Perspectives on poverty - Michael G. Antonio
By MICHAEL G. ANTONIO | 02/13/2009 1:26 AM
Printer-friendly version | 
Send to friend | 
Share your views
Poverty has been the perennial and most pressing concern of developing countries such as the Philippines. Poverty has many faces and in the Philippines, these faces number by the millions. Some of them have been dying of extreme hunger while some are encountering the day-to-day Herculean task of surviving at bare subsistence levels.
The concept of poverty has been extensively discussed in various social science disciplines and has been interpreted along social, economic and political dimensions. Poverty has been measured using economic variables and analyzed within the socio-political context. But we often ask ourselves about a universally accepted measure that characterizes who is poor.
For Republic Act 8425 or the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation, the poor are individuals and families whose income fall below the poverty threshold defined by the government and/or those who cannot afford in a sustained manner to provide their basic needs of food, health, education, housing and other amenities of life.
Two related concepts are poverty threshold and food threshold. The National Statistics and Coordinating Board (NSCB) defines poverty threshold as the minimum income/expenditure required for a family/individuals to meet the basic food and non-food requirements. Food threshold refers to the minimum income/expenditure required for a family/individual to meet the basic food needs, which satisfies the nutritional requirements for economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities.
Poverty is deprivation or lack of access to basic services such as housing, food, clothing and education. Individuals experiencing poverty have limited schooling, they live in make shift dwellings in slum areas and they do not eat three square meals a day. Deprivation is seen in limited economic opportunities manifested in rising unemployment and underemployment rates as well as constrains in setting up small enterprises due to the unavailability of capital. Deprivation is also manifested in the way the poor having low self-confidence, unable to participate actively in political exercises such as elections and consultative assemblies.
We see these individuals in our every day lives, beggars asking for short change along the streets, malnourished children roaming the countryside and people spending the whole day engaged in gossip. These pictures give us a mental illustration about the different faces of poverty in our country. There is a general sense of hopelessness whenever one looks into their eyes. Economists have labeled this as the viscous cycle of poverty; people who are born poor would inevitably die poor.
How the government measures one’s extent of being poor is another question.
According to the NSCB, poverty is estimated first by computing the food threshold, which is determined by using regional menus priced at the provincial. The one day menus were determined by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) using low cost, nutritionally adequate food items satisfying basic food requirements of 2,000 calories, which are 100% adequate for the Recommended Energy and Nutrient Intake (RENI) for energy and protein and 80% adequate for the RENI for vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. These menus are used to estimate the per capita per day food cost. This is then multiplied by 30.4 (approximate number of days per month) to get the monthly food threshold or by 365 days (30.4 days/month x 12 months) to get the annual per capita food threshold.
After computing the food threshold, the poverty threshold is computed by including the additional income required for sustaining the minimum non-food basic needs such clothing and foot wear; fuel, light and water; housing maintenance and other minor repairs; rental or occupied dwelling units; medical care; education; transportation and communications; non durable furnishing; household operations; and personal care and effects. Mathematically, the poverty threshold is computed by dividing the food threshold by the basic proportion of the food expenditure (FE) to total basic expenditures (TBE), derived from the latest Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) using the FE/TBEs of families within the +/- ten percentile of the food threshold. The resulting estimate is the annual per capita poverty threshold. At the global level, around 1.2 billion people survive on less than $1 a day, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)’s 2003 Human Development Report.
The government intends to eradicate poverty by providing livelihood opportunities and generating additional jobs. It has also adopted what it calls as the Kabalikat laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI) anti-poverty strategy. In terms of job generation, the government has the thrust of enhancing assistance to small and medium enterprises. It is hoped that micro enterprises would result in the employment of people, providing them with fixed or complementary income.
Alongside developing micro enterprises, the government grants credit, marketing and technology support through its Sulong program which aims to grant P 24 billion worth of loans from Government Financial Institutions (GFIs). It is envisioned that entrepreneurship would pave the way for sustained job opportunities because according to the MTDP, small and medium enterprises account for 69.1% of employment.
Another approach to generate jobs would be to develop approximately 2 million hectares of land for agribusiness, which would in turn result, to 2 million jobs for farmers. The development of the agricultural sector is grounded on product intensification and diversification, high value and non-traditional commodities and agriprocessing. It likewise involves establishing adequate and modern irrigation facilities, credit guarantee and insurance systems. Job creation are focused on software, business outsourcing, contact centers, fashion garments, jewelry, medical services, automotive, electronics, health care, mining and tourism.
Another means to minimize poverty incorporated in the KALAHI program calls for asset reforms, livelihood, employment, allocation of human development services, social protection, security from violence and participation of the poor in decision making. The core of the program is to expand microfinancing which is the provision of non-collateralized lending to low-income groups. The loan granted to them can be utilized in starting up a small enterprise, which would then augment or serve as their primary income. Credit cooperatives, rural banks and microfinance NGOs facilitate microfinance services.
While the government may have been much to lessen poverty, the effects of poverty are still widely felt by a great number of Filipinos. Part of the reason is the fact that poverty as a problem is well entrenched and far too encompassing. It is endemic; government would need more than its vaunted political will complemented by a responsive civil society to turn the tide in the battle against poverty, government would need a renewed sense of being citizens to see us through. As citizens we should learn to spend within our means. This approach is however quite difficult amidst the current consumerist culture of Filipinos. Some people see themselves as poor people because their lifestyles do not match their income.
Demystifying poverty means recognizing its many faces. Its interpretation however heavily depends on what particular context it is examined. In the countryside, poverty is seen in farmers who do not own the land they till. In urban areas, it is seen in scavengers searching for food in garbage bins. One common denominator though is deprivation: they are denied adequate basic goods and services. These deprivations can be attributed to low economic activity at the domestic front, inefficient government, prevalent corruption, and to some extent determined by fate itself-the individual is quite unfortunate to be born in a poor family.
While there is a myriad of explanations about poverty, at the end of the day all of us should see poverty as a challenge. If we continue to sit back and talk about poverty, it would not be resolved. It would not be solved in one full sweep.
While it may not be eradicated entirely, it can be minimized to tolerable levels, i.e. is having less people dying of hunger and providing affordable yet quality education to a greater number of students. While this may sound a utopic dream, it can be done through effective leadership from government, private businesses with a sensitive heart for the poor and responsible citizens with the ability to transcend their personal interest to give some help for the needy.
Dreams are anchored on the human spirit; I still believe that with the innate resiliency of our collective human spirit we would one day go beyond interpreting the concept of poverty but tame poverty to levels we can put up with over the long term.
Michael Antonio is an Assistant Professor Department of Political Science, Sociology and History at St. Scholastica's College in Manila. He is also a member of the Philippine Political Science Association.