Joint Programme on INFF Partners Greenlight Budget Tagging for 2030 Goals, Action Plan to Address Teenage Pregnancies

The work on contributing to more focused and sustainable financing for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through the Joint Programme on INFF has formally commenced, as its National Steering Committee (NSC) moved to proceed with most of the program’s proposed initiatives on January 24, the committee’s first meeting.

Co-chaired by the United Nations in the Philippines and the National Economic and Development Authority, the JP INFF Steering Committee has formally given the green light to the Programme’s work plan, particularly its Sub-outcomes 1 and 2, and the activities and timelines under each.

Activities for Sub-outcomes 1 and 2 include local- and national-level tagging of budgets allocated for programs in support of health and education targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); and support to the advocacy for investing in the prevention of teenage pregnancies as a strategy towards reaping the demographic dividend, or the opportunity for rapid economic growth that can come with a growing number of young and working age groups in the population.

OIC Undersecretary Roderick Planta, representing Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua underscored that the Joint Programme on INFF came at an opportune time as the country pursues economic recovery efforts amid the recent COVID-19 surge.

Mr. Gustavo Gonzalez, Resident Representative of the United Nations in the Philippines, called the meeting a historic moment, as it opened an opportunity to convey the desired direction and sense of partnership for what the UN considers as among its most important projects.

JP INFF’s recent accomplishments include the pilot-testing of a tool to track the allocation for child-focused SDGs at the local level, as well as the commencement of the national-level SDG Budget Tagging Exercise. It has also co-developed, with government partners, the National Action Plan for addressing adolescent pregnancy. The plan is seen to serve as the test case in using the Integrated National Financing Framework in multi-sectoral concerns, such as, in this case, the impacts of adolescent pregnancies on youth, both as individuals and future drivers of the economy.

Government partners particularly pointed out the need for a stronger buy-in from the next administration, as well as the local government units (LGUs), to ensure sustainability of JP INFF initiatives.

Particularly, LGUs would be downloaded with greater resources to carry out services that, among others, directly impact SDG targets for children and adolescents. Given this, the NSC moved to extend the membership to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the lead agency for ensuring effective service delivery among LGUs.

Prior to its motion to include DILG, the NSC for the JP INFF is comprised of seven government agencies and three UN agencies. They were selected based on how their mandates can contribute to the Joint Programme’s success.