Phl among 'bulk' contributors to East Asia Pacific urban poor

The Philippines is a top three country contributing to the bulk of urban poor population in East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region, according to the World Bank on Tuesday.

"Three countries account for the bulk of the region's urban poor: China, Indonesia, and the Philippines," World Bank lead urban specialist Judy Baker said.

A World Bank's report showed the EAP has the world's largest slum population estimated at 251.5 million people— with poor quality housing, limited access to basic services, and at risk of hazards such as flooding.

Given their large populations, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines have sizeable slum population, the report noted.

The Philippines has an urban slum population of 17 million. The number represents 6.8 percent of the region's 251.5 million urban poor.

China, given its size, has the largest slum population of 191.1 million followed by Indonesia with 29.2 million.

"The pervasiveness of substandard living conditions and slums highlights the level of deprivation and of inequality experienced by urban residents across the region," the report authored by Baker said.

The Philippines is home to an estimated 1.5 million informal settler families across the country, with nearly 40 percent or 600,000 families equivalent to nearly 3 million people residing in Metro Manila.

One out of four Metro Manila residents live informally, the report noted.

"For these people, the experience of poverty is deepened by the deprivations that accompany informal housing, including limited mobility, increased vulnerability to natural disasters, and inadequate access to infrastructure and services," the report said.

"Traditional poverty alleviation and slum upgrading programs have typically approached slums as a monolithic entity," the report added.

The World Bank report said that one reason for this is a lack of comprehensive and up-to-date data on the locations, characteristics, and risk exposure of slums, which becomes a barrier to proper planning and an impediment to addressing the needs of the urban poor.