manage risk.”25 Along with this definition, it also enumerated the four components of
the Philippine Social Protection:
a. Labor Market Programs/Interventions – Measures aimed at enhancing
employment opportunities which includes trade policies and skills development and
training, and protection of the rights and welfare of the workers including
compliance with labor standards such as minimum wages or health and safety in the
workplace
b. Social Insurance – Programs that seek to mitigate income risks by pooling
resources and spreading risks across time and classes. This component includes
micro and area-based schemes to address vulnerability at the community level. (such
as micro-insurance and social support funds)
c. Social Welfare – Preventive and developmental interventions that seek to support
the minimum basic requirements of the poor, particularly the poorest of the poor,
and reduce risks associated with unemployment, resettlement, marginalization,
illness, disability, old age and loss of family care.
d. Social Safety Nets – Stop-gap mechanisms or urgent responses that address effects
of economic shocks, disasters and calamities on specific vulnerable groups with
specific objective of providing relief and transition. Measures include emergency
assistance, price subsidies, food programs, employment programs, retraining
programs and emergency loans.
In response to the global financial crisis of 2008 26 the government issued
Administrative orders 232 and 232-A which clustered social welfare programs to a
National Social Welfare Program Cluster (NSWP). The Social Security System (SSS)
Administrator would serve as chairman of the Policy Group whilst the Department of
Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) would serve as coordinator and
secretariat.27 Refer to Annex 1 in Annexes to see which specific agency responds to
the needs of each social protection component.
25 Adopting a Philippine Definition of Social Protection NEDA-Social Development Committee Resolution No. 1,
series of 2007
26 Page 2,“The Philippine Social Protection Framework and Strategy: An Overview” by Florita R. Villar,
Undersecretary, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Available from https://www.socialprotection.org/gimi/gess/RessourcePDF.action?ressource.ressourceId=47717 (4 June 2019)
27 Aside from the SSS and DSWD, included in the program cluster are major agencies responding to social risks
like GSIS, DOLE, POEA, DOH, DAR, DepEd, DND among others.
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