COTABATO CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has forged with the new leadership of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) a Memorandum of Agreement to ensure an intensified implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the poverty-laden ARMM communities.

DSWD Secretary Celia C. Yangco and ARMM acting Gov. Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong signed the MoA at an unprecedented meeting Monday in Metro Manila of officials of over a dozen foreign donor-organizations and institutions and executives of the regional autonomous government.

In her brief speech, Yangco said the forging of the MoA was meant to replicate if not enhance in the autonomous region the 4Ps implementation mode and ensure effective poverty-alleviation efforts especially in the conflict areas of the ARMM.

The 4Ps, one of the government’s major anti-poverty interventions, is a five-year program of the Arroyo administration launched in 2008 through the DSWD amid the global economic meltdown.

It is funded by international donors including American Development Fund, World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), whose officials in the country attended the Monday’s foreign donors’ meeting with ARMM officials.

It provides small cash grants to identified extremely poor families with the condition that the money will be spent for health and education of their children particularly from zero-to-14 years of age.

In the ARMM where the country’s highest rate of malnutrition and school dropouts has been recorded, the program has gained momentum with the recent creation of the advisory committee (RAC) to intensify efforts against poverty and improve the health, nutrition, education, and economic condition of the local residents.