PHL resets poverty level target, to miss 17.2% MDG goal

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has firmed up a poverty incidence target post-2015, which is up for final approval within the quarter, a ranking official said.

It is “unlikely” to hit the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of bringing down to 17.2 percent the proportion Filipinos earning less than a dollar a day to the total population by 2015, NEDA Deputy Director General Emmanuel Esguerra said in a chance interview late last week.

“If we can bring it down to 18 to 20 percent by the end of the planned period” in 2016 “it would be great,” Esguerra told GMA News Online, citing the NEDA-proposed updates to the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2010-2016.

According to the then National Statistical Coordination Board, the Philippines has a “low” probability of hitting the 17.2 percent MDG target, with the poverty incidence last recorded at 25.2 percent in 2012.

NSCB and other government statistics offices are being consolidated under the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The new target – which is waiting President Benigno S. Aquino III’s final say “in the first quarter” – took into account recent developments, including Typhoon Yolanda, that pushed back government initiatives in trimming the number of poor Filipinos, the NEDA official said.

“To us, it’s now clear. Before it’s (17.2 percent) a fighting target, but after Yolanda we know it’s hard,” Esguerra said.

Killer Typhoon Yolanda barreled through Central Philippines last Nov. 8, flattening towns and killing over 6,200 people.

In a telephone interview Monday, University of Santo Tomas economist Alvin Ang said reducing poverty incidence level to 17.2 percent by next year is “very difficult…

“Growth is good, but the poverty problem is structural. What the administration has done so far is commendable, we understand that it’s not easy,” said Ang, who is also president of the Philippine Economic Society.

The solution requires region-specific programs creating employment and addressing infrastructure and agriculture development bottlenecks, known to economists as the “regional or spatial approach,” he said.

“Poverty rates in some areas are stubborn. So, you need now more focused interventions,” Ang said.

This is exactly what NEDA included in the PDP update.

“The most notable changes is the spatial and sectoral focus as well as inclusion of disaster resilience,” said Esguerra. “It’s more cognizant of the geographic specificity,” he added.

The update to PDP was forwarded to the Palace “on the first working day of the year,” the NEDA official said.

The draft was reviewed by inter-agency and regional stakeholders to ensure that economic initiatives will be felt at the grassroots. – VS, GMA News