OCTOBER, A MONTH FOR COOPERATIVES
(2nd in a Series of Four)
By Anselmo B. Mercado, October 2016
Dr Anselmo “Boy” Mercado
The decades prior to the signing of the Millennium Declaration in the Year 2000 (i.e., the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s) were known as “UN Development Decades”. They were the periods in which poverty reduction strategies were deliberately and consciously initiated, formulated, promoted and even mandated in so-called “country development plans.” Governments and NGOs designed and delivered various development programs and interventions to address poverty.
These initiatives were heightened in the 1990s with a series of UN-organized “Summits” on Children (1990), Environment (1992), Population and Reproductive Health (1995), Social Development (1995), and Gender (1996), and a privately organized Summit on Micro-Credit (1997).
End the poverty
Those Summits, although perhaps more political and rhetorical than anything else, and with poverty still looming large as ever, somehow led to a re-awakening of the idealism shared by poor and rich countries to have “a world without poverty.”
And so, imbued with this idealism and pressed by the urgency of the times, the UN “Millennium Summit” came to be, and, on September 2000, 189 countries signed the “Millennium Declaration” (re-confirmed in Year 2002).
The UN Declaration contained eight goals for which 18 numerical targets had been set and 48 quantifiable indicators had been identified. The Declaration’s poverty goal called for reducing by half the proportion of people living on extreme poverty and hunger by Year 2015.
This meant a reduction from 28% (1990) to 12.7% (2015), about 363 million extremely poor people. The other seven MDGS were, namely: 1) Achieve universal primary education; 2) Promote gender equality and empower women; 3) Reduce child mortality; 4) Improve maternal health; 5) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; 6) Ensure environmental sustainability, and 7) Develop a global partnership for development.
Millennium Development Goals Icons
“While each goal is important in its own right, they should be viewed together as they are mutually reinforcing. Achieving them will require building capacity for effective, democratic, and accountable governance, protection of human rights, and respect for the rule of law.”
Last 25 September 2015, a Development Summit was convened and the UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, “which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030”.
“The new Global Goals, and the broader sustainability agenda, go much further than the MDGs, addressing the root causes of poverty and the universal need for development that works for all people.”
Concepts & Our Understanding of Poverty
What is poverty? It has been said that poverty has many faces. Scholars and students of poverty have studied and developed various ways and indicators to understand and measure this phenomenon.
Let me review some of these concepts and perspectives. UN defines “Poverty” “as an economic condition of lacking both money and basic necessities needed to successfully live, such as food, water, education, healthcare, and shelter.”
One concept is called “absolute poverty”, which connotes a “condition and misery linked to an insufficient resource base” (i.e., lack of income, lack of resources, a hand-to-mouth existence, hunger, disease, etc.).
It is simply and basically a struggle for survival. If you ask the poor about their situation, they will point-blank tell you: where to get their next meal, how to keep healthy under adverse conditions and to access to and pay medical care, how to access to basic needs as clean water, decent house, secure jobs, education for their children, etc., and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Pope Benedict XVI has very simply defined it as that which “denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.”
Scholars have conceived of a measurement known as the “poverty line” (i.e., the minimum income level necessary to meet basic needs below which one is considered poor). It is also termed “poverty threshold” (i.e..minimum income enough to purchase basic food that is nutritionally adequate, and the non-food needs that includes housing, clothing, transportation and education). Each country has a “national poverty line” or “poverty threshold” appropriate to its realities and level of development.
In the Philippines, the poverty incidence slightly decreased from 33% in 2000 to 30.4% in 2003. However, this trend was also not even in various regions of the country. For example in the south (Mindanao), the poverty incidence of five out of six regions in fact increased (Regions 9, 10, 11, the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Caraga), while only one region (Region 12) decreased. The average poverty incidence of the six regions, however, slightly fell from 46.65% in 2000 to 45.52% in 2003.
In more recent reports by NEDA and the Bureau of Statistics (First Semester of 2015), the Philippines’ “poverty threshold” of a family of five (5) was PhP 9,140 per month, while the “food threshold”(only basic food needs) was PhP 6,365 per month.
Based on those parameters, the poverty incidence in the Philippines was 26.3% in the First Semester 2015, down from 28.8% in 2008; while the subsistence incidence was 12.1%. The reports added that incomes of the poor families were short by 29% (or PhP 2,649) to be out of poverty. Region X (Northern Mindanao) had a poverty incidence of 40.9%.
Farmer’s home in Baungon, Bukidnon
A term called “relative poverty” has also come to be known in the academic circles, which refers to a “condition of deprivation in such things as income, employment, power, etc. relative to others or the rest of society.”
Thus, the poorest of the poor are identified as those in the “bottom half living below the national poverty line” (a relative poverty measure). However, a common global measurement of extreme economic poverty has been defined as those “who live on less than a dollar a day (Purchasing Power Parity, PPP).” This measurement was later pegged at $1.25 per day.
The United Nations estimated in 2012 that the Philippines’ percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day was 25.2%.
