SEEING THE unequal balance in economic development in post-colonial 20th century, the United Nations (UN), with its then 189 member-states, sought to make development more inclusive in the 1990s.
This was the rationale for the UN Millennium Declaration of 2000, through which the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established. Due in less than 500 days, the MDGs are eight time-bound goals that aim to address extreme poverty and the problems that result from it.
But while targets in global poverty reduction and access to improved water sources have been met, this economic growth has not been so inclusive.
Incidence and distribution
In the Philippines, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 7.2% in 2013. However, poverty incidence remains virtually unchanged.
Statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority in April 2014 show that poverty incidence declined from 27.9% in 2012 to 24.9% in 2013. This should be statistical progress for MDG1, which seeks to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. However, these two statistics were obtained through different, and hence, incomparable methodologies. In an article for Rappler, statistician Jose Ramon Albert of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) explains that PSA used the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES) in 2012 and the Annual Poverty Indicator Survey (APIS) in 2013; APIS uses more non-income indicators than FIES. Albert opines that definitive trends on income poverty can only be observed once the 2014 APIS results are released.
In addition, natural and man-made disasters also make definitive trends hard to come by. According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in its fifth MDG progress report released in August 2014, the estimated P40-billion damage caused by Super Typhoon Yolanda would have increased poverty incidence by 1.9 percentage points, which translates into roughly 1.87 million more poor people.
Despite the apparent stagnation, Albert believes these statistics do not account for progress in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) led by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. The 4Ps is a conditional cash transfer program which provides monetary assistance to poor households in exchange for certain conditions, such as enrolling children to school and attending health check-ups.
Unequal opportunities
In a separate article, Albert cites a study by PIDS colleagues Aniceto Orbeta and Vicente Pacqueo, and Christopher Spohr of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), showing the effectiveness of the 4Ps in persuading adults to work to “compensate for loss of income from children who attend school.” In this way, they believe that the 4Ps promote the importance of education, convincing families “to keep their children in school.”
Even so, education in the country remains unequally distributed—not universal as envisioned in MDG2, which seeks to attain universal primary education. ADB’s report on inclusive growth indicators published in August 2014 shows that in the Philippines, incidence of extreme education poverty, the percentage of the population with less than four years of schooling, is higher among the bottom 20% of the population—about four times the national average’s.
ADB also reports that girls have more advantage in terms of completion in primary education than boys in the country, but this only partially fulfills the MDG3, which seeks to promote gender equality and empowering women. As of 2014, the female labor participation rate is at 49.7%, only a slight increase from 49.3% in 2009, which means that higher female completion does not translate into an increase in women in the workforce.
Modest achievement in health
On the other hand, progress reports show that the country is on track with its health goals.
According to NEDA, child mortality rates have been reduced considerably in recent years. In 2011, under-five mortality rate went down to 30 per 1,000 live births. These were far from the numbers in 1990 when under-five mortality rate was 80.
In an email interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dr. Amado Parawan, Health and Nutrition advisor of Save the Children, said that half of under-five deaths are neonatal deaths or infants dying before reaching 28 days of age. These deaths can be avoided through proper healthcare, but NEDA estimates that only 55% of births in the country are delivered in proper health facilities.
Parawan urged the government to improve health care services and facilities, saying that “[having] skilled birth [attendants], ensuring delivery in quality health facilities and [having] easy access to referral systems are essential to lower overall child mortality.”
While the goal of reducing infant death has been relatively successful, the same does not hold true for mothers giving birth. The same report by NEDA shows that maternal death rates increased from 209 out of 100,000 live births in 1990 to 221 in 2011—both far from the target rate of 52.
The Philippines is also in critical danger when it comes to its target of halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. While HIV/AIDS affects less than 1% of the population, the Department of Health (DOH) notes that the numbers are rapidly increasing. From 2,349 HIV cases in 2011, of which 110 were AIDS cases, the number doubled in 2013 with 4,814 cases of HIV, 338 of them AIDS cases.
But unlike HIV/AIDS cases, the number of malaria and tuberculosis cases has dropped in recent years. UNDP attributed this to the continued implementation of the Malaria Control Program and the National Tuberculosis Control Program by the DOH.
Sustainable and global development
While most programs geared towards the achievement of MDGs focus on human development, policies on environmental sustainability and global development partnership have also been initiated.
In 1996, even before the Millennium Declaration, the government had already recognized the need for sustainable development and launched Philippine Agenda 21. This project sought to promote sustainable development, involving private sectors and civil society organizations in the protection of the country’s ecosystems.
Among the achievements of the country in relation to MDG 7 are the increased number of protected areas under the National Integrated Protected Area System, improvement in the access of sanitary facilities and the declining trend of urban population in slum areas.
Aside from sustainable development, the private sector has also been active in promoting easy access to information and communications technology and essential drugs. Efforts have been made to bring Internet subscriptions, mobile phones and low-cost yet essential medicine throughout the country.
Beyond 2015
To continue its progress, the Philippines, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), is coordinating with the UN for the post-2015 development agenda. This agenda will take into account what the Philippines has learned from working towards the MDGs. In a statement delivered last September 2013 at the UN General Assembly, DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario mentioned that some of these included the importance of strong institutional arrangements, the empowerment of local government units and the active participation of various stakeholders.
He noted the importance of the year 2015, saying that it “will mark the beginning of a new era of sustainable development.” The UN said that the post-2015 development agenda will not only continue and accelerate the progress of the MDGs but will also develop a new framework for development and global partnership, one which Del Rosario hopes will “[give] every individual a better chance of a better quality of life.”
