Lack of research hobbles anti-poverty programs

The government needs to place more importance in the role of research to successfully implement programs and projects that would alleviate poverty.

This was emphasized in a press conference of the Development Policy Research Month (DPRM) held yesterday to highlight the issues related to poverty reduction.

A statement from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the lead coordinator of the DPRM celebration, said that the presentations will hopefully provide the appropriate base and support in crafting a roadmap for economic development and poverty reduction for the new administration.

“Since the 2015 deadline for the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is fast approaching, there is a need to assess the Philippine government’s progress in achieving the goal of poverty reduction,” the statement said.

Under the MDGs, the Philippines is targeting to reduce the 1991 poverty incident of 45.3 percent by half by 2015.

The latest data on poverty from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) shows that poverty incidence was at 32.9 percent in 2006.

Assistant Director Cleofe Pastrana of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) – Social Development Staff presented the probability of the Philippines in achieving its MDG targets.

Poverty was categorized under medium probability, together with nutrition, dietary energy requirement, and universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment.

Gender equality in education, child mortality, access to sanitary toilet facilities, subsistence incidence, and reversing the incidence of malaria and other major diseases were placed in the high probability category.

Elementary net enrolment rate, elementary cohort survival rate, elementary completion rate, maternal mortality ratio, access to reproductive health services, and the possibility of stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS were placed in the low probability category.

Celia Reyes, PIDS senior Research Fellow, showed that 57 percent of those who were poor in 2006 were classified as “chronic poor,” as they were constantly poor during the period 2003 to 2006. The remaining 43 percent were classified as “transient poor,” or were moving in and out of poverty.

Reyes said that the reason the transient poor were in and out of poverty was due to temporary shocks, such as natural calamities, or food and fuel price hikes.

Pastrana recommends that more effective safety nets are needed to minimize movements into poverty.

“The types of intervention (between chronic and transient poor) would be different. Safety nets would be critical,” Reyes said.

Reyes also showed that seven out of ten families who are chronic poor have heads who are engaged in agriculture.

“Agriculture is an important sector, there is a need to look more closely on how it can be improved,” Reyes said.

Reyes also presented a survey result which showed that 69 percent of the non-poor also benefit from the National Food Authority (NFA) Rice Program, whereas 27.3 percent of the poor don’t even avail of the rice subsidy.

“(There is a need) to improve the targeting of the program, because right now, even the non-poor can buy the rice. We know that with this kind of program, there are costs to the government, but that’s okay if the benefits will go to the poor,” Reyes said.

“Unfortunately we see that there’s a very high leakage rate, meaning that a large proportion of the beneficiaries are actually non-poor,” she said.

Reyes suggests that the targeting program should be improved to be able to reach all of the poor, and so that the government will need less resources to provide the benefits of the poor.

Pastrana also suggests that to reduce poverty incidence and to achieve the MDG in poverty reduction, convergence in anti-poverty interventions and the allocation of more resources to the poorer and undeserved areas should be done, while measures that will ensure more equitable distribution of the benefits of growth have to be put in place. –ANGELA CELIS, Malaya