Women 4Ps in 4Ps: A Gender Analysis of Philippine Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program

Abstract

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) was enacted by the Philippine government
through the Republic Act No. 1130 as one of the state’s strategies for extreme poverty
alleviation. Patterned after other countries practicing Conditional Cash Transfer Program
(CCT), the state provides cash transfer to eligible beneficiaries who must meet
conditionalities related to health, education, and nutrition. Even if the program has been
widely accepted for implementation, it was heavily criticized for being gender blind as it
put more burden on the mothers to comply with the requirements compared to other
members of the family. As key actors who experience the program in its entirety, the
researchers believe that the mother-beneficiaries can offer insights about the program’s real
impact. This paper aims to present a feminist review of 4Ps by problematizing the program
as the perceived solution by the Philippine government. The researchers used a modified
version of the institutional analysis tool from the Social Relations Framework (SRF), a
gender analysis approach developed by Naila Kabeer, to examine the varying relations
intertwined in the lives of women beneficiaries under the 4Ps, to wit: people, perception,
practice, and power. Moreover, the researchers aim to understand the sense of
empowerment of mother-beneficiaries in the program, and find if the program offers real
empowerment for them. Through this study’s analysis and recommendations, power
holders will have the opportunity to rethink the current frameworks used to solve poverty
and consider that poverty as intrinsically linked to gender issues.