Poverty Situation In The Philippines

Poverty situation

In this part of the paper I would like to examine/define the Poverty situation of the Philippines and as well as identify current trends.

Over the past decades the current trend in the Philippines has been generally positive. Based on different indicators that will be discussed later on, the Philippines has shown different levels of improvement in the reduction of poverty. Some areas prove to be more drastic while others are more modest.

Income-based measures of poverty

Ever since 1985 the NSCB has been releasing official statistical data in regards to the poverty rate(income based) in the Philippines. Since 1985 NSCB has been collecting this data every three years. They would go about this by survey form interviewing

However some causes according to Rural Poverty Portal may be “ decline in the productivity and profitability of farming, smaller farm sizes and unsustainable practices that have led to deforestation and depleted fishing waters”. Furthermore since these areas are indeed rural they may experience ‘lag’ when discussing economic trends or growth, this also has a direct relation to the fact that these areas have limited access to different productive assets and business opportunities. Lastly the Culture of these areas also contribute to the high poverty rates. Since majority of the jobs in these areas are Fishers, Farmers etc. the entire culture tends to revolve around that. This means that the new generation would be born into this and will inevitably grow up to have a more intense labour orientated job because thats what they’ve been

In 1994 the literacy rate hit 94%, In 2000 the literacy reached 92.3%, and recently in 2010 the literacy rate was measured at 97.5% by the Census population and housing Bureau. CPH measured that “97.5% of the 71.5 million individuals who are 10 years old and older were literate or could read and write”. Additionally the Functional literacy rate has also been increasing. Since the year 1989 where the FLR was 75.4% the Philippines have been showing steady improvement with it increasing to 83.8% in 1994.

Similarly to literacy rates the school participation rates have also been improving. Elementary School rates are as follows: The school year 1991-1992 had a participation rate of 85% and since then it has increased to 97% in the years 2001-2002. Secondary School rates:

Nutrition

The nutrition in the Philippines have also been improving over the decades. When looking at the Infant mortality rate of children under 5 (death per 1000) there is significant amounts of improvement throughout the years, the following data has been provided from index Mundi. in the year 1960 the infant mortality rate was 106, but since then we have seen massive amounts of