By considering the similarities and differences in the cases of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia and the Philippines’ 4Ps, the mediation of the World Bank and other development lenders can be differently construed. There exists a potential for direct South–South, peer–peer correspondence of experience, cooperation, and autonomous development practices within terms that Boaventura de Souza Santos describes as an “epistemology of the South.” This alternate perspective on CCT progress and social protection in general has not until now been examined.