Philippines lagging behind in anti-poverty campaign – report

The Philippines’ existing stimulus package failed to further reduce poverty and boost economic growth in the short term, affecting the government’s capacity to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015, according to a joint report by the United Nations and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In their report, “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in an Era of Global Uncertainty,” the UN and ADB said that a large part of the stimulus package of most countries, including the Philippines, can be termed “MDG-neutral.”

This means that the stimulus packages do not directly address MDG issues, the report said, “though the poor might still benefit indirectly. In a few countries, the stimulus packages include elements that are pro-MDG.”

“In the Philippines, a stimulus that was fully pro-MDG would, accumulated over several years, have increased GDP [Gross Domestic Product] by 12 percent rather than 6.2 percent that the current stimulus package is expected to deliver. This represents the total increases in the initial years and the impact gradually tapering off,” the report said.

GDP is the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year.

The UN-ADB report tagged the Philippines’ existing stimulus package as MDG-neutral, because the country spent more on government employment, rehabilitation of public buildings, infrastructure development and tax cuts.

The only pro-MDG programs under the country’s stimulus package are those that benefited social security. Darwin G. Amojelar, Manila Times