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By APD writer Melo M. Acuña
MANILA – The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors endorsed a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for the Philippines for 2019-2023. The partnership will prioritize investments in human capital, including health, education and nutrition, competitiveness and job creation, peace-building, climate and disaster resilience, governance and digital transformation.
“With the new Country Partnership Framework, the World Bank Group renews its commitment to support the Philippines by mobilizing financing, global knowledge and technical expertise to support reforms and programs that help speed up poverty reduction and promote greater inclusion,” said Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific.
The Philippines has nearly doubled GDP per capita over the past two decades, from US@1,607 in 2000 to US$3,022 in 2018 and is expected to cross the threshold from lower-income country status to upper-middle-income country in the next few years.
In a World Bank statement datelined Washington and send to Manila-based practitioners, it was learned the Philippines is making good in reducing poverty, due to the expansion of jobs aside from farming and fishing, expansion of social protection, and remittances from local and overseas workers. According to the national poverty line, the poverty rate dropped from 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015 while in 2018 it reached 16.6 percent.
“The Philippines can deepen inclusive growth and broaden shared prosperity by tackling child malnutrition and learning gaps in education, promoting policies that create more and better jobs for Filipino workers and focusing on the dual risk of conflict and natural disasters that hurt poor communities,” said Mara Warwick, World Bank Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.
She added the new Country Partnership Framework aims to help overcome the core constraints that continue to hinder the country’s efforts to address the remaining vulnerability of many Filipino families.
She explained the World Bank will support cohesive approach to Mindanao’s development and intensity efforts to engage the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), including reconstruction support for Marawi. It was learned the Bank will support projects that link remote communities to main markets, ports and key growth corridors and promote human development and address drivers of conflict.
The CPF is a joint strategy of the three members of the World Bank Group (WBG), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), also known as the “World Bank”, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is focused on the private sector in developing countries and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which provides political risk insurance to private sector investors and lenders.
The World Bank approved a US$400 million development policy loan to strengthen competitiveness and fiscal sustainability and and boost financial resilience to natural disasters and climate change impact.
DPLs provide quick-disbursing assistance to countries undertaking reforms. DPLs typically support policy and institutional changes needed to formulate an environment conducive to sustained and sustainable growth.
DPL reforms include streamlining processes to lessen the cost of doing business, establishment of the foundational ID system to improve efficiency and transparency of public and private services, enhancing access to financial services through improved payment systems and strengthening management of public assets and fiscal risks because of natural disasters and climate change impacts.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
