Tag Archive for: Poverty in the Philippines

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Programs Across the World Address Poverty in the Philippines


Despite the rising economic growth rates in the Philippines, poverty in the Philippines continues to prevail nationwide. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), 21.6 percent of Filipinos live below the national poverty line.

There are many factors that create and maintain the cycle of poverty in the Philippines. Unemployment is one of the main reasons that poverty reduction has not kept up with the country’s growth. Alongside an increasing population, job resources remain insufficient for millions of Filipinos.

The Philippine poverty condition remains a challenge due to the government’s lack of capacity to establish sustainable poverty reduction programs. Governments from other countries, alongside international institutions, have implemented strategies aimed to tackle the Philippine poverty crisis. These programs share the common goal of alleviating poverty in the Philippines by addressing unemployment in the country.

The World Bank

The World Bank plays a large role in working towards eradicating poverty in the Philippines. One of the projects financed by the World Bank is the ‘Philippine Rural Development Project.’ The goal of the project is to create greater work opportunities for Filipinos in the rural areas by supporting farmers and fishermen through improving their access to markets.

As of last year, results from The World Bank reported an increase in household incomes for farmers and fisherfolk beneficiaries. As of January 2018, this project has been approved for additional financing to continue its contribution in addressing poverty in the Philippines.

The United States of America

USAID has established the Philippine-American Fund (Phil-Am Fund) as a strategy to tackle poverty in the Philippines. One of the program’s objectives is to develop solutions to the country’s economic challenges. The Phil-Am fund financially supports  Philippine organizations to support business start-ups.

This strategy to address the poverty crisis promotes entrepreneurship by offering a self-sufficient facility for citizens who do not have the capacity to take part in the province’s economic activities.

As of last year, the Phil-Am fund has managed to support the establishment of start-up businesses, provide training in standards for food-related establishments and has integrated more efficient farming technology in the Philippines.

Australia

Australia’s foreign aid to the Philippines includes ‘The Philippines’ Sustainable Livelihood Program’ (SLP), which helps Filipino families by providing employment assistance. The SLP also helps Filipino citizens start at enterprise — an approach that encourages self-sufficiency.

Australia’s aid program aligns with the Philippine government’s goal to tackle poverty and promote development. Sustainable livelihood is the primary goal of this program, and includes micro enterprises, skills training and pre-employment assistance.

Filipinos who take part in this program have agency and decision-making responsibilities by providing access to microenterprise development and employment. SLP has become an efficient platform for productivity and development and since its establishment in 2011, SLP has achieved 97 percent of targeted program participants.

Promotion of Autonomy

The above-mentioned programs designed to address the Philippine poverty crisis all share one feature: the encouragement of self-efficiency. Rather than providing charity to the Filipino citizens living in poverty, these programs empower the people by giving them access to opportunities. The citizens are provided with the agency to take control of their work, promoting an inclusive form of development.

– Dane de Leon

Photo: Flickr

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Philippines’ Poverty Rate: Rural Communities Still Left Behind

Philippines' Poverty Rate
The Philippines’ poverty rate decreased from 25.2% in 2012 to 21.6% in 2015, according to the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The drop in the Philippines’ poverty rate coincides with a steady decline for extreme poverty in the country. In 2015, 12.1% of the population lived in extreme poverty. Those who classify as living under extreme poverty are those whose earnings cannot buy three meals a day.

But despite the decline in these numbers, there are still glaring problems regarding the issue of poverty. One of the more prominent ones is the continued prevalence of poverty within most of the basic sectors in the country. Five of the nine basic sectors determined by the PSA—farmers (34.3%), fishermen (34.0), children belonging to families with income below the official poverty threshold (31.4), self-employed and unpaid family workers (25.0) and women belonging to poor families (22.5)—have higher poverty rates than the general population (at 21.6%). Farmers and fishermen consistently registered as the two sectors with the highest poverty incidence since 2006.

 

Poverty in the Philippines

 

Not surprisingly, the poorest regions in the country lay in the rural and agricultural areas, particularly in the island of Mindanao, an underdeveloped region that has also served as a battleground for Muslim militants and government forces for decades. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) registered the highest poverty incidence in the survey. Additionally, 53.4% of its 3,781,387 residents live below the poverty threshold and 30.1% live in extreme poverty.

