The Philippines aspires to become a predominantly middle-class society by 2040. Significant strides have been achieved in the reduction of extreme poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of recent gains and the vulnerability of many households to economic shocks. This study...

Südostasien genießt schon lange außenpolitische Priorität in Japan, doch seit etwa 2012 hat Tokio sein Engagement intensiviert - sowohl gegenüber der ASEAN-Gemeinschaft als auch gegenüber einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten. Tokio betrachtet Chinas wachsenden Einfluss in Südostasien als zentrale...

The global economy performed better than expected in 2025. Despite high economic policy uncertainty, the global economy’s performance was resilient, supported by continued growth of merchandise trade and investment in technology-related sectors. Still, global growth remained below pre-pandemic...

We present an historical background and narrative of Spanish policies affecting Philippine trade that maps them onto the changing landscape of influential ideas and emerging political and economic exigencies confronting the colonizing power. An integral or global perspective is adopted that...

This study examines the effect of a typhoon on low-income urban neighborhoods in the Philippines during the coronavirus disease quarantine. Using household panel data, we assess welfare-as measured by psychological distress, food consumption, and human capital investment-exploiting...

This paper explores the links between conflict, land, and indigenous peoples on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. The analysis takes advantage of the unprecedented concurrence of data from the 2020 census, an independent conflict data monitor for Mindanao, and administrative...

The Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) is a capital investment grant administered by the Department of Health (DOH), designed to help local government units (LGUs) augment their health infrastructure, such as primary healthcare facilities, hospitals, and equipment. Over the past...

Südostasien genießt schon lange außenpolitische Priorität in Japan, doch seit etwa 2012 hat Tokio sein Engagement intensiviert - sowohl gegenüber der ASEAN-Gemeinschaft als auch gegenüber einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten. Tokio betrachtet Chinas wachsenden Einfluss in Südostasien als zentrale...

Monetary and Capital Markets (MCM) department delivered a hybrid technical assistance (TA) mission to assist the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in developing a supervisory framework for operational resilience. An earlier mission in 2022 assisted BSP to develop a regulatory framework for...

This paper explores the possibility of using voluntary carbon credits to retire coal-fired power plants early. It introduces carbon emission trading using the example of the substantial European emissions trading market. It presents recommendations for phasing out coal power plants and discusses...

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of poverty trends among older people in the Philippines, using various data sources. It analyzes both monetary and multidimensional measures of poverty, as well as income sources, expenditure patterns, asset ownership, and living arrangements among...

This working paper presents insights and lessons learned from the ILO's 2025 South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) workshop on digital case management systems. Convened in Bangkok, the workshop gathered representatives from South Asia, South-East Asia, and Southern Africa to address the...

Teaching quality is deemed one of the foundations of student achievement and institutional performance. With this, linking in-service training (INSET) and teacher professional development (TPD), to student outcomes has been at the forefront of education research. Our inquiry revolves on how to...

This report comprises three papers. In the first paper, we present a comprehensive assessment of the Human Resources for Health (HRH) remuneration system in the Philippines. We examine the current stock of HRH, their economic contribution, and the governance and financing mechanisms that support...

Despite significant progress in reducing poverty, the Philippines continues to face high inequality, which stayed elevated in the early 2000s as the economy grew. Although inequality has gradually declined since 2012, it remains among the highest in Southeast Asia. This paper examines how...

The Philippines Economic Update (PEU) summarizes key economic and social developments, important policy changes, and the evolution of external conditions over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank analyses, situating them in the context of the country's long-term...

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF) outlines the strategic approach to the WBG's engagement in the Philippines for FY25- 31. The CPF aims to improve the quality of life for all Filipinos by strengthening their capabilities and providing better opportunities, while minimizing volatility...

The Next 1000 days of a child's life (spanning from the age of two to five years) offer a window of opportunity to build on early gains to sustain or improve trajectories of healthy development. The Next 1000 Days is crucial for cognitive, motor, and socio-emotional development. As such, this...

Violence against children (VAC) has profound and lasting effects on physical and emotional well-being, educational outcomes, and economic productivity. In low- and middle-income countries such as the Philippines, limited longitudinal data hinders researchers from examining the medium- and...

This study explores the conceptualization and operationalization of middle skills within the Philippine context, examining how various institutions define and implement middle-skills training. It also assesses the alignment of these training programs with workforce demands, particularly in...

Purpose: Since 2000, the Philippines has experienced significant growth domestic product (GDP) growth, particularly in the Information Technology Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) sector, highlighting the need for skill development through Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET)....

Human capital theory suggests that accumulating skills through training leads to higher productivity and better employment outcomes. However, empirical evidence, including in the Philippines, shows mixed and limited results on the impact of technical and vocational education and training (TVET)....

Existing scholarly literature on the impact of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) on wage outcomes in the Philippines, including wage premiums and low-paid employment, has been limited and mixed. This study uses labor force and graduate tracer surveys, employing various...

We estimate the future demand for public school classrooms using new school children population projections for 82 provinces and 33 urbanized cities of the Philippines up to 2060. A return to replacement-level fertility from the current 1.9 total fertility rate (TFR) is expected to ease demand...

Southeast Asia has long been a foreign policy priority for Japan, but Tokyo has intensified its engagement - both with the ASEAN Commu­nity as a whole and with individual member states - since 2012. Japan views China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia as a major foreign policy challenge...

This study examines the consequences of college students pursuing degree programs that do not align with the tracks and strands they selected in senior high school. We utilize a unique dataset that links admissions and enrollment records from the University of the Philippines Diliman to...

This Handbook is intended to act as a reference for those agri-food producers planning for, or in the process of entering, the Philippine market. This Handbook provides step-by-step guides on entering the agri-food market in the Philippines including relevant information such as analysis of the...

In the Philippines, children continue to face challenges in accessing healthy, sustainable diverse diets that provide sufficient nutrients for growth and development. This is especially critical given the importance of early developmental stages. The overall structure and functioning of the food...

At the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown in the Philippines in April 2020, the Asian Development Bank, in partnership with the Philippine government and the private sector, implemented the Bayan Bayanihan (BB) food relief program which served approximately 162,000 households...

This paper combines labor force survey microdata with measures of occupational AI exposure and complementarity to examine the potential impact of recent advancements in AI on the Philippine labor market. We find that around one third of workers are highly exposed to AI with around sixty percent...

ECCD discourse, policy, and research have understandably focused on parents: their roles, knowledge, practices, and lived experiences. However, it truly 'takes a village' to raise a child, perhaps particularly so in a very intergenerational, communal society like the Philippines where both of...

We estimate natural-disaster impacts on children's school enrollments and math skills and test for impact heterogeneities with respect to age and gender in seven countries in Asia and the Pacific, which is the world's most disaster-prone region. We link survey data on children aged 5 to 17 to...