Poverty

Decent Work and full employment must be key goals in the fight against poverty, says ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder. GENEVA (ILO News) -ILO Director-General Guy Ryder says the world needs to take a new approach – with jobs at the centre – in the fight to end global poverty.

As World Food Day on October 16 approaches, a human rights organization said the Philippines needs a comprehensive national food policy to end its high incidence of hunger. FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) Philippines said recent survey results showing hunger now stalks 21 percent of families is unacceptable.

PRESIDENT Aquino was asked on Monday to explain and account for the P3.77 billion of conditional cash-transfer (CCT) funds which government auditors found to be missing or unaccounted for in 2011.

The commitment of the Asian Development Bank to provide up to $1.8 billion until 2015 to help the Philippines achieve its development goals speaks highly of the success so far of the government initiatives to reduce poverty.

FEWER FILIPINO families consider themselves poor, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a new report, dipping below 50% but still some ways off a record low revisited in March 2010.

A platform of the Aquino administration is to achieve “inclusive” growth, but an official of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) told an economic forum Monday the Philippines has a long way to go before it can reach this goal.

MANILA, Philippines – Due to a number of recent economic shocks, including fuel and rice crises, a senior research felllow at state-owned think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said it may be difficult to bring down the country’s poverty rate to 16.6% by 2015.

DAVAO CITY—The Philippines should increase its domestic productivity to more effectively address the labor-generation and poverty-reduction problems, or risk being be pulled down by criticism that its recent high gross domestic product (GDP) percentage was not benefiting its population, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

MANILA, Philippines – The World Bank believes the Philippines is in a better position to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in three years due to the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program. In a preliminary assessment of the program, the World Bank said families covered by the CCTs spent 36% more on education and…

MANILA, Philippines – Even with high economic growth, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the Philippines still has a long way to achieving a significant reduction in poverty. Neda Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan told reporters the recent second quarter growth of 5.9% and first semester growth of 6.1% is not an assurance…

INDOLENT Indios, inhabitants of the Philippines were once called. But Corazon Juliano-Soliman resents that tag given especially to poor Filipinos. “Let’s not forget that while we’re in deep slumber, at 4 o’clock in the morning, farmers and fisherfolk are already tilling the soil or at sea, the urban poor who put the city to bed…

The Senate finance committee approved and will submit for plenary deliberations the proposed 2013 budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) amounting P55.98 billion—excluding budget of attached agencies—a major portion of which is the P44.26 billion for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), or the government’s Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program, according to…

THE Aquino administration is on track in alleviating poverty in the Philippines, according to Secretary Corazon Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)—thanks, she said, to the Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) Program.

In three years, the Aquino government hopes to slash poverty incidence to 16.6 percent or half the 1991 poverty rate of 33.1 percent. According to economic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan, the government can hack this considering that growth is high and that prices are not going up fast. To be poor means earning less than…

Statistics from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) shows that of the top 10 least poor cities/districts in the Philippines, nine districts can be found in the National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila).

The Departments of Budget and Management (DBM) and Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) claimed that the very controversial Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or conditional cash transfer (CCT) is not alms but a worthy assistance for the destitute who prefers not to work.

What the country could build now is a floating grandstand. Then it will be very convenient for BS Aquino III, the other politicians, the DSWD and DILG secretary, the disaster officials, do-goody media networks, ad nausea to perform their center-staging for the national audience. This should be very welcome next year as it is election…

Last week, we saw much damage caused by the southwest monsoon rains or hanging habagat. We realized once again that we had not really learned our lessons. Even after Ondoy! But we also witnessed the many brave men and women who risked their lives to help our kababayans in distress. And we saw that despite…

The government’s inability to look after Mindanao, a vote-rich island visited by politicians only during election campaigns, is home to the country’s poorest provinces, disclosed the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) which said the 10 richest local government units (LGUs) are situated close to the seat of power.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well, it is broke. The Philippines has been the poorest performing country among its comparable neighbors over the past 30 years. There are many reasons for this, but paucity of job-creating, wealth-creating investment is certainly one of the principal ones.

THE GOVERNMENT is considering a transition period for beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program once it ends in 2015. “We are currently looking at ways to ease beneficiaries out of the CCT program because some of them will not be out of poverty by 2015,” Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said on Monday…

MANILA – Almost half of all the cities and municipalities in the Philippines are poor, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board.

(PR-201206-SS2-01, Posted 03 August 2012) Based on the 2009 small area estimates (SAE) of poverty, almost half or 795 of the 1,643 cities/municipalities in the Philippines have poverty incidences ranging from 32.1 to 60.0 %, while 67 municipalities have poverty incidences higher than 60.0%. On the average, the municipal and city level poverty incidence estimates…

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday affirmed the legality of the P21 billion the Aquino administration appropriated under the 2011 budget to the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program thereby also validating the controversial dole out program of President Aquino in yet another likely show of pandering to Malacañang.

Appointed only two months ago by President Aquino as the chief of the National Economic and Development Authority, former UP School of Economics dean Arsenio Balisacan seems to have fast caught the yellow I-hate-Arroyo bug that afflicts this administration.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño and retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz yesterday branded as “degrading to human dignity” the administration’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. Casiño told the weekly Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) forum that the CCT had been utterly useless in addressing poverty and hunger and it was not what the…

Despite all Malacañang’s spins and excuses, the administration’s own data showed a high level of poverty and hunger, with the incidence of involuntary hunger shown in the Cabinet’s anti-poverty cluster’s commissioned survey hitting a record-high 23.8 percent in March.

In what could be described as part of Malacañang’s grand preparation for next year’s polls, the Palace is allocating the biggest slice of the 2013 budget to social services.

With respectable economic growth and benign inflation in the past three years, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said on Wednesday that it was expecting a reduction in poverty incidence in 2012.

Filipinos who consider themselves poor remain in the majority despite the claims of President Aquino and his allies that the economy is taking off and is catching up with the country’s more developed neighbors, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on self-rated poverty for the second quarter showed.