Background of the Study

Poverty and inequality have been recurrent challenges in the Philippines and

have again come to the fore in the wake of the current global financial crisis and rising

food, fuel, and commodity prices experienced over the years. Poverty alleviation

strategies and programs are a fundamental component of welfare policies in both

developed and developing countries. They range from a variety of welfare programs in

the United States (Council of Economic Advisers, 2018) and strategies for tackling

poverty, social exclusion and social immobility in the European countries (OECD, 2007,

2018) to social security programs enhancing food and livelihood security in India (Dutta

et al., 2014) and a multitude of social safety net programs in developing countries

across the globe, which include cash transfers, in-kind transfers, social pensions, food

security, livelihood security, and feeding programs targeted to poorer sections of the

population.

Reduction of the severity of poverty has been an over aching goal of past

administrations. Inclined with the study of Martin Ravallion (2008), the emphasis is on

the problems encountered in applying these methods to anti-poverty programs in

developing regions, drawing on examples from actual evaluations; states that anti-

poverty programs do have effects on the inequalities on many factors in livings.

Furthermore, extensive evidence connect poverty and underdevelopment to civil

conflict, yet evidence on the impact of development programs on inequality is

surprisingly mixed. To break this impasse, they exploit a within-country policy

experiment to examine the conditions under which anti-poverty programs. These

pacifying effects were not uniform, however, but overwhelmingly concentrated in

districts with sufficient pre-existing local state capacity to implement the program

effectively. The results demonstrate the potential for anti-poverty programs to mitigate

inequality conflicts by improving livelihoods, but also highlight the crucial role of state

capacity in shaping these effects, Aditya Dasgupta, Kishore Gawande, Devesh Kapur

(2016).

Anti-poverty programs typically, by design, target disadvantages on multiple

outcomes simultaneously as program theories of change rest on addressing

simultaneous disadvantages to break the inter-generational cycle of poverty. Yet,

conventional program evaluation exercises mostly examine the impact of a program on

different outcomes separately.

In this paper, we aim to make two key contributions to the literature on program

evaluation. First, we present and justify the efficacy of the counting approach framework

for evaluating an anti-poverty program’s impact on desired outcomes jointly. Second,

we apply our proposed framework to study the Philippine conditional cash transfer

(CCT) program—referred to as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)—and

examine whether the program effectively addresses multiple outcomes jointly among its

beneficiaries. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the causes of

poverty in the Residents of GRS, Ragay, Camarines Sur and give recommendations for

accelerating poverty reduction through sustained and more inclusive growth. The study

will provide an overview of the current status of government responses, strategies, and

achievements and will identify and prioritize future needs and interventions