Philippines on OneWorld
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| © New Internationalist |
A country with ostensibly high rates of economic growth is struggling to come to terms with the reality that key poverty indicators are moving in reverse. Equally disturbing for poverty reduction strategies is the sudden and frightening impact of climate change which is bearing down on the Philippines. To focus appropriate attention on human development issues, the government of Mrs Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo desperately needs resolution of the dangerous cocktail of armed insurgencies on the troubled island of Mindanao.
updated March 2008
Poverty in The Philippines
The Philippines is classed as a middle income country, but suffers major development problems. Commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has come under painful scrutiny with the publication of results of the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey which show that poverty increased in the 3 years since the previous survey. This was a period in which the Philippines boasted success by conventional measures of economic growth and in which neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia took enormous strides in lifting people out of poverty. By contrast, extreme poverty (assessed by inability to buy sufficient food) in the Philippines increased from 13.5% to 14.6% between 2003 and 2006 whilst the broader measure of poverty (assessed by inability to buy food and other basic essentials) increased from 30.0% to 32.9%. These reverses raise doubts as to whether the respective 2015 MDG targets (12% and 22.5%) for these two measures of poverty can be met.
With over 7,000 islands, the Philippines has many geographic and infrastructural obstacles to creating uniform improvements in people's lives. There is considerable regional diversity in human development, for example in Mindanao 50% of people live below the poverty line and 1.6 million are dependent on assistance from the World Food Programme. About 80% of poor families live in rural areas, typically small subsistence farmers, indigenous groups and fisherfolk. The government has identified modernisation of agriculture and fisheries as a key strategy for poverty reduction, with microfinance as the ideal mechanism.
The extent of poverty and its inertia may also explain another alarming setback for the MDG programme; net enrolment to primary education was close to 100% in 2000 but by 2005/06 had dropped to 84%. A further contributory factor may be the government's inability to complete the construction of large numbers of new schools. A more positive and unusual statistic is that enrolment for girls is higher than for boys.
The government has integrated the MDGs into the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) 2004-2010 but its underlying commitment is questioned in an unusually frank 2007 MDG Midterm Progress Report which observes that "expenditures for social and economic services as a percentage of the total budget had been declining for the past seven years". The funding gap to achieve the Goals by 2015 is estimated at around $15 billion, a figure well beyond current resources. The report encourages discussion of innovative mechanisms to exchange the country's substantial external debt for ringfenced MDG programmes.
Health in The Philippines
The high annual population growth rate of over 2% adds to the cost of poverty reduction. The government lacks a strategic approach to population, largely due to the influence of the Catholic church, the religion of over 80% of the population. Reproductive health services are available to only 50% of families and maternal mortality remains extremely high by regional standards, having reduced only to 162 per 100,000 births from 209 in 1993. The 2015 MDG target of 52 appears out of reach.
Anxiety that these shortcomings in government sexual health programmes might result in an explosion of HIV/AIDS has not been fulfilled. HIV prevalence is currently low in the Philippines and the government can afford to finance a programme to achieve universal access to treatment and care by 2009. However, one third of infections have been traced to returning migrant workers, a potential source which is notoriously difficult to control.
Health programmes in the Philippines have also succeeded in reducing the occurrence of many other diseases, including malaria, and MDG targets for infant and child mortality rates are likely to be achieved. However, there are two structural problems within the country which undermine progress. Firstly, the poor standard of nutrition amongst about half of the population, confirmed by the slow rate of progress towards the MDG targets for dietary intake and child weight. Secondly, the lack of health facilities and staff in rural areas - about 12% of qualified doctors left the country in 2006. Good health services are concentrated within cities where those employed by government and business are members of the National Health Insurance scheme. Just under 50% of the workforce is confined to informal employment and likely to be excluded from social services and welfare safety nets.
Climate Change in The Philippines
None of the poverty reduction or health improvement programmes in the Philippines takes any account of the impact of climate change. Yet at the 2007 Bali UN Climate Change Conference, Philippines was the highest placed country in a new Global Climate Risk Index. This recognised that during 2006 extreme weather events accounted for 3,000 deaths and widespread destruction by mudslides and typhoons. The country has always been prone to natural disasters and the prospect of increased frequency and intensity spurred Greenpeace to publish a special report on the impact of climate change in the Philippines. Apart from extreme weather, there is concern that increasing temperature will affect agricultural yields and food security, whilst rising sea levels threaten over 40 million people who live in coastal regions.
The government has responded by establishing the President's Task Force on Climate Change which will consider mitigation as well as adaptation. For example, fatal landslides such as that in Leyte in early 2006 have been blamed on widespread deforestation, prompting the authorities to take rapid action against illegal loggers and to instigate massive tree replanting schemes.
