Because of Listahanan, poor families were identified and located all over the Philippines. This was learned from World Bank Country Director Mara K. Warwick.
“Indeed, the Philippines and Brazil are the only two countries in the world to have succeeded in establishing such a comprehensive data base or “social registry” to identify poor and vulnerable beneficiaries of government programs”.
“Grounded in empirical studies, the World Bank recognizes Listahanan as a leading “good practice example” for a growing number of countries that aspire to introduce such registries.
This was the message of World Bank Country Director Mara Warwick when she delivered her speech in the Listahanan National Launching at the Manila Hotel recently.
In her speech, Country Director Mara Warwick highlighted the four reasons of Listahanan’s importance.
According to her, Listahanan is increasing both the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending by enabling the Government to target programs to the poor and vulnerable.
“It is also improving the governance of Social Protection in the Philippines by removing political patronage from distribution of public resources to citizens,” she emphasizes.
Then she mentioned that Listahanan is important because its impact is far-reaching across the Philippines.
She elaborated that Listahanan is currently used by 59 national agencies to target programs where they are needed most, including the Pantawid, and the PhilHealth subsidized health insurance which enables transparent and fair selection of beneficiaries of government programs.
Moreover, Warwick added that Listahanan is important because of what it means for all citizens.
“It is an anchor for an objective and transparent approach to selecting beneficiaries. Such transparency is important for citizens, affecting how people perceive their government.”
“Citizens are able to see that public funding and government services are deployed fairly, rather than as gifts or as favors. This in turn signals an important shift and the beginnings of a deeper transformation in state-society relations: people start seeing government services as public goods rather than as personal rewards.
And lastly as she mentioned before, Listahanan is important because its targeting performance is excellent by international standards based on the available empirical evidence.
She stresses that while there is no such thing as perfect targeting, the tool that Listahanan have developed does an excellent job in identifying the poor and vulnerable.
“Listahanan is supporting impressive results and must continue to evolve and adapt over time for even greater impact,” she added.
On the other hand, Country Director Warwick also put emphasis on how much the World Bank values the opportunity to partner with the Philippines in support of Listahanan.
She mentioned that World Bank have supported the national household targeting system since its conception in 2008, including assisting DSWD to develop and update the targeting mechanism, establish and strengthen operational procedures, and implement Listahanan 2010 and 2015.
She added that World Bank considers Listahanan an important pillar for continued institutional development in the Philippines, one that helps to secure efficient and effective use of government resources and enables transparent, objective and fair identification of poor and vulnerable beneficiaries of government programs.
Furthermore, Country Director Mara Warwick congratulated the Government on this important achievement during the said Launching.
“Listahanan has helped to put the Philippines at the forefront of global experience in targeting public finance to reach the poorest.”
“Sustaining this achievement over time will be important, and we would encourage the next Administration to continue to use Listahanan to identify beneficiaries of the Pantawid, the national health insurance, social pension and other anti-poverty programs,” she said.
The World Bank said they will remain committed to partnering with the Philippines to build on the achievements of Listahanan 2010 and 2015.##