False hopes: evaluating the effectiveness of the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) in addressing unemployment.

Abstract

False Hopes: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) in Addressing Unemployment is an evaluative study that seeks to determine how effective the program is in solving the problem of unemployment in the country. The research also takes into consideration the context where this program was implemented, that is, during the global financial crisis. This program was implemented in Tarlac City through its component program, Basic Hygiene Package. With focus on the formative and summative aspect of evaluation, various sources of information and criteria of effectiveness were considered. Chi-square test was also employed to determine the statistical difference of the two barangays under study, Barangay Santo Cristo and Barangay Tarlac West, since the research also adopted the comparative research design. In summary, although the program provided financial benefits to its beneficiaries, it failed to address the deep-seated problems that perpetuate the problem of unemployment. In the case of CLEEP, these deep-seated problems include the lack of education among the citizens as well as the foreign state- dependent economic system of the Philippines. More so, the government and the beneficiaries lack the ability to continue the program which questions its sustainability. Having said so, the problems of this kind of program lie on the fact that it is not grounded on the real issues that it should address. This kind of program only provides limited and short-termed benefits that cause no significant changes on the lives of its beneficiaries Furthermore, this lack of effectiveness of the program in addressing unemployment is true in the case of the two barangays as they established no significant differences based on the statistical test.