Neda eyes tweak in PDP 2017-2022 to include ‘social protection floor’
THE national government is looking at institutionalizing a “social protection floor” through the updated Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 20172022, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
In a news statement issued on Friday, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said this is part of the reforms to be pushed under the updated PDP which will be launched in February.
Chua said these reforms will help make up for the human development losses caused by the pandemic and the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
“We will soon be sharing with you the Updated Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, which would show our priorities for the next two years, including enhancing the implementation of the Universal Health Care Act, improving the quality of instruction in education, upskilling the work force, and institutionalizing the Social Protection Floor,” Chua said.
“The Plan will also include other reforms and strategies we will undertake to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and help every Filipino achieve the long- term vision of a Matatag, Maginhawa, Panatag na Buhay by 2040,” he added.
Neda earlier explained that a SP Floor is a minimum set of SP programs, which includes several interventions such as cash transfers, social insurance, safety nets, and labor market interventions, among others.
Neda Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon told Businessmirror that an SP floor guarantees access to essential health care and maternity care, among others for vulnerable persons.
She earlier said that institutionalizing a social protection floor will help address gaps in social protection nationwide.
Edillon said that while the country had a legislated Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program and the pension systems through the Social Security Systems and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) are working, they may not be enough.
She added that the SP floor can be an effective way to respond to the needs of vulnerable persons during pandemics and natural calamities like typhoons.
“[Social protection is] still not well-defined for other groups. For instance, during the lockdown, seniors were not allowed outside their homes; what if they didn’t have any other adults or no seniors living with them? The same goes for pregnant women,” Edillon said.
Earlier, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; and Guy Ryder, director-general of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said social protection floors are affordable.
The financing gap for all developing countries—the difference between what these countries already invest in social protection and what a full social protection f loor, including health, would cost—is about $1.191 billion in the current year, including the impact of Covid-19.
But they said the gap for the lowincome countries is only some $78 billion, a negligible amount compared to the GDP of the industrialized countries. And yet, the authors said, the total official development assistance for social protection amounts to only 0.0047 percent of the gross national income (GNI) of donor countries.
“We need to ensure that they will have the means to meet the basic needs of their families to protect their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, and to build capabilities for realizing their potentials,” Chua said.
“Together, we will chart a path towards a change that enables a strong economy, while ensuring ecological integrity and social development,” he added.
Based on the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Report (HDR) 2020, the Philippines saw its Human Development Index (HDI) value increase to 0.718, based on 2019 data.
This placed the country in the high human development category—positioning it at 107 out of 189 countries and territories. The rank is shared with Bolivia and Indonesia.
However, UNDP said the Philippines 2019 HDI is below the average of 0.753 for countries in the high human development group and below the average of 0.747 for countries in East Asia and the Pacific.
From East Asia and the Pacific, Philippines is compared with Indonesia and Thailand, which have HDIS ranked 107 and 79, respectively.
Between 1990 and 2019, UNDP said, the Philippines’s HDI value increased to 0.718 from 0.593, an increase of 21.1 percent.
Between 1990 and 2019, Philippines’ life expectancy at birth increased by 4.9 years, mean years of schooling increased by 2.8 years and expected years of schooling increased by 2.4 years. Philippines’s GNI per capita increased by about 135.2 percent between 1990 and 2019.