The Economy in The Philippines
The Philippine economy follows the prescription of liberal open markets, privatisation of most industries and services, and membership of the World Trade Organisation. By traditional measures of growth, the economy has been reasonably successful, especially in recent years. Unemployment is officially reported as less than 8%, although underemployment accounts for a further 20%. However, free trade rules may have undermined domestic food production to the extent that the Philippines is now the world's biggest importer of rice. As the crisis of sharply rising food prices takes hold, the government was unable to buy its required supplies of rice during the first quarter of 2008, the consequences of which remain uncertain.
As many as 8 million Filipinos are believed to be working abroad, one million having left in 2006 alone. Painful and often damaging family dislocation is the price paid for overseas remittances that are the largest source of foreign currency for the Philippine economy, contributing an estimated US$ 12.8 billion in 2006, almost 10% of GDP.
The OneWorld Philippines Guide was first published in this format in February 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Tristan Burton
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The Philippines is classed as a middle income country, but suffers major development problems. Commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has come under painful scrutiny with the publication of results of the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey which show that poverty increased in the 3 years since the previous survey. This was a period in which the Philippines boasted success by conventional measures of economic growth and in which neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia took enormous strides in lifting people out of poverty. By contrast, extreme poverty (assessed by inability to buy sufficient food) in the Philippines increased from 13.5% to 14.6% between 2003 and 2006 whilst the broader measure of poverty (assessed by inability to buy food and other basic essentials) increased from 30.0% to 32.9%. These reverses raise doubts as to whether the respective 2015 MDG targets (12% and 22.5%) for these two measures of poverty can be met.
With over 7,000 islands, the Philippines has many geographic and infrastructural obstacles to creating uniform improvements in people's lives. There is considerable regional diversity in human development, for example in Mindanao 50% of people live below the poverty line and 1.6 million are dependent on assistance from the World Food Programme. About 80% of poor families live in rural areas, typically small subsistence farmers, indigenous groups and fisherfolk. The government has identified modernisation of agriculture and fisheries as a key strategy for poverty reduction, with microfinance as the ideal mechanism.
The extent of poverty and its inertia may also explain another alarming setback for the MDG programme; net enrolment to primary education was close to 100% in 2000 but by 2005/06 had dropped to 84%. A further contributory factor may be the government's inability to complete the construction of large numbers of new schools. A more positive and unusual statistic is that enrolment for girls is higher than for boys.
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| Philippine urban poor protest at MDG failures © Global Call to Action against Poverty |
Health in The Philippines
The high annual population growth rate of over 2% adds to the cost of poverty reduction. The government lacks a strategic approach to population, largely due to the influence of the Catholic church, the religion of over 80% of the population. Reproductive health services are available to only 50% of families and maternal mortality remains extremely high by regional standards, having reduced only to 162 per 100,000 births from 209 in 1993. The 2015 MDG target of 52 appears out of reach.
Anxiety that these shortcomings in government sexual health programmes might result in an explosion of HIV/AIDS has not been fulfilled. HIV prevalence is currently low in the Philippines and the government can afford to finance a programme to achieve universal access to treatment and care by 2009. However, one third of infections have been traced to returning migrant workers, a potential source which is notoriously difficult to control.
Health programmes in the Philippines have also succeeded in reducing the occurrence of many other diseases, including malaria, and MDG targets for infant and child mortality rates are likely to be achieved. However, there are two structural problems within the country which undermine progress. Firstly, the poor standard of nutrition amongst about half of the population, confirmed by the slow rate of progress towards the MDG targets for dietary intake and child weight. Secondly, the lack of health facilities and staff in rural areas - about 12% of qualified doctors left the country in 2006. Good health services are concentrated within cities where those employed by government and business are members of the National Health Insurance scheme. Just under 50% of the workforce is confined to informal employment and likely to be excluded from social services and welfare safety nets.
Climate Change in The Philippines
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| Slash and burn in the Philippines © VJ Toledo/WWF-Canon / WWF International |
The government has responded by establishing the President's Task Force on Climate Change which will consider mitigation as well as adaptation. For example, fatal landslides such as that in Leyte in early 2006 have been blamed on widespread deforestation, prompting the authorities to take rapid action against illegal loggers and to instigate massive tree replanting schemes.
The Economy in The Philippines
The Philippine economy follows the prescription of liberal open markets, privatisation of most industries and services, and membership of the World Trade Organisation. By traditional measures of growth, the economy has been reasonably successful, especially in recent years. Unemployment is officially reported as less than 8%, although underemployment accounts for a further 20%. However, free trade rules may have undermined domestic food production to the extent that the Philippines is now the world's biggest importer of rice. As the crisis of sharply rising food prices takes hold, the government was unable to buy its required supplies of rice during the first quarter of 2008, the consequences of which remain uncertain.
As many as 8 million Filipinos are believed to be working abroad, one million having left in 2006 alone. Painful and often damaging family dislocation is the price paid for overseas remittances that are the largest source of foreign currency for the Philippine economy, contributing an estimated US$ 12.8 billion in 2006, almost 10% of GDP.
The OneWorld Philippines Guide was first published in this format in February 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Tristan Burton
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