In contrast, the Philippine capital of Metro Manila had the lowest proportion of the poor. Only 6.5% of the population lived below the official poverty line.

The downward trend in the Philippines’ poverty rate has most experts hopeful that poverty will continue to fall. Some are quick to cite that despite the fall in numbers, there are still more than 26 million Filipinos who remain poor, with 12 million lacking the means to feed themselves.

However, most agree that addressing the basic roots of poverty also must address graver issues that stem from it. Drops in the Philippines’ overall poverty rate do not matter to those who see no way out in war-torn towns, says counterinsurgency expert Justin Richmond. “The widespread vulnerability that you see in every area dealing with radicalization is lack of economic opportunities,” Richmond says in an interview with Rappler, a Philippine news organization.

Richmond also maintains that only in improving the standard of living in underdeveloped areas can the government truly prevent a possible radicalization of citizens.

“It’s all based on vulnerability,” Richmond concludes.

– Bella Suansing

Photo: Flickr

Poverty in the Philippines: Facts and Figures

Poverty in the Philippines
Poverty in the Philippines is widespread. The Republic of the Philippines is a country of 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is located in Southeast Asia and struggles to reduce high poverty rates. The United Nations (U.N.) reports that the Republic of the Philippines has one of the highest poverty rates in Asia despite a steady decline in recent years.

The country is rich in natural resources and biodiversity because of its close proximity to the equator; however, it is prone to earthquakes and storms, making it the third most disaster-prone country in the world.

The Philippines’ poverty level is also tied to uncontrolled population growth. According to the U.N., the Philippines “rapid population growth has exacerbated poverty and has fueled rapid urban population growth, overseas labor migration, and unprecedented environmental degradation.”

Philippine Poverty Stats

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released its latest poverty incidence update on March 18, 2016. The statistics, which account for the first semester of 2015, contain data collected from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) done in July 2015. This data shows that:

  • The poverty level for all Filipinos is 26.3 percent; for the same period in 2012, it was 27.9 percent.
  • The portion of the population who fall below the food threshold, or are unable to meet basic food requirements, is 12.1 percent; for the same period in 2012, it was 13.4 percent.
  • The poverty incidence for families in 2015 was 21.1 percent; in 2012 it was 22.3 percent.
  • The subsistence level, or the portion of Filipino families extreme poverty, in 2015 was 9.2 percent; in 2012 it was 10 percent.

The food threshold is the minimum income needed to meet basic food requirements set by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI). The poverty threshold is expanded to include basic non-food needs such as clothing, housing, transportation, health and education expenses.

The PSA includes these statistics in their reports and calculates how much income would be required for a family of five at subsistence level to pull themselves out of poverty.

In the first semester of 2015, the income gap for a family living in poverty in the Philippines is still 29 percent short of the threshold.

The Rural Poverty Portal reports that half of the poor in the Philippines live in rural areas. The poorest of the poor are the indigenous, landless laborers, fishermen, small farmers, mountain folk and women.

Deforestation, depleted fisheries and unproductive farmland are major problems for these peoples. Illiteracy and lack of educational opportunities are also critical issues.

The Republic of the Philippines made great strides in poverty reduction in recent years, but as with most countries, they still have much to improve upon.

– Rhonda Marrone

Photo: Flickr

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Filipino Siblings Help Unlock Electricity and Escape Poverty

Filipino Siblings Help Unlock Electricity & Escape from Poverty
According to the World Bank, 1.1 billion people live without access to electricity. Many of them, including one out of every 50 households in the Philippines, rely on kerosene or battery-powered lamps for light. Kerosene lamps pose fire hazards, particularly in the Philippines, which the UN ranked the third most disaster-prone country in the world. Even further, for rural poor families, kerosene can be hard to come by, forcing people to walk many miles a day to purchase oil for their lamps.

