NEDA okays $500-M loans for social services, development

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board has approved two loans for social services and development worth $500 million.

The board approved the $300-million Asian Development Bank – Governance in Justice Reform Program (GJRP) and the $200-million International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) – Food Crisis Response Development Policy Loan.

NEDA said the GJRP loan would be used to help the justice sector in the Philippines. The loan would be used to improve the vulnerable group’s access to justice, with focus on gender-based discriminatory practices, NEDA added. It would also be used to improve investor confidence and public trust in the justice sector agencies.

In addition, NEDA said that an advisory technical assistance grant of up to $2 million may also be given by the ADB to complement the program and support the judiciary, justice sector agencies and oversight committees.

The executing agencies for the $300-million program loan are the Supreme Court (SC) and the Department of Finance (DOF) while the implementing agencies are the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Office of the Solicitor General.

The Food Crisis Response Development Policy Loan, on the other hand, would be used to support government measures to strengthen social protection and safety nets to protect the poor.

The loan shall be used to assist actions and measures that mitigate poverty such as lowering and stabilizing domestic food prices in the short term, mitigating the impact of high food and fuel prices on the poor, improving policy coordination and institutional arrangements for social protection, and improving the impact, efficiency and efficacy of social protection programs through a comprehensive conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

NEDA said the executing agency for the program is the Finance department while the implementing agencies are the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Agriculture (DA), National Food Authority (NFA), Department of education (DepEd), DILG, National Nutrition Council (NNC) and the Department of Health (DOH).  – Iris Gonzales