AS much as 80 percent of poor Filipinos live in the rural areas, said a report released by state-owned think tank Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS).
This was based on the analysis of the 2003 and 2006 rounds of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) where 12,500 households were surveyed to determine poverty reduction at the household level undertaken by PIDS Supervising Research Specialist Danileen Parel.
She said poverty is highly concentrated in rural areas where level and quality of education and infrastructure are very poor.
Parel’s data showed that the National Capital Region (NCR) has the least number of poor households, which is 0.88 percent in 2003 and 1.18 percent in 2006. She said education and infrastructure services in an area are both closely associated with its poverty situation.
In terms of infrastructure, access to electricity among poor households is only 52.73 percent in 2006, while access to potable piped water is 66.37 percent in the same year. It is miniscule compared to 80 percent of the nonpoor households who have access to electricity and piped water.
Around 50 percent of the heads of poor household have no formal education, while almost 40 percent of them finished primary education. Only less than 0.5 percent of the poor have earned a bachelor’s degree.
Showing the linkage of poverty to lack of infrastructure services and basic education, Parel stressed that poor communities, especially in rural areas, must be provided with basic education and infrastructure services so that poverty reduction could be better achieved.
Rural-urban linkages should be strengthened to narrow the large gap between the rural and urban areas. Such linkages would enable rural households to take advantage of urban development like higher access to public goods, and more accessibility to human and physical capital and infrastructure.
Parel suggested more investments in areas where poverty is high. It can be through improving infrastructure services and providing basic education to poor communities.
