Sharp cut in poverty levels ‘doable’, says Pernia

Sustained economic growth of at least 7 percent yearly coupled with the full implementation of the Reproductive Health Law would allow a sharp cut in poverty incidence to 13-15 percent by 2022, according to the country’s chief economist.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told reporters last week that following the reduction in poverty incidence to 21.6 percent in 2015, achieving a much lower rate six years from now was “doable.”

Initially, the Duterte administration wanted its 10-point socioeconomic agenda to slash poverty incidence to 17 percent in 2022 from the previous estimate of 26 percent at present.

For Pernia, who is also the Director General of state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority, robust economic expansion while tempering population growth will facilitate faster poverty reduction.

“High economic growth generating a lot of jobs should also be complemented by the full implementation of the RH Law, because if we enable poor couples or households to achieve their desired family size—which is always fewer or smaller than the actual—then it will already, by itself, reduce poverty,” the Neda chief said.

Pernia also noted the “interactive” effects of full RH Law implementation.

“For example, women who are unburdened of too many pregnancies can be engaged in training or retraining programs, or continue in education and they can become productive members of the labor force. So instead of just staying at home and taking care of children, they’ll be able to join the labor market,” he explained.

“But even without talking about interactive or feedback effect from population to the participation of women in the labor force, just enabling them to achieve a smaller number of children that they want will already reduce poverty,” he added.

Bringing down the poverty incidence to 13-15 percent by 2022 will entail about a 1.5-percentage point reduction per year, which Pernia said may be achieved by letting the poorest 20 percent of women or mothers achieve their desired family size.

“If we add the economic effect of having more jobs available to poor families, then the target of 1.5-percentage point a year reduction in poverty incidence is very achievable, especially if it’s a combination of fast economic growth and the demographic impact of the RH Law,” the Neda chief said.

Pernia is hopeful that the RH Law could be fully implemented starting next year or in 2018, such that by 2022, the population could be smaller by three to five million.