Just sharing this paper for my socio subject.
Population and Poverty
(A Policy Paper)
by:
LIZT
MS Development Communication
Sociology 291
University of the Philippines – Los Baños
School Year 2007-2008
Rationale
Majority of the people in the world today is in poverty, even more extreme in some parts of the globe. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the problem is not just about the lack of food, but the inadequate access to water and other basic necessities. The third world countries in Asia suffer from food shortages and wide unemployment. Education becomes the privilege of the few elite, while the basic sectors remain to be under impoverishment.
The wealth is unequally distributed. To give you the view, the wealth of the 41 most underdeveloped countries is less than what the world’s seven richest people have. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income; the richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income. The United States of America spends $ 8 billion for cosmetics, a $ 2 billion more to give free education for all. Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day, while more than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening (http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp, 2008).
Overpopulation exacerbates poverty. In a country where there is a higher birth rate compared to other countries, it is expected that they also have the higher number of poor people. The worst case scenario is that the disparity among the rich and the poor is widening. Due also to overpopulation problem is the decreasing support to education, health, and other basic services to their citizens. Whenever there is fiscal crisis, the most vulnerable of in the nation are the poor, the sector composing the great majority of the people. The more people we have, the more likely that these services would decrease.
The Philippines is among those with both higher birth rate and higher poverty level. According to National Statistical Coordination Board (2006), poverty in the country worsens in 2006, from 24 poor families out of 100 in 2003 it climbs to 27 in 2006. As of year 2006, there are 4.7 million families who are poor.
The poorest province according to survey is Tawi- Tawi, a province in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The province continues to deteriorate their economic status, Tawi-Tawi has the record of being the poorest in the country among 81 provinces during the 2006 survey of NSCB from being the 31st in the rank during 2003. Their poverty incidence had risen up from 17.8 to 36.0 during 2003 to 2006, respectively; there was an increase by more than 40 percentage points between 2003 and 2006. This means that almost eight out of ten families in this province do not earn the minimum income to meet their food and non-food needs. Agriculture, fishing, and agar-agar farming are the leading source of livelihood of the people of Tawi-Tawi, with quite a number engaged in the barter trade business. In this sense, most of the people are dependent on smaller income, with less opportunity to better livelihood.
We cannot just allow these poor people live forever in poverty. It is like allowing them to transfer their impoverishment to the next generation. The cycle of poverty will continue to roll if we cannot do something about it.
Goals and Objectives
If we want to alleviate the people from poverty, we would need to set our goals and objectives. We can start implementing measures to each country, to all the countries in the world where there is poverty. We should start with addressing the root of poverty so that we would know what to solve. We should know what factors contribute to poverty, in all the aspects of society.
In the Philippines, and this is true to other countries, poverty is not just an economic issue, but also a political and cultural one. Even long ago when our resources were still flourishing, majority of the Filipinos have really been poor. They were poor because they could not escape from the colonialism of the super power countries, most prominent of this is the United States of America; from the worsening cases of graft and corruption coupled with the public officials running the big businesses in the country; and from the concentration of the land to the few where the farmers were never given the opportunity to own the land they till.
Today, the cultural aspect is playing the role to misery. From 1970’s up to the present, the number of Filipinos has been tripled, but the government was not able to deter this problem. Inculcated in the beliefs of the Filipino people is the catholic view that it would be a moral sin to promote birth control, thus it would be hard for the government to implement programs for birth control because the church plays the biggest role in the cultural beliefs of the Filipinos. Hence, population continues to be out of control which further worsens the poverty situation.
We need to create solutions for this problem. We should arouse the awareness of the individuals for them to realize these aspects that explain why they cannot alleviate themselves from poverty. We have to organize them in finding solutions to the problem of poverty, and in reducing the country’s population growth. In doing so, we would likely mobilize them to act as one in pursuing the common goal, to achieve a better standard of living.
Target
After having laid down the possible goals and objectives, there would be a need to set the optimum target to implement these. We need to set up a holistic approach in meeting our goals and objectives, and set the expected time that we can finally see an achievement for these.
The 40% increase of poverty incidence in a matter of just three years in Tawi-Tawi is telling us that more can happen in a few years time. Taking all the considerations by hand, we can expect this province to perform better if we can face and give solutions to the problem. We would need a thorough study of the province, learn which aspect they can perform better in terms of their economic capabilities. By the year 2010, they can start acting on the problem of poverty, and by the year 2015, we should expect that their poverty incidence would decrease by at least 45%. This can be possible.
Policy and Program Measures
The problem of poverty cannot be separated from the issue of overpopulation for we know how the increasing growth of population exacerbates poverty. We can therefore launch programs to create awareness among the families to educate them that it would rather be immoral to produce children that they can no longer support even the basic needs of these children. They should realize that having smaller number of family would give them a better economic opportunity. They should also learn how to use the most effective methods in controlling pregnancy, and not just the abstinence method that their cultural norms dictate.
