Walang iwanan! An impact evaluation study of the Gawad Kalinga housing project in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Conchada, Mitzie Irene P., Estabillo, Madeleine B.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Housing—Philippines; Poverty—Philippines—Prevention; Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation (Philippines); Family, Life Course, and Society; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11023
• Institution: De La Salle University

Poverty alleviation is one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and has been the goal of every country around the world. In the Philippines, poor living standards are the most evident dimension of poverty, as can be seen through the sprawling slum areas with neither safe shelters nor good sanitation. Since 2003, a non-governmental organization called Gawad Kalinga (GK) has helped the government's efforts to alleviate poverty through slum upgrading. They have not only provided safe shelters and good sanitation but have also empowered communities of beneficiaries through their housing projects. However, despite the success of its programs, no impact evaluation study has been conducted to formally assess its impact.This paper evaluates the impact of the Gawad Kalinga (GK) housing program through propensity score matching using a cross-sectional data of households gathered through the CBMS Accelerated Poverty Profiling survey conducted in 2017. Our study confirms higher total wages in kind by approximately PHP 2,272 (USD 46.83) and a slight improvement in the water supply for beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries with similar characteristics. These signify a positive impact of the Gawad Kalinga housing program on improving the lives and reducing the poverty of poor Filipino families.