CLARK FREEPORT—The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) recently launched a financial literacy manual for families under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

The Financial Literacy Manual for the Family Development Sessions (FDS) offers an enhanced approach in providing financial literacy sessions to 4Ps beneficiaries, assisting them in their eventual exit and/or graduation from the program towards achieving sustainable financial independence.

The manual consists of four modules to include understanding the value of cash grants and using it wisely and appropriately; developing financial goals, managing finances through responsible budgeting; recognizing the importance of saving; understanding transaction accounts; and being keen on consumer protection, policies on general goods and financial products.

It also includes topics on expanding opportunities for livelihood and access to more advanced financial products and services.

The 4Ps was enacted into law in April 2019. It has become the national poverty reduction strategy of the government that invests in health, nutrition, and education of eligible poor households.

The program also provides psychosocial and psycho-educational components through the FDS leading the beneficiaries to improved and sustained well-being.

In November 2019, the DSWD sealed a partnership with USAID to steer the 4Ps beneficiaries towards financial inclusivity, which is the government’s mandate to mainstream the poor in the country’s economic system.