In the current trend of population growth, most of this is a result of the unmet need of the parents. Majority of the mothers with a lot of children would not agree to give those births but were just “victims” of the circumstances. These women have lesser power in the society of macho, hence usually gives them lesser option in times when their husbands would need them. This is especially true in the poor provinces like Tawi-Tawi. Empowering women could be a good cure in giving remedy to our birth rate.
Literacy and health are among the factors being considered in measuring the poverty level of a given place. The government must allocate more budgets for the education and health sectors to help them improve the situation of the citizens. Education is needed to give the youth the opportunity to create a better future for the nation, especially in making them productive citizens and not a burden.
If Tawi-Tawi registers one of the lowest rates of education, we must therefore put a remedy to this problem. Instead of focusing in infrastructure and modernizing the equipment of the military, the local government of Tawi-Tawi must allocate a bigger part of their fund to education. The poor people need better education more than better roads and bridges to create a better future among them.
Every year, the Philippines bring hundred thousands of the Filipinos to be among those millions of unemployed citizens. What is even more alarming is that even the professionals are not spared from unemployment. Some of them are even graduates of the best universities in the country. Majority of the people in Tawi-tawi are working in farm areas, or in some small industries; while the bigger number of them have seasonal work or not working at all.
The government must be creative enough in giving the citizens the opportunity to have income, or at least anything that could feed their families. A small entrepreneurship perhaps, or micro-finance, can be a good option to help them sustain a livelihood for their families. This kind of project would be most welcomed to small provinces like Tawi-Tawi. I believe that these jobless and low-income earners only need the opportunity to free themselves from the chain of poverty; they need something to start with, like a small capital from public or private corporations. Give them choices on how they can act as people struggling for a better living. But it must be sustainable for longer period of time.
One group cannot do this task alone. There must be a holistic approach where one cannot stand alone without the others. All the private and public officials must be tapped because poverty is the concern of everybody.
If we need to create development, let all the aspects of society show what development is. Let the people enrich their social awareness, have an economy which is based on equity, a political climate where people could expect better service from the public servants, a culture which would educate the populace in alleviating themselves from poverty, and an ecological environment that is well taken care of, and that which will not create devastating calamity to people.
If we can bring this kind of living to the people, we can then assess if development is really the best contraceptive. People need to be diverted from bringing more children to this world to making themselves as productive citizens of the world. The real essence of development might be achieved; one where less people are hungry and more people have better access to basic necessities, and where the environmental resources will not be maximized in order to feed the populace. A socially distributed wealth gives justice to everyone, a justice towards development.
Population and Poverty
(A Policy Paper)
by:
LIZT
MS Development Communication
Sociology 291
University of the Philippines – Los Baños
School Year 2007-2008
Rationale
Majority of the people in the world today is in poverty, even more extreme in some parts of the globe. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the problem is not just about the lack of food, but the inadequate access to water and other basic necessities. The third world countries in Asia suffer from food shortages and wide unemployment. Education becomes the privilege of the few elite, while the basic sectors remain to be under impoverishment.
The wealth is unequally distributed. To give you the view, the wealth of the 41 most underdeveloped countries is less than what the world’s seven richest people have. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income; the richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income. The United States of America spends $ 8 billion for cosmetics, a $ 2 billion more to give free education for all. Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day, while more than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening (http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp, 2008).
Overpopulation exacerbates poverty. In a country where there is a higher birth rate compared to other countries, it is expected that they also have the higher number of poor people. The worst case scenario is that the disparity among the rich and the poor is widening. Due also to overpopulation problem is the decreasing support to education, health, and other basic services to their citizens. Whenever there is fiscal crisis, the most vulnerable of in the nation are the poor, the sector composing the great majority of the people. The more people we have, the more likely that these services would decrease.
The Philippines is among those with both higher birth rate and higher poverty level. According to National Statistical Coordination Board (2006), poverty in the country worsens in 2006, from 24 poor families out of 100 in 2003 it climbs to 27 in 2006. As of year 2006, there are 4.7 million families who are poor.
The poorest province according to survey is Tawi- Tawi, a province in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The province continues to deteriorate their economic status, Tawi-Tawi has the record of being the poorest in the country among 81 provinces during the 2006 survey of NSCB from being the 31st in the rank during 2003. Their poverty incidence had risen up from 17.8 to 36.0 during 2003 to 2006, respectively; there was an increase by more than 40 percentage points between 2003 and 2006. This means that almost eight out of ten families in this province do not earn the minimum income to meet their food and non-food needs. Agriculture, fishing, and agar-agar farming are the leading source of livelihood of the people of Tawi-Tawi, with quite a number engaged in the barter trade business. In this sense, most of the people are dependent on smaller income, with less opportunity to better livelihood.
We cannot just allow these poor people live forever in poverty. It is like allowing them to transfer their impoverishment to the next generation. The cycle of poverty will continue to roll if we cannot do something about it.
