Poverty

THE NEW SWS report on poverty in June 2010. Last Monday, through BusinessWorld as usual, Social Weather Stations reported Self-Rated Poverty (SRP) at 50 percent of households, and Self-Rated Food Poverty (SRFP) at 38 percent of households, as of its Second Quarter Survey of June 25-28, 2010 (nationwide, 1,200 households, 3 percent sampling error margin).

MANILA, Philippines—An estimated 9.4 million households, or 50 percent of total households in the country, consider themselves “poor,” while some 7.2 million households, or 38 percent, consider themselves “food-poor,” according to the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations.

Editor’s note: The third part of this series discussed, among others, how various factors have affected the government’s programs to attain Millennium Development Goals. According to the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), a woman in the lowest wealth quintile will bear an average of 5.2 children in her lifetime, compared to an average…

Editor’s note: The second part of this series discussed why the government’s anti-poverty program has been not effective in some way because of its basic design or politics. Third of Five Parts

MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor rose by over a million to roughly half of the population in the second quarter of the year, a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed yesterday.

From March’s record low, more Filipino families say they are mahirap THE NUMBER of Filipino families who feel poor has increased by over a million from last March’s record low, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said.

The Philippines has moderate chances of halving the number of its poor citizens by 2015 — one of eight targets it vowed to fulfill under its United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — although it could still meet other targets, including reducing the number of Filipinos whose income cannot provide the basic food requirements.

THE Philippines’ goal to reduce the number of Filipinos living in extreme poverty and subsistence by 12.5 percent in 2015 is “unrealistic,” according to the chief of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

MANILA, Philippines – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved yesterday a $400-million loan for the Philippines to support the expansion of its conditional cash transfer program known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.

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.

WEAK targeting systems that result in significant leakages in government antipoverty programs, as well as high inflation and the recent crises, are likely to worsen the country’s poverty situation, according to an expert from the state-owned think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). The situation is leading to rising numbers in the so-called transient…

MORE Filipinos were expected to fall into poverty in 2009 because of recent shocks that hit the country, according to the government’s think tank. Celia Reyes, research fellow of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said that it is likely that poverty incidence among the population will rise more than 32.9 percent in 2009…

Malacañang will scrap the Kilos Asenso and Kalayaan Barangay programs, and the P1.5 billion in funds allocated for the two undertakings would be used to spur investment activities in local governments and augment the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) fund. “We are now rechanneling these funds to programs which have clearer rules and will have a…

MANILA, Philippines – The economy’s stronger-than-expected economic growth of 7.9 percent in the second quarter of the year has not trickled down to the grassroots, according to the non-government think-tank and research group IBON.

Non-poor households buy half of NFA rice MANILA, Philippines—The World Bank urged the Aquino administration to finally stop subsidizing rice supposedly meant for poor households as the government continued to pile up huge losses from this program.

THE Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the world’s 1.020 billion undernourished people by half between now and 2015 is still possible.

New ADB study recommends better wages MIDDLE-class Filipino families with a large number of household members are at risk of falling into poverty if the government fails to create policies that improve wages, education and healthcare, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study has warned. In the study, “The Rise of Asia’s Middle Class,” the Manila-based…

MANILA, Philippines—The World Bank has cited the failure of the Philippines to translate growth of its economy over the years into poverty reduction, saying this is a key hurdle to improving the country’s competitiveness.

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang yesterday said it was studying a proposal for the National Food Authority (NFA) to distribute surplus rice to poor households instead of leaving it to rot in warehouses.

MANILA, Philippines—It should disturb the nation, not just the new administration, that total hunger increased by 1 percentage point compared to the second quarter of 2009, and severe hunger was also higher compared to the first quarter of 2010 because the second quarter encompassed a presidential election which should have been a major redistributive event.

MANILA, Philippines—As the administration of President Benigno Aquino III settles down and braces for work for the next six years, a review of the latest National Nutrition Survey (NNS) might be imperative to guide it in one of its proclaimed crusades—to reduce poverty.

HOW MANY surveys are needed before the gravity of the Philippine hunger problem is recognized by the government and other institutions, domestic and international, professing concern for the economic well-being of the people?

In its recent meeting, the Development Budget Coordination Committee revised upward its GDP growth forecasts to 5-6% for 2010. But in a surprise move, the committee forecasts that economic growth will accelerate to 7-8% in 2011 by “harnessing innovative public-private partnerships.” The rosy prognosis for 2011 goes against the forecasts of both the International Monetary…

A LITTLE more than a tenth of Filipinos in 2003 could be considered poor under an expanded poverty index that will be used in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report scheduled to come out this October, the institution that crafted the method said in a statement.

About four million Filipino households nationwide continue to experience hunger, with a rate that has remained at double-digits, according to the second quarter Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results released Wednesday.

Over 20% in the last three quarters — SWS HUNGER CONTINUES to haunt many Filipino families, with the Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) overall measure barely improving and more claiming to have frequently lacked anything to eat.

With only five years left into fulfilling the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations, the agency has identified eradication of extreme poverty as an “endangered” goal for the country since most Asian nations “made significant progress in combating [extreme] poverty” except for the Philippines, an official of the United Nations Information…

MANILA, Philippines—The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Oxford University on Wednesday launched a new index to measure poverty levels which they said give a “multidimensional” picture of people living in hardship, and could help target development resources more effectively.

The disparity that exists between developed and developing countries, is a result of the capitalist society and globalization today. International mechanisms have been installed over time, to create regulations and guidelines pertaining to productivity and progress of the international community. As a result of the direct focus on globalization and expansion, the repercussions can be…

IF the country is to end hunger, a goal that has been elusive for years, the Philippines must post a long-term sustained economic growth of at least 6 percent to 7 percent, according to the Washington-based think tank International Food Policy Research Institute (Ifpri).