Welcome
to
Learning Module 4
Poverty
Module Learning Outcomes
After studying the module, you should be able to:
1. describe poverty;
2. identify some causes and effects of poverty;
3. enumerate some programs and some
solutions to alleviate poverty; and
4. participate actively on how to help the poor
through direct action.
Retrieved from: https://www.slideshare.net/ArnulfoLaniba/poverty-in-the-philippines-facts-statistics-images
Poverty is the pronounced
deprivation of well being. It is the
inability to satisfy one’s basic needs
because one lacks income to buy
services or from lack of access to
services.
Absolute poverty or destitution
refers to the state of severe
deprivation of basic human needs,
which commonly includes food,
water, sanitation, clothing, shelter,
health care, education, and
information.
Relative poverty refers to as
being below some relative income
threshold, where this threshold for
each society or country differs.
Agency that conducts poverty survey
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
conducts survey on population poverty
Retrieved from: http://www.psa.gov.ph/poverty-press-releases
The number of Filipinos living below the poverty line
was reduced in the first semester of 2018 despite
faster growth in inflation and rising poverty
thresholds, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
reported yesterday.
The PSA’s parent agency, the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA), said this was
largely because of improvements in the quality of
employment in the past three years since the last
poverty survey in 2015, as well as the expansion in
government social services.
The nationwide poverty incidence fell to 21 percent in
the first half of 2018 compared to 27.6 percent in
the first half of 2015.
What other organization conducts
survey in the country?
The Social Weather Stations or SWS is a
social research institution in the Philippines
founded in August 1985. It is a private, non stock,
non profit institution. It is the foremost public-
opinion polling body in the Philippines. Its basic
functions include: social analysis and research,
with stress on social indicators and the
development of new data sources; design and
implementation of social, economic, and political
surveys, including public opinion polls; and the
dissemination of research findings through
publications, seminars, briefings, and other
channels.
The First Quarter 2017 Social Weather Survey,
done on March 25-28, 2017, found 50% (estimated
11.5 million) of families considering themselves as
Mahirap or Poor.
The March 2017 survey also found 35% (est. 8.1
million) of families rating their food as Mahirap or Poor,
termed by SWS as Food-Poor.
Self-Rated Food-Poverty had been either steady
or declining from the third quarter of 2015 to the third
quarter of 2016.
Retrieved from https://www.sws.org.ph/swsmain/artcldisppage/?artcsyscode=ART-
20170428131124
More Filipino families are considering
themselves poor, up by around 1.3 million
households, in the 2nd quarter of 2018 Social
Weather Stations (SWS) survey results.
Retrieved from: https://tnt.abante.com.ph/sws-survey-gutom-na-pinoy-kumonti/
Around 2.2 million Filipino families
experienced involuntary hunger in the second
quarter of 2018, according to the latest Social
Weather Stations (SWS) poll.
Conducted from June 27-30, the survey found
9.4 percent or 2.2 million families who experienced
involuntary hunger at least once in the past three
months.
The latest hunger rate was 0.5 points below
the 9.9 percent or an estimated 2.3 million families
in March 2018. This was only the third time hunger
has been in the single-digit range since March
2004, the SWS noted.
The 9.4 percent quarterly hunger was
composed of 8.1 percent (around 1.9 million
families) who experienced “moderate
hunger” and 1.3 percent (about 294,000
families) who experienced “severe hunger.”
Moderate Hunger, referring to those
who experienced it "Only Once" or "A Few
Times" in the last three months
Severe Hunger, referring to those who
experienced it "Often" or "Always" in the last
three months
On September 19th the World Bank
released estimates for extreme poverty in
2015, defined as living on less than $1.90 a
day at 2011 purchasing-power parity. In 2015
the extreme poor numbered 736m people, or
10% of the world. The Bank’s best guess for
2018 is 8.6%.
Extreme poverty is a global challenge. It
is observed in all parts of the world, including
the developed countries.
Vara (2015) Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/2015-global-poverty-infographics/
What might be the causes of
poverty?
The different causes of poverty are the ff:
low to moderate economic growth;
low growth elasticity of poverty reduction;
weakness in employment generation and the quality of jobs
generated;
failure to fully develop the agriculture sector;
high inflation during crisis periods;
high levels of population growth;
high and persistent levels of inequality (incomes and assets),
which dampen the positive impacts of economic expansion;
and
recurrent shocks and exposure to risks such as economic
crisis, conflicts, natural disasters, and “environmental
poverty.”
What are being done to alleviate
poverty?
The conditional cash transfer
program is a government program that
aims to alleviate poverty. In the
Philippines, the CCT is known locally as
Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program
(4Ps). The program was formally
launched by former President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo in November 2008,
several months after the government
started to implement it in January 2008.
OBJECTIVES
The 4Ps has dual objectives :
• social assistance,
giving monetary support to extremely poor
families to respond to their immediate needs; and
• social development,
breaking the intergenerational poverty cycle
by investing in the health and education of poor
children through programs such as:
•health check-ups for pregnant women and
children aged 0 to 5;
•deworming of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14;
•enrollment of children in daycare, elementary,
and secondary schools; and
•family development sessions.
The 4Ps also helps the Philippine
government fulfill its commitment to the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—
specifically in eradicating extreme poverty
and hunger, in achieving universal primary
education, in promoting gender equality, in
reducing child mortality, and in improving
maternal health care.
Complementing the 4Ps is the Modified
Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) Program,
which caters to families in need of special
protection. These include street families,
itinerant indigenous families, families displaced
by natural and man-made disasters, families
with a person with disability (PWD), child
laborers, children in conflict with the law, and
families with members with terminal disease and
victims of human trafficking.
Retrieved from https://es.slideshare.net/HealthEducationSocialProtectionLabor/philippines-cct-4-ps-
presentation-hd-week-2013
What is the budget for 4Ps for 2018?
Retrieved from https://www.manilaspeak.com/commentary/politics/breakfast-with-ben-subsidy-for-the-tax-reform-
cash-transfer-project-and-project-dime
As of July 31, 2018, Pantawid
Pamilya has already served 4, 875,
483 poor households nationwide.
Retrieved from: https://pantawid.dswd.gov.ph/
Retrieved from: https://www.untvweb.com/news/tag/4ps/
The Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD) lauded the signing into law of Republic Act
11310 institutionalizing the government’s flagship
poverty reduction program known as the Pantawid
Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.
4Ps is an investment in human capital which seeks to
break the intergenerational cycle of poverty by focusing
on education and health of the beneficiaries. It provides
conditional cash transfer to poor households around
the country, It is being implemented by DSWD, in
partnership with other government agencies, such as
the Department of Health (DOH), Department of
Education (DepEd), and Commission on Higher
Education (CHED), among others.
If you have some
concerns concerning
the module, please
bring them up with
your professor in the
classroom for
clarifications and
further discussions.
