THE WORLD BANK HAS APPROVED a $405-million loan for the Philippines, where poverty incidence is expected to have risen further this year, saying proceeds will be used to enhance the government?s services to the poor.

In a statement, the World Bank said the loan would finance the Social Welfare and Development Reform Program (SWDRP) to be implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Under the program, the government will pursue the distribution of conditional cash transfers, which are monetary subsidies to families considered as the poorest of the poor. The financial support is supposed to be used to cover the education and health service needs of the recipients. The DSWD is tasked to determine the beneficiaries of the subsidies.

?[The program] reduces poverty and improves children?s health and schooling as well as maternal health in poor households in the poorest provinces and municipalities in the country,? the bank said in the statement.

The scheduled granting of cash subsidies aided by the World Bank loan will be a follow-up of the original cash transfer program that started in 2008. Last year, the government provided financial support to an estimated 6,000 poor households in selected municipalities.

The government continued the program this year with support from the World Bank and expects to pursue it next year, again with the help from the World Bank.

The SWDRP will be implemented under three components. The first is the implementation of a National Household Targeting System (NHTS) for Poverty Reduction. NHTS involves the setting of uniform, objective and transparent criteria to select the poor for social welfare programs, besides the granting of cash subsidies.

The second is the cash transfer program, and the third is the strengthening of the institutional capacity of DSWD to implement its services.

According to projections by economists, poverty incidence in the Philippines likely increased this year as a consequence of the global economic turmoil and the devastation caused by Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? and Typhoon ?Pepeng.?

Cielito Habito, former economic planning secretary and now economics professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, said poverty incidence in the country likely rose to 35 percent of the country?s population from 33 percent in 2006 and 30 percent in 2003.

The country?s population is estimated to reach 92.2 million by the end of the year, up from 89.5 million in 2006.