RP economy ‘demographically challenged’ —World Bank

Successful family planning led by women is among keys to increasing the poor’s share in economic growth

MANILA, Philippines—Backers of the long-unsettled Reproductive Health Bill now pending in the 15th Congress has found a supporter in the World Bank.

“Growth that is inclusive, or growth that works for the poor, provides a stronger platform for future expansion and competitiveness” is the theme of its just-issued report “Philippines: Fostering More Inclusive Growth.”

Given the implications of inclusive growth and health outcomes for the poor, one priority area is to strengthen family planning, the World Bank advises.

Population growth has major implications not only for health but for public expenditure requirements, employment, human capital investment, and environmental management.

Increased public and private expenditures for health are necessary, and as the population ages, the burden of public expenditures for health increases further.

It also requires that government build more schools and hire more teachers for the fast growing elementary and high school populations.
Jobs chasing population growth

The Philippine economy has not created enough jobs to keep up with the country’s rapid population growth, the report says.

These population dynamics, which resulted in a continuous increase in the working age population (15-64 years of age), are putting tremendous pressure on the labor market, straining the economy’s capacity to maintain full employment, and generate adequate real wage growth.

Between 2001 and 2007, employment grew by 13% while the working age population grew by 17.6%.

Population pressures can also increase environmental degradation and may push more people into areas that are prone to floods and other natural disasters.
Poor women need FP help

However, use of family planning has stagnated in the past decade, with persistent unmet needs for family planning and inadequate access to family planning services for poor women, the report finds.

The percentage of married women using family planning has remained static at 50% since 1995, although the use of modern family planning methods has increased by over 35% for married women.

In 2003, only 24% of women in the poorest quintile were using family planning, compared to 58% in Vietnam and 49% in Indonesia, the report reveals.

Moreover, poor households bear the heaviest financial burden for family planning, with the lowest income quintile spending 5.6% of household health expenditures on contraceptives compared to less than 1% for the highest income quintile.

On a related issue, over half of the pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended, sometimes with tragic results.

While poorer women typically want more children than wealthier women, women in the poorest 40% of the population have between 1.5 to 2.l more children than they desire.

The Philippines is not on track to meet the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) for maternal mortality and reproductive health by 2015.

The current estimated mortality rate of 162 deaths for every 100,000 live births is high given the country’s level of development, the report notes.

The MDG target is 53 deaths for every 100,000 live births by 2015.

Social marketing could help encourage better family planning practices among the middle and upper classes, while the poor must be given free contraceptives and family planning assistance, the report concludes.

RH law can help

This is where a Reproductive Health Bill signed into law can help, experts say.

It calls for the government to promote both artificial and natural methods of family planning, sex education, and responsible parenthood.

The bill calls upon the state to prioritize the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and to reduce maternal mortality rates.

The bill, with a focus on providing free contraceptives assistance to poor women, excludes any form of abortion.

The bill, authored by House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman of Albay and Iloilo Rep. Janet Garin, has been re-filed in the 15th Congress.

In the Senate, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago has filed her own version of the bill.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, in a recent statement, assured that the Reproductive Health Bill will be voted on in plenary after having been routinely killed at committee level in the past, due mainly to the lobbying of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

What Speaker Belmonte is making possible is a conscience vote, to allow each member of Congress to finally share with the Filipino people what they truly feel and believe about an issue of great national and global concern.

He is steps ahead of President Benigno S. Aquino III, who has been silent, so far, on the matter. (Newsbreak)