QUITE a complex issue, poverty is in this country of 117 million people, despite periods of economic growth.
Scholars say poverty persists due to a fusion of factors, including low and inconsistent economic growth, weak job creation, and income inequality.
There are also historical factors, like past economic policies and the influence of powerful elites, which have obstructed development and perpetuated poverty.
Poverty, as it applies to the Philippines, is the state where individuals or families lack the income to meet their basic needs, including food, health, education, housing, and other essential amenities, as determined by the National Economic and Development Authority.
This threshold is used to identify those whose income falls below the poverty line, the minimum income a family needs to afford basic food and non-food needs.
In the first semester of 2023, a family of five needed at least P13,873 per month to meet these needs, which translates to roughly P92.49 per person per day, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
In March this year, a Social Weather Stations survey indicated that 52 percent of Filipino families considered themselves poor, 12 percent considered themselves borderline and 36 percent did not consider themselves poor.
What indeed is poverty? Essentially, it refers to lacking enough resources to provide the necessities of life – food, clean water, shelter and clothing. But in today’s world, that can be extended to include access to health care, education and even transportation.
Anti-poverty specialists have repeatedly said this state of destitution is a socioeconomic condition where individuals, families, or communities cannot achieve a minimum standard of living due to insufficient financial resources and essentials.
The inability to meet basic human needs like housing, clean water, food, and medical care defines this condition.
We are elated, as perhaps many Filipinos are, that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has made it his priority to achieve poverty reduction in the Philippines significantly, by putting the right gear to a 25-year long-term vision initiated in 2015.
This vision, as a guide for development planning, is supported by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, aims to ensure a prosperous Philippines where no one is poor by 2040.
All future Philippine development plans to be crafted and implemented until 2040 will be anchored on Ambisyon Natin 2040. This will ensure the sustainability and consistency of government strategies, policies, programs and projects across political administrations.
Recently, the Philippines has completed more than 2,778 farm-to-market roads, water and sanitation systems, health stations, school buildings, rural electrification and other infrastructure projects.
