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Corporate Partnership in "Step-Up" Program for Urban Poor in Philippines

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (8 November 2002) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide a US$3.6 million grant for a pilot public-private sector partnership to upgrade slums in Metro Manila, Philippines. The grant is from its Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), financed by the Government of Japan.

The Strategic Private Sector Partnerships for Urban Poverty Reduction (or STEP-UP) Program will leverage corporate outreach and assistance from leading companies to provide grants for:

• Community infrastructure and basic services
• Revolving funds for housing improvements
• Microenterprises to promote livelihood opportunities
• A program to prevent, and prepare for, fires, floods, and typhoons.

Some 35,000 poor people in 23 communities throughout Metro Manila will benefit.

In an innovative approach, ADB will partner the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), a corporate-led nongovernment organization (NGO) promoting social development, and well as local government units (LGUs). PBSP's membership comprises over 160 corporations.

The project agreement was signed today by Philippines' Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council Chairman Michael Defensor, ADB Vice President Joseph Eichenberger, and Manuel V. Pangilinan, Chairman of PBSP.

The STEP-UP program not only has private sector backing but also promotes new partnerships with a wide base of stakeholders, including homeowners' associations and NGOs.

"The business and NGO sectors are keen to improve the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility, and to provide more coordinated and strategic outreach in the fight against poverty," says Matthew Westfall, ADB Principal Urban Development Specialist. "A key aim is to increase the level and impact of corporate outreach, and to ensure sustainable long-term impacts that improve the lives of the poor in a measurable way."

The project is the latest in a series of interrelated assistance that ADB has provided to Metro Manila to tackle the problem of slum housing, and to initiate a long-term, metro-wide program of urban upgrading and slum improvement.

ADB earlier approved two US$1 million JFPR grant projects to pilot on-site urban upgrading in Payatas, Quezon City, site of a tragic garbage slide in 1999, and to assist informal settlers to lead their own relocation from a dangerous railroad right-of-way in Muntinlupa City.

These activities are providing important lessons in the design of a proposed US$175 million ADB loan project to promote integrated urban development and urban upgrading for Metro Manila's urban poor.

Under the latest project, beneficiary communities have been identified in various cities of the metropolitan area, namely, Caloocan, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Manila, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Pasig, Quezon City, and Taguig. The project may be expanded to other cities.

The total cost of the project is US$6.93 million. Aside from the ADB grant, costs will be shouldered by the PBSP, beneficiaries, and LGUs. The PBSP will be the implementing agency while the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council will be the executing agency. The project is due to be implemented over three years.

The JFPR was set up in 2000 with an initial contribution from the Government of Japan of 10 billion yen (about US$90 million), followed by additional contribution in 2001 of US$155 million and a 2002 commitment of further US$50 million.

The fund supports innovative core poverty interventions, which are linked to ADB loans. By October 2002, the Government of Japan had approved 30 projects totaling US$79.33 million for Asia and the Pacific. Five projects amounting to US$9.4 million were for the Philippines.

Furthermore, ADB is working on 31 additional projects amounting to over US$65 million, of which three are for the Philippines.

More at adb.org/media

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