PHL obtains $624 million from WB for literacy, food programs

THE PHILIPPINES obtained $624.5 million in World Bank (WB) funding to address low student literacy and  its climate-exposed food supply, the bank said.

In separate disclosures issued on Tuesday, the bank said that it signed agreements with the Philippines authorizing funding for the departments of Education and Agriculture.

The agreements were finalized by Finance Secretary Frederick D. Go and World Bank Division Director Zafer Mustafaoğlu.

The bulk of funding — $600 million — will support the Project for Learning Upgrade Support and Decentralization, which aims to reverse years of lagging learning outcomes.

It seeks to improve the “foundational literacy and numeracy of primary education learners, as well as the learning outcomes in reading and mathematics of lower secondary education learners in public schools.”

Key pillars of the overhaul include the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning program, global benchmarking, and teacher empowerment.

It will be divided into three parts: system-level interventions, targeted interventions, and monitoring and evaluation and project management.

Meanwhile, a $24.5-million grant will be extended for the Technical Assistance for Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project. It will be funded by the Food Systems 2030 Multi-Donor Trust Fund and the Livable Planet Fund.

This grant serves as a technical bridge for the broader Philippines Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Program.

The strategy will focus on climate-smart agriculture, subsidy reform, and export growth.

It has four parts: improving efficiency of rice-based farming systems and enhancing climate resilience; enhancing crop diversification and regional exports through intensification of high-value cropping; institutional strengthening in support of the agri-food transformation agenda; and project management, monitoring, evaluation and learning. —  Justine Irish D. Tabile