New statistics to monitor effects of anti-poverty reforms set for next year
A nationwide state-funded survey on poverty has been formulated to boost efforts in curbing the number of poor Filipinos and monitor the effects of social programs, the head of the National Economic and Development Authority said.
“We will have a survey to make sure that we have poverty data every year to help ensure that the reforms set by government will be felt,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told reporters Wednesday.
Balisacan added that the government “will release the 2012 poverty data in the first quarter to form our interventions.”
Currently, the government does not conduct annual poverty surveys. The National Statistical Coordination Board, the agency tasked to generate official poverty statistics, last released select poverty indicators in 2009.
More than one-quarter or 26.5 percent of the population fell below the poverty line in 2009, latest data show. The government has defined the poor as those earning below P7,017 a month for a family of five, or below P16,841 per capita a year.
Statistics on poverty, however, have been provided by independent, private polling institutions like the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia.
Balisacan noted that annual poverty figures are “very important” to measure effectiveness of social protection programs such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, the government's version of a conditional cash transfer program.
Poverty statistics would also help the government formulate new programs targeted at specific sectors.
“This will help us see which sectors are most vulnerable. So, we can target or place our programs more efficiently,” Balisacan said.
On Wednesday, University of Asia and the Pacific senior economist Victor Abola said the initiative will help decrease poverty incidence in the country.
“That [an annual poverty survey] is a very good thing, because we need to monitor poverty,” he said by phone.
Abola noted that efficient measures of poverty “will help” in assuring that robust growth is felt at the grassroots. — BM, GMA News
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