The Philippines, as several decades ago, aspires to be an upper middle-income country by 2022 as stated in the 2017–2022 Philippine Development Plan. We have come past that, and it is 2023. We tried to commit to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whose first goal is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. Okay, that is 7 years from now.
Still, poverty is a main concern, both in rural and urban areas. Although poverty has declined worldwide, progress has still, always been uneven. Then, as extreme poverty, is mainly concentrated in rural areas, it cannot be emphasized any more than it is now that rural development and agricultural productivity growth is very crucial for poverty reduction.
As it is, poverty cannot be eradicated without addressing the pervasive inequalities in incomes and economic opportunities between and within countries, between rural and urban areas, and between men and women. To be able to reduce inequalities, we need to know where we are in improving access for the poor, basic services, and social protection. And this is not like we are neither aware nor always informed about this. We can check on the following specific areas if we are to move faster in our otherwise almost-elusive dream of poverty alleviation:
- Monitor the impacts of programs that were made to address the concerns of the most vulnerable households and that they are protected from lifestyle choices that could endanger their health, therefore productivity.
- During calamities or emergencies, responses must be on time, and actions must be proactive, especially requiring local areas with responses using real-time data, along with life-saving aid while supporting people to recover their livelihoods. Improving our resiliency to disasters by investing in mechanisms that reduce the risks is a must.
- While we do so, we should also put Gender-Justice a priority. It can be seen that a lot of women are at the heart of what we do as a country, and programs that aim to build women’s power both in households and firms, local and national must be considered.
- There is nothing wrong with active citizenship, hence it should always be encouraged. For marginalized sectors - women and young people for example must be allowed and encouraged to exercise their political right to influence decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods.
- There must be constant and consistent presentation and assessment of the implementation of policies and even sharing of best practices to promote to empower the poorest and most vulnerable communities.
We are dealing with concerns that are almost the same as decades ago--- deteriorating ecosystems, natural resource management that are not sustainable yet, and climate change. Unless these trends are dealt with, the goal of eradicating poverty will remain elusive. Whatever strategies we have that are based on growth and wealth-inequality reduction require both short and long-run horizons. These strategies should always be coupled with what was proven to be effective poverty alleviation programs. The primary struggle here would be a good database so agencies can carry out programs and monitor and evaluate them accordingly.
How many papers have examined the performance of the country in poverty reduction? Which of these gave a thorough assessment of the reasons for the recent figures for economic growth, the numerous shocks we experienced, and government policies and programs, both local and national? With the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the gains in early 2013 were probably wiped out. It is now, more than ever, that the rate of poverty reduction must be focused on, and/or accelerated.
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