The Philippines

What are we funding?

Grant 1

• Agriculture is expected to be one of the sectors most affected by extreme weather in the Philippines. Currently, one-third of the country’s 10 million farmers are insured; however, their coverage does not sufficiently protect them from the scale of the climate and disaster risks they face. In addition to inadequate coverage amounts, farmers are currently limited to indemnity insurance products, which require losses to be calculated before payouts can be made. Some farmers therefore resort to informal lenders who charge upward of 20 percent interest per month when there is a disaster. Over the past 10 years, the Philippines has developed innovative CDRFI instruments and policies and has improved existing solutions.
• The GSFF Steering Committee has endorsed a US$8 million GSFF grant to support the Philippines in improving the agricultural insurance products it provides so that they offer better coverage, pay out faster, and are tailored to the needs of different kinds of farmers. A new coinsurance pool would leverage private sector resources.
• The government currently offers farmers more than US$90 million a year in premium subsidies. With better insurance options for farmers and operational reforms to the government entity managing agricultural insurance, the subsidies’ value for money is expected to increase.
• This grant complements another GSFF grant focused on expanding an anticipatory cash transfer pilot program in the Philippines. Together, these programs would target the right beneficiaries for cash transfers and insurance schemes based on risk exposure.
• The grant would be embedded in a larger proposed World Bank project supporting MSMEs, and grant award is contingent upon the project’s approval by the World Bank Board of Directors, which is currently expected in Q3 FY26.

Grant 2

• The Philippines has launched a pilot of an innovative anticipatory cash transfers (ACT) program in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); this is one of several CDRFI instruments and policies the country has developed over the past 10 years. The program is a crucial social protection measure in a country where nearly 32 percent of agricultural households live in poverty and where disaster-related economic losses average about US$3.5 billion annually. Studies have shown that timely cash transfers can reduce the need for distressed asset sales by 50 percent and reduce long-term poverty rates by 10 to 20 percent. The ACT program pilot, however, covers just under 1,000 households, and its expansion is constrained by limited institutional capacity at the local level.
• The GSFF Steering Committee has endorsed a US$8 million GSFF grant to enable the Philippines to increase the number of households participating in a pilot of its anticipatory cash transfer (ACT) program from 1,000 to 17,000.
• Improvements to the national social registry and digital infrastructure would make it easier for an estimated 5 million people to receive government assistance when there is a disaster. • This grant complements another GSFF grant focused on expanding agricultural insurance in the Philippines. Together, these programs would target the right beneficiaries for cash transfers and insurance schemes based on risk exposure.
• The GSFF grant activities will be integrated across the corresponding components under the Beneficiary FIRST Social Protection Project and its follow up operation, Social Protection for Economic Inclusion, Empowerment, and Digital Innovation (SPEED) Project. Grant award is contingent upon SPEED’s approval by the World Bank Board of Directors, currently scheduled for Q3 FY26.

Useful links

• MSME Access to Finance for Productivity and Resilience to Climate Shock (P507493)
• Beneficiary FIRST Social Protection Project (P174066)