Goals and Objectives
If we want to alleviate the people from poverty, we would need to set our goals and objectives. We can start implementing measures to each country, to all the countries in the world where there is poverty. We should start with addressing the root of poverty so that we would know what to solve. We should know what factors contribute to poverty, in all the aspects of society.
In the Philippines, and this is true to other countries, poverty is not just an economic issue, but also a political and cultural one. Even long ago when our resources were still flourishing, majority of the Filipinos have really been poor. They were poor because they could not escape from the colonialism of the super power countries, most prominent of this is the United States of America; from the worsening cases of graft and corruption coupled with the public officials running the big businesses in the country; and from the concentration of the land to the few where the farmers were never given the opportunity to own the land they till.
Today, the cultural aspect is playing the role to misery. From 1970’s up to the present, the number of Filipinos has been tripled, but the government was not able to deter this problem. Inculcated in the beliefs of the Filipino people is the catholic view that it would be a moral sin to promote birth control, thus it would be hard for the government to implement programs for birth control because the church plays the biggest role in the cultural beliefs of the Filipinos. Hence, population continues to be out of control which further worsens the poverty situation.
We need to create solutions for this problem. We should arouse the awareness of the individuals for them to realize these aspects that explain why they cannot alleviate themselves from poverty. We have to organize them in finding solutions to the problem of poverty, and in reducing the country’s population growth. In doing so, we would likely mobilize them to act as one in pursuing the common goal, to achieve a better standard of living.
Target
After having laid down the possible goals and objectives, there would be a need to set the optimum target to implement these. We need to set up a holistic approach in meeting our goals and objectives, and set the expected time that we can finally see an achievement for these.
The 40% increase of poverty incidence in a matter of just three years in Tawi-Tawi is telling us that more can happen in a few years time. Taking all the considerations by hand, we can expect this province to perform better if we can face and give solutions to the problem. We would need a thorough study of the province, learn which aspect they can perform better in terms of their economic capabilities. By the year 2010, they can start acting on the problem of poverty, and by the year 2015, we should expect that their poverty incidence would decrease by at least 45%. This can be possible.
Policy and Program Measures
The problem of poverty cannot be separated from the issue of overpopulation for we know how the increasing growth of population exacerbates poverty. We can therefore launch programs to create awareness among the families to educate them that it would rather be immoral to produce children that they can no longer support even the basic needs of these children. They should realize that having smaller number of family would give them a better economic opportunity. They should also learn how to use the most effective methods in controlling pregnancy, and not just the abstinence method that their cultural norms dictate.
In the current trend of population growth, most of this is a result of the unmet need of the parents. Majority of the mothers with a lot of children would not agree to give those births but were just “victims” of the circumstances. These women have lesser power in the society of macho, hence usually gives them lesser option in times when their husbands would need them. This is especially true in the poor provinces like Tawi-Tawi. Empowering women could be a good cure in giving remedy to our birth rate.
Literacy and health are among the factors being considered in measuring the poverty level of a given place. The government must allocate more budgets for the education and health sectors to help them improve the situation of the citizens. Education is needed to give the youth the opportunity to create a better future for the nation, especially in making them productive citizens and not a burden.
If Tawi-Tawi registers one of the lowest rates of education, we must therefore put a remedy to this problem. Instead of focusing in infrastructure and modernizing the equipment of the military, the local government of Tawi-Tawi must allocate a bigger part of their fund to education. The poor people need better education more than better roads and bridges to create a better future among them.
Every year, the Philippines bring hundred thousands of the Filipinos to be among those millions of unemployed citizens. What is even more alarming is that even the professionals are not spared from unemployment. Some of them are even graduates of the best universities in the country. Majority of the people in Tawi-tawi are working in farm areas, or in some small industries; while the bigger number of them have seasonal work or not working at all.
The government must be creative enough in giving the citizens the opportunity to have income, or at least anything that could feed their families. A small entrepreneurship perhaps, or micro-finance, can be a good option to help them sustain a livelihood for their families. This kind of project would be most welcomed to small provinces like Tawi-Tawi. I believe that these jobless and low-income earners only need the opportunity to free themselves from the chain of poverty; they need something to start with, like a small capital from public or private corporations. Give them choices on how they can act as people struggling for a better living. But it must be sustainable for longer period of time.
One group cannot do this task alone. There must be a holistic approach where one cannot stand alone without the others. All the private and public officials must be tapped because poverty is the concern of everybody.
If we need to create development, let all the aspects of society show what development is. Let the people enrich their social awareness, have an economy which is based on equity, a political climate where people could expect better service from the public servants, a culture which would educate the populace in alleviating themselves from poverty, and an ecological environment that is well taken care of, and that which will not create devastating calamity to people.
If we can bring this kind of living to the people, we can then assess if development is really the best contraceptive. People need to be diverted from bringing more children to this world to making themselves as productive citizens of the world. The real essence of development might be achieved; one where less people are hungry and more people have better access to basic necessities, and where the environmental resources will not be maximized in order to feed the populace. A socially distributed wealth gives justice to everyone, a justice towards development.
posted by LiZt @ 9:42 AM
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