Development And Poverty In The Philippines

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2009 im Fachbereich Politik - Internationale Politik - Thema: Entwicklungspolitik, Note: 1.0, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: An "anti-development state", that is how Walden Bello, professor at the University of the Philippines, describes the Philippines in his latest book (Bello 2006). This paper seeks to examine if this harsh statement is reflected in the available data on economic development and poverty reduction. The first part explores the Philippines' record of economic and human development. It uses a comparative approach by benchmarking with the neighbor countries Indonesia and Thailand. The second part takes a look at the Philippines' achievements in poverty reduction and once again compares them with those of its neighbors. Finally, a number of key factors in poverty reduction are identified and recommendations are given for an improved pro-poor growth. The goal of this paper is to provide comprehensive background information on the frame conditions for poverty-oriented development cooperation with the Philippines. It also seeks to evaluate to what extend the current administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was able to accomplish its self-set goals of inclusive growth and poverty reduction. The underlying Philippine government's Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) is prepared every six years to coincide with the term of the president. It sets out the administration's development and poverty reduction goals. The MDTP 2004-2010 sets the goal to fight poverty by building prosperity for the greatest number of Filipino people. The specific target is to reduce poverty incidence of families to 17.9% in 2010. Furthermore, the collected data should serve as a basis for further research.

The report is based on a multi dimensional approach to poverty following ADB's poverty reduction strategy, which defines poverty as a deprivation of essential assets. The analytical framework of the country poverty analysis blends a more traditional analysis of income poverty with an assessment of access to five different types of assets. Taken from the sustainable livelihoods approach, these assets are human, physical, natural, financial and social capital.

Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and rising food, fuel, and commodity prices, addressing poverty and inequality in the Philippines remains a challenge. The proportion of households living below the official poverty line has declined slowly and unevenly in the past four decades, and poverty reduction has been much slower than in neighboring countries such as the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Economic growth has gone through boom and bust cycles, and recent episodes of moderate economic expansion have had limited impact on the poor. Great inequality across income brackets, regions, and sectors, as well as unmanaged population growth, are considered some of the key factors constraining poverty reduction efforts. This publication analyzes the causes of poverty and recommends ways to accelerate poverty reduction and achieve more inclusive growth. it also provides an overview of current government responses, strategies, and achievements in the fight against poverty and identifies and prioritizes future needs and interventions. The analysis is based on current literature and the latest available data, including the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey.

Poverty and (under)development are the subjects of this book. While the focus is on urban poverty, the principal themes running throughout the book apply as well to rural poverty. The book traces the roots of the Philippine-poverty problem to industrialization and spatial policies that unduly encouraged concentration of infrastructure and social services in major urban centers; to trade and macroeconomic policies that severely penalized agriculture, labor-intensive exports, and small- to medium-scale manufacturing establishments; to public spending policies that accorded little attention to human capital formation for the poor; and to the lack of strong complementarity of state and market. Taking into account economic constraints and political economy considerations, the book discusses ways on how to enhance pro-poor, pro-market, and pro-growth policies, particularly those aimed at correcting disincentives against rapid employment expansion, balanced urban-rural growth, and human capital formation.

The theme of this book is that economic growth is key, but institutions and other national and subnational attributes matter as well. They are critical to explaining differences in social development and poverty reduction across countries and subnational areas that cannot be accounted for by growth alone. The book concludes that a more complete strategy needs to consider various institutional factors at the national and subnational levels to achieve rapid and sustained poverty reduction. Indeed, paying attention to these factors will benefit both growth and poverty reduction.