Social services project gets $479M from WB

The World Bank has approved nearly half a billion dollars in fresh finance to bankroll a social services project that is expected to benefit millions of Filipinos, many of which were affected by Supertyhpoon “Yolanda” last year.

In a statement, the World Bank said its board of executive directors approved a $479-million loan to scale up the national coverage of the Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) project.

With support from the World Bank, the Philippine government set up Kalahi-CIDSS in 2002 to alleviate poverty in poor rural communities using a community-driven development (CDD) approach.

Using CDD, poor communities organize themselves, analyze their own situation, prepare project proposals to address their common problems and compete for block grants to finance their own projects.

“These projects include local infrastructure such as water systems, school buildings, day care centers and health stations, as well as roads and bridges,” the Bank said.

More than eight million Filipinos in 477 poor rural municipalities and areas affected by Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) are expected to have better access to social and economic infrastructure and services as a result of the project.

Kalahi-CIDDS, which is under the National Community-Driven Development Project (NCDDP), aims to provide poor communities across the country the ability to participate in local planning, budgeting and implementation of community-level projects that help reduce poverty, the bank said.

“Expanding the project will significantly boost our efforts to alleviate rural poverty while responding to the needs of Yolanda survivors,” Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said.

“When people from poor communities come together to discuss their challenges and how best to address them collectively, they usually come up with solutions that are responsive and appropriate to their needs. That’s the essence of community-driven development,” she said.

Since 2002, Kalahi-CIDSS has financed close to 6,000 local projects worth $265 million, benefiting more than 1.6 million households in the poorest municipalities and provinces in the Philippines.