The overarching goal of development efforts is the improvement in the quality of
life of the people. The Philippines is no exception. Being one of the nations who
participated in the Millenium Summit in September 2000, it has committed to achieve 48
targets including eradication of poverty. In addition to international commitments, the
Philippines has been working toward poverty reduction for decades. It has even included
targets on human development and poverty reduction in its medium-term development
plans.
The growing consensus is towards a comprehensive approach to poverty
reduction. Rapid and sustained economic growth is needed to improve the quality of life
of the population; at the same time targeted interventions aimed at reducing poverty are
needed to reach the very poor and marginalized sectors of the economy.
With poverty reduction as main goal of the government, the demand for poverty
statistics has become more important. Several poverty monitoring systems are being
conducted both at the national and community level providing income and non-income
based measures of poverty. These have become the basis for social and economic
development plans and programs of national and local governments.
The objectives of this paper are to examine the poverty situation in the Philippines
and to assess the country’s poverty reduction strategy and policy. In addition, it aims to
analyze the current state of poverty monitoring covering national and community levels.