Fighting Poverty in the Philippines: Challenges and Solutions

Introduction

This is poverty in the Philippines essay in which the topic of battling poverty in the Philippines will be discussed. The Sustainable Development Goals or SDG are a collection of 17 goals that can impact the certain countries, nations or even the world positively. These goals that are in the agenda of SDG are, No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Reducing Inequality, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life On Land, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, Partnership for the Goals. These goals are said to be done in the year 2030 and all of these goals have very different impacts in the world. The Philippines has many different issues that can be helped by the sustainable development goals, but there is one issue that rises above all of the other issues that is in the Philippines, which is the poverty issue in the Philippines, poverty is one of, if not, the biggest issue that the Philippines have today. This paper aims to provide information about the poverty in the Philippines, how has the poverty impacted the country and can poverty possibly be stopped. This paper also aims to provide information about how the SDG#1 or No poverty Goal can help the Philippines in stopping the issue that the country is facing. Poverty is a big problem in the Philippines. However, there is hope that it can be prevented or can even be stopped.

Fighting Poverty in the Philippines

To continue poverty in philippines essay, poverty has been recognized to be one of the most significant problems or challenges that the citizens of the country and the Philippines are facing today. Filipinos are having a difficult time in adapting or surviving in extreme conditions, not having enough food, not having shelter, lack of job for the poor and many more difficult conditions. According to the World Bank, the COVID-19 pandemic will increase the number of Filipino people in poverty, for an exact number, the pandemic will make 2.7 million Filipino people poor this year. The situation of the Philippines right now in terms of poverty is looking like it is going to be difficult to move forward, especially now that the COVID-19 pandemic will surely increase the numbers of the people in poverty. However, the Philippines is already trying to battle the issue if poverty in the Philippines. One of the ways that the Philippines is battling against poverty is giving children greater or easy access to Education. One of the factors of poverty is the lack of education among the people in some of the underdeveloped areas. People learn basic skills that they can use to get or acquire a job through education, which can help prevent poverty in the country. Thus, the Philippines signed the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act in the year 2017 to encourage the Filipino people who do not have proper education and currently living in poverty to enroll in higher education. Another way of battling the poverty in the Philippines is through the support of the government by implementing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4ps in 2007. The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) can provide Filipino people conditional cash grants that are currently living in extreme poverty, to improve their health, nutrition and even education for the children who are in the age of 0-18 years old. The Pantawid Pamilyan Pilipino Program is benefiting about 20 million Filipinos and 9 million of that 20 million are children. Thus making the goal to poverty reduction even more achievable. This way of battling the Poverty in the Philippines is effective, because 20% of the program reached about 20% of the population. It may seem that 20% of the population in the Philippines is small, but it is still a step for the eradication of poverty in the Philippines. There are many more ways that the Philippines are combating of battling the current poverty today, and those ways are definitely effective and can definitely put an end in the extreme poverty that the Philippines and the Filipino citizens are facing right now.

Reducing Poverty

In 2015, 22 million people in the Philippines are still living in the depths of poverty and that totals in to one-fifth of the population. Poverty shows that it massively affects the people who are mainly uneducated and tend to live in a large family. These families usually only have one person providing income for the whole family or the only one providing needs, resources and other commodities. The Filipino government has a long-term goal which is providing more economic prospects, which would help the Filipino people because they would earn bigger and more stable salary or income. A research or a report by World Bank shows that this goal has already helped the rate of poverty to decrease, from 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015. There are some factors that caused the drop in poverty in 2015 and one of these factors are the expansion of jobs outside the agriculture sector, government transfers and getting qualified Filipinos to participate to help in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. This program in particular has really helped to reduce the poverty in the Philippines, to be more specific, it has reduced 25 percent of poverty. Another way of controlling the poverty in the Philippines is providing birth control to the poor or to the place where there are a lot of people in poverty. By providing birth control to families, they will have fewer children and this will mean that the families can provide more resources to them or provide more responsibly. By doing this way of reducing poverty, it will help the government reach the goal of reducing poverty by 13 to 15 percent by 2022, which is a big percentage that will really help the Philippines.

AmBisyon Natin 2040

The Philippines has a goal to eradicate extreme poverty by 2040 and the Philippines really is on a good track to meetings this goal according to Tax reform Department of Finance. The Philippines has an ambitious vision of ending poverty and this ambition is called the AmBisyon Natin 2040 which envisions the country of being free from any kind of poverty, enough resources to everyone, good health care, good education, easy access to clean water and other commodities. A national survey was done by NEDA or the National Economic and Development Authority, and the survey showed that 79 percent of the Filipino People wanted a comfortable and simple life or they wanted the poverty to end in the Philippines by 2040. The national government goals are to develop or upgrade massive infrastructure and to increase human capital development programs. These strategies will make the government make exceptional investments in national and local infrastructure, health and education and the growth of the economy. These goals will result in the record of the lowest score in poverty scores. More people will find jobs and jobseekers of the future will be given the opportunity to enjoy their free tuition in public colleges and universities. And for the families who cannot acquire proper needs or measures of social protection and other things, they will also be benefited from this goal. 5.9 million Filipino people lifted themselves out of poverty in 2015 to 2018 and people who are considered poor declined for 16.6 percent from 23.3 percent in 2015. This means that the Philippines is on a good track in eradicating the poverty that we have. The goals that were present are working well and really is effective. According to Tex reform Department of Finance, the Duterte Administration has made progress in ensuring the poorest areas or sectors in the Philippines receive needs, resources and other commodities from the government.

Conclusion

To conclude essay about poverty in the philippines, there are many advancements that has been done in fighting the poverty that the Filipino People are facing right now in the Philippines and these goals are really effective and can really make a change. Yes, Poverty is still on going and the Philippines have a long way to go before this issue is resolved and before the Filipino people will in a prosperous life. However, there is still hope that the Philippine government can do it. There are a lot of changes that is being done already and some of them are well on track for ending the Poverty in the Philippines and some of these are; Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program and the AmBisyon Natin 2040. These goals are helping the Filipino people living in poverty to acquire resources and needs. Poverty is problem that can be solved if the Filipino people work together and have hope.