This was an issue siblings Aisha and Raphael Mijeno knew they had to find a solution to. So they developed SALt, a lamp that provides a sustainable source of light and energy using saltwater and metal rods. With just one glass of water and two tablespoons of salt, the LED lamp, which is a Galvanic cell, can safely light a home for eight hours. Because it is composed entirely of a salt solution, it eliminates dangers and toxicity levels present in kerosene and battery-powered lamps.

The only maintenance the lamps require is changing the anode every six months. Because the Philippines is composed of over 7,000 islands and most residents live close to the sea, they can use ocean water rather than creating their own solution. In emergencies, the lamp can charge smart phones merely through the standard USB cable. This is an added safety measure that helps people get in touch with loved ones in an emergency or find access to food, water, safety supplies, or shelter.

Aisha Mijeno, an engineer at De La Salle University in Lipa and member of Greenpeace Philippines, says she will partner with NGOs to help distribute the lamps to poor families with no access to electricity. For poor families not represented by the NGOs, the lamps will be available for a price of $20. For general customers, the retail price will be slightly higher, and for each lamp sold an additional one will be given to a needy family.

The Mijenos have won numerous entrepreneurial awards for their invention, including the Kotra Award at the Startup Nations Summit 2014 and Ideaspace Foundation Award 2014. Both awards will help Aisha and Raphael fund and advertise their lamps. Their innovations will not only bring light to those who need it most, it will also empower them to better their conditions and gain more opportunities.

Says Aisha, “This isn’t just a product. It’s a social movement.”

— Jenny Wheeler

Sources: Huffington Post, Salt
Photo: Treehugger

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Eliminating Poverty with Sustained Economic Reform

Sustained_Economic_ReformA new potential Anti-Poverty Model has emerged out of sustained economic reform in the Philippines. Over the past two years, local growth has significantly reduced poverty in the country. Looking ahead, continued reform measures could bring the number of poor Filipinos down to just 18-20 percent of the population by 2016.

In recent years, sustained economic growth in the Philippines has brought more jobs and improvements in living conditions for the country’s poor population. Over the course of just one year, more than a million jobs were created. What is more, unemployment is also at the lowest rate that it has been in ten years.

World Bank leading Economist Rogier van den Brink stated, “If growth is sustained at 6 percent per year and the current rate at which growth reduces poverty is maintained, poverty could be eradicated within a single generation”. In order to achieve this goal, however, key structural reforms will need to be sustained and sped up.

The most important structural reforms to focus on will be increasing investments in infrastructure, health and education, enhancing competition, simplifying regulations to promote job creation, and protecting property rights.

Back in January, the World Bank’s Philippine Economic Update was released, with the theme “Making Growth Work for the Poor.” The report lists the aforementioned goals and recommends rationalizing tax incentives by making them more targeted, transparent, performance-based, and temporary.

The potential success of continued reforms depends hugely on strengthening tax administration and improving the transparency and accountability of government spending. Once the Filipino population can agree with the manner in which their tax dollars are being spent, the new growth cycle can perpetuate itself accordingly.

During a press conference, Mr. Ven den Brink was probed on the Philippines’ lower-than-expected growth in Gross Domestic Product during the first quarter. He responded by explaining that since 2013, it has become much easier to see the way that even slow economic growth can directly reduce poverty.

Ven den Brink explained that regardless of the specific GDP number, what really matters is how that growth affects the poorest people. According to the World Bank economist, household and labor survey data all paint the same poverty-reducing picture.

While it is true that slow-moving government spending has limited the growth of the Philippine economy during the first quarter of the year, significant changes in poverty still pervade. Rates of underemployment and poverty are decreasing, and the lowest real income is growing 20-30 percent faster than the rest of the country.

Van den Brink also noted that the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer program has been a key poverty-reducing tool. The program gives out payments every month to the poorest households, which has successfully helped to lift entire families out of the poverty cycle.

Although some remain skeptical, poverty elimination in the Philippines is starting to seem like more of a feasible reality. This could be a major milestone not only for the Philippines, but for all of those involved in the global fight against poverty. Sustained economic growth could finally level the playing field, once and for all.

– Sarah Bernard

Sources: Business World, InterAksyon, World Bank
Photo: Flickr