Effort to reduce poverty intensified

THE government is set to present on Wednesday, September 8, its progress report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with an utmost target at addressing the worsening poverty problems of the country.

The report, which will be launched at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City, will contain recommendations on how to attain the MDGs before the 2015 deadline in terms of financing, monitoring, localization and advocacy.

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President Benigno Aquino III will lead the unveiling of the Philippines’ Fourth Progress Report on the MDGs in time for his scheduled trip to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

Earlier, United Nations resident coordinator Jacqueline Badcock said the Philippines will have difficulties in reducing it poverty levels in 2015, given the disappointing figures in the past years.

Data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that the number of poor Filipinos ballooned to 27.6 million in 2006 from 25.5 million in 2001. The unemployed citizens stood at 3.1 million last April.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman also said the 12.15 percent target is an uphill climb for the government after the ranks of the poor swelled due to the global financial crisis.

“We will meet to discuss the poverty-level targets of the Aquino administration and rest assured that the government will pour in resources for this drive,” she said.

But Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga thought otherwise. He said the Philippines has a “high probability” of slashing the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line.

"From 24.3 percent in 1991, the percentage of Filipinos living below subsistence threshold was reduced to 14.6 percent in 2006, which is near the 2015 target of 12.15 percent," said Paderanga, quoting official data from the NSCB.

The government will release the 2009 poverty incidence figure next month.

Other developments

Paderanga agreed with UN’s observation after the country failed to post significant gains in four of its eight MDGs, namely: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS.

The country claimed better developments on reducing child mortality, promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, particularly on eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, reversing the incidence of malaria and tuberculosis, and providing access to sanitary toilet facilities.

Soliman said the government adopted a three-pronged approach in achieving the MDGs, namely: jobs generation through domestic and foreign investments; provision of incentives for good governance in the local level; and social protection mechanisms like the expansion of conditional cash transfer program.

The Aquino administration is eyeing one million poor households as recipients of the program this year and 2.3 million by 2011.

Paderanga said the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2010-2016 will try to determine the regions that are lagging behind in a bid to “facilitate inclusive growth and address problems of inequity.”

The last MDG progress report in the Philippines was released in 2007, while the first two reports were published in 2003 and 2005. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)