DSWD adds 300K households in ‘Walang Gutom’ Program
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has begun enrolling 300,000 additional household beneficiaries under the “Walang Gutom Program” (WGP), an antipoverty initiative of the government.
Undersecretary Edu Punay of the DSWD Innovation and Program Development Group said the new beneficiaries will complete the 600,000 targeted households for this year.
“(Since) last year, we have served 300,000 household beneficiaries in 22 provinces from 10 regions. Now, we have onboarded [an] additional 300,000 beneficiaries,” he said in a radio interview on Monday.
“Before the end of the year, we will be serving 600,000 through this program—600,000 household beneficiaries from 12 regions and more provinces,” he added.
ADB partnership
According to Punay, the expansion was supported by the release of funds under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan agreement as part of the Reducing Food Insecurity and Undernutrition with Electronic Vouchers (Refuel) Project.
“The funding provided by the national government in the General Appropriations Act amounted to P1.9 billion. This is only sufficient to serve 50,000 beneficiaries for one year. Therefore, our economic managers strategized by negotiating and arranging a loan agreement with the ADB,” he said.
The DSWD’s Refuel project is implemented in partnership with the ADB, Agence Française de Développement and the OPEC Fund for International Development. It aims to assist 750,000 “food-poor” families across 22 province within the next two years or by 2027.
Under the program, beneficiary-households will each be provided P3,000 in monthly food credits, which can be used to purchase nutritious food items from DSWD-accredited stores.
According to Punay, the grant is budgeted for 50 percent rice or alternative carbohydrates, 30 percent for protein (meat, pork, or fish), and 20 percent for dietary fiber (fruits and vegetables). —FAITH ARGOSINO WITH PNA REPORT
