Volume
V, No. 4
July-August
1987
ISSN 0115-9097
MEASURINGPOVERTY AND DEVELOPMENT
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EDITOR'S NOTE: The sensitive isle of poverty made the pazt regime retuctans to make official e#rimates of poverty incidence. At bezt_ there were vague tcrgen in poverty reduction in the country's development pla_ t¢ith the new political order, however, poverty measurement exercises were deemed part of the development package.. Put to task was the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) which has identified nine out of the country's thirteen regions whose poverty incidence is higher than the national average. Although .poverty incidence is more severe in rural than in urban population.centers, the latest NEDA survey indicated that poverty has become a critical problem in all the regions. The latest estimates stsow that regional poverty incidence in 1985 ranged from 44..1 percent in the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila, to a high 73.2 percent in Region V or the Bicol Region. The scenario in 1987 is not any better. Economists are still waiting for the economy to "take off." Meanwhile, the problem of unemployment continues to further deepen the poverty problems, with the Labor Dep_tment reporting an all-time high unemployment rate of 14.2 percent compared to 12.8 percent in 1986. Depressed urban areas are hounded by high population density, squatter problems, poor health, malnutrition, mendicancy, exploitation of women and children, drug dependency and labor unresL On the other hand, depressed rural areas do not only have the same problems but in addition, have a more pronounced peace and orderproblerru_ Our guest.writer for this issue is Dr. Mahar Mangahas, President of Social Weather Station, Inc. and NEDA Consultant on agrarian reform. He also worked with the Cabinet Action Committee on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP}. In thLs article, Dr, Mangahas d_cusses the social context elrural poverty _ reviews trends in "serial weather watching" in the Phatppine._ Dr. Mangahas has written various aTt_le$ on poverty, and related issueL He was also involved in a number of reJearch prelects relating to poverty and dLstribu tire justice, social indicators, penpectLve planning and agricultura[ policy. This article is drawn from a lecture delivered for a conference on "Scientzfic Positions Challenging Rural and Urban Poverty in Developing Countries'" held June 22-26, 1987at the Justu_Liebig, Universitat Giessen,FederalRepublic of Germany.
undesirable condition which, all overty, however deÂŁmed, is an agree, should be alleviated anO as soon as possible eliminated. It is a longstanding problem for non-poor people as well as fo_ poor people, since the two are interdependent in their society, and social afflictions ff unattended t%could spread to more people and in other ways threaten the well-being of those presently more fortunate. Any proposed solutions to the poverty problem, whoever may be the proponents, will have to be implemented by the society as a whole. Some solutions may be bottom-up, or through self-help among the poor themselves, some top.down, or through programs instituted by the more privileged, and perhaps some will operate simultaneously from both ends. The more democratic the society, the more that the dominance in numbers of the poor and the near.poor would prioritize societal actions which benefit the poor over those which benefit the non-needy, not to mention the embarrassingly wealthy. The challenge to science in general is to widen all the posst_ole avenues of escape from poverty, such as population control, technological change in agriculture, and others. The challenge to social science in particular is to give the people (more than the scientists)an understanding not only of how poverty
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