Group says private funding for social programs is rising

Ronnel Domingo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Corporate funding for poverty reduction efforts and social programs increased 142 percent to P18.5 billion in 2002-2007 from P7.6 billion in the previous five-year period, as corporations realized that “doing good makes good business sense,” the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) said.

LCF chairperson Marilou Erni said the bulk of the private sector’s social investments continued to grow, especially in education, even in the midst of economic difficulty.

Ernie was speaking at the opening of a three-day conference, Corporate Social Responsibility 2008.

“Even then, we have seen a shift of investment in education from infrastructure to quality improvement,” she said.

“There was also a shift of priorities from tertiary to basic education,” she added.

LCF data showed that the group’s members, now numbering 74, invested a total of P2 billion from July 2002 to June 2003, plus P2.6 billion, P1.5 billion, P2.4 billion and P3.8 billion, respectively, in the succeeding years.

The allocation for education increased from about a quarter of the total five years ago to half in the period from July 2006 to June 2007, the data showed.

In 2007, LCF members allotted a total of P6.1 billion for corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, 77 percent of which was for education.

About 89 percent of the amounts invested in improving education went to Adopt-A-School, and the remainder went to other programs: scholarships and material assistance to students; efforts to integrate information and communication in education; support for learning areas; teacher training and support; and infrastructure and physical areas.

Erni said that in 2007 the average test score in all subjects in the National Achievement Test rose to 59.94 percent from 54.66 percent in 2006. “There was also a decrease in dropout rates in elementary from 7.33 percent in 2006 to 6.37 percent in 2007,” she added.

She said that in health efforts for schoolchildren, the LCF feeding program’s beneficiaries of 676,740 preschool and Grade 1 students in 2006 rose 300 percent to 2.7 million preschoolers and Grades 1-6 students in 2007.

“This reduced the ratio of kids with below-average body mass index” from 20 percent of grade school children, including pre-elementary and special education in 2006 to 17 percent in 2007, Erni said.

Edited by INQUIRER.net