCT SAMPLE
Control: The RCT study control group will be constituted by eligible households (and concomitant facilities) in barangays within the RCT study localities that have not yet received the 4Ps program.
Treatment: Eligible households (and concomitant facilities) in villages within the RCT localities that have received the 4Ps program will form the treatment group.

Randomization in office

Village

Yes

130

30 households per randomization unit

1950 households per arm.

0.41 for household per capita expenditure, 0.21 for school participation of 6-14 year old children, 0.25 for health facility visits for 0-5 year old children.