Other measurements of poverty have also been devised. At the macro level, for example, are: (1) Food Security Index, FSI (i.e., portraying the composite food security of a country combining food production and consumption variables); (2) Basic Needs Index, BNI (i.e., to indicate social development variables including education and health variables as access to safe water, sanitation, health services, infant mortality factor, etc.). At the micro level, the measurements have included: material deprivation, isolation, alienation, dependence, lack of decision-making power and freedom of choice, lack of assets, vulnerability, insecurity, etc..
In sum, “the ‘poor’ are not just those earning less than the minimum wage, but those who are ignored, marginalized, denigrated, scorned, or exploited, ultimately because they are shut out of the productive process.” (Joel Tabora, SJ)
Why poverty? Why does it endure? What factors account for and influence poverty and its persistence in society? This is a very hard “nut to crack.” Indeed many different studies and perspectives have been articulated perhaps contributing to our understanding of or even confounding the phenomenon, simply because, in fact, it is a complex and perplexing one. Let me point out some..
In the 1950s-1960s, Macalam (“The Fragmented Philippine Society”) and Montemayor (“The Nature of the Social Problem”) described the Philippine social problem as that of “widespread poverty amidst abundant resources” because of social injustice manifested in the widening gap between the rich and the poor, “the mal-distribution and misuse of the goods of the earth whereby wealth and the advantages it brings… are concentrated in the hands of a few, while the masses are condemned to a life of privation, ignorance and insecurity.”
Castillo (“Beyond Manila…,” 1977) also equated poverty with inequality and she pointed out the “many faces of inequality” in the Philippines, such as the urban-rural differentials, etc..
Cabungcal et al’s studies (“The Philippines Today: A Situational Analysis,” 1991)) showed the ugly face of poverty from many angles: income distribution, land ownership, health and sanitation, environment, government and politics, education, etc.
Noteworthy in their analysis was their statement: “Poverty is not the overriding problem… It is merely a consequence of a societal structure which creates a monopolistic access and control of the resources by the powerful elites… The Philippines is rich but the people are very poor…”
De la Costa (“Liberation of All Men,” 1973) had articulated the causes of poverty in a very incisive and integrated manner.
He said that under-development in the Philippines is a result of social injustice which has caused three levels of bondage: a) External bondage – the phenomenon of dependence and marginalization created by unjust socio-economic-political structures in which the few and powerful dominate the structural forces and decision-making processes which alienate and further impoverish the poor majority, b) Internal bondage – “Of all wounds inflicted by injustice the most grievous is surely this: injustice if sufficiently prolonged, makes men forget what it is to be free; deprives them not only of the ability to strike off their chains, but even the desire to do;” and c) Spiritual bondage – the chain of selfishness, pride, avarice, dishonesties, graft, corruption, violence, unconcern for others, etc..
As far back as the 1960s, I already learned about the “the vicious cycle of poverty” (PRRM’s analysis, “Doctor to the Barrios,” Flavier 1970). Flavier wrote: “The problems of the barrio man cannot be solved if they are dealt with separately. His problems are interlocked. Poverty affects health; illness affects his productivity; illiteracy affects his potential for better production and for better health. Finally, the rate of his progress depends on his ability to achieve self-government.”
Today, the situation prevails. A new term has emerged – the “PPE Spiral”, which highlights three interlocking pressure points on society, namely: Poverty, Population growth and Environmental deterioration.
On the third point, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines warned us: “Our country is in peril. All the living systems on land … on seas around us are ruthlessly being exploited. The damage to date is extensive, and, sad to say, it is often irreversible…”
This reflects “the cry of our people and the cry of our land. The small farmers tell us that their fields are less productive and are becoming sterile. Our fishermen are finding it increasingly difficult to catch fish. Our land, forest and rivers cry out that they are being eroded, denuded and polluted” (“What Is Happening to Our Beautiful Land,” 1988).
Homes of Samal Laut fishermen in Greater Sta Cruz Island
Currently, we have been warned that “global warming” (a consequence of “climate change”) is considered as most alarming and probably the biggest threat to our world.
Some statistics are of interest here. In Poverty Trends in South East Asia by Riza Bernabe (Philippine Inquirer, October 26, 2013), “FAO reported: SEAsia Region posted highest decline of number of undernourished people: from 140 M (1990) to 80.5 M (2008), and most recently to 64.5 M 2011-2013.
Also prevalence of undernourishment decreased from 31.1% to 10.7% (same period). Poverty levels decreased (people living below income $1.25/day) from 45.5% (1990) to 14.7% (2010).”
Indeed, poverty (no development or underdevelopment) has an “ugly” face. But the Good Lord has a special place in His heart for the “least, last, lost and the lowest”.
He says: “Blessed are you poor, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours.” And to all of us, on the final judgment , the Lord will say: “When I was hungry you fed me, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was naked you clothed me, when I was a stranger you received me, when I was sick you cared for me, when I was in prison you visited me… Whenever, wherever, however you did this to the least of my followers, you did it for me. … Come and possess the Kingdom which has been prepared for you. (Matthew 25:31-40).
“A world without poverty” — that is the vision. Is it an “impossible dream”? The next Article will discuss about the Concepts of & Approaches to Development.
-INDNJC-