DATA FOR EXPANDED POVERTY INDEX WILL COME FROM CBMS

TO better track the country’s antipoverty efforts, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will be using the Community-based Monitoring System (CBMS) to provide data for the multidimensional poverty index.

National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told the Businessmirror that the PSA will spend P85 million to pilot the CBMS this year. The pilot will cover select cities and municipalities nationwide.

Mapa said the PSA is also eyeing to allocate P2.5 billion to cover the CBMS operations in all 4th- to 6thclass cities/municipalities next year.

“The CBMS will capture more nonincome indicators of poverty such as health, nutrition, water, sanitation, shelter, education, security and participation, among others,” Mapa told this newspaper.

This, Mapa said, is one of the reasons for using the CBMS. Some of the ground level data needed to track non-income poverty indicators cannot be captured by just the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES).

Currently, the country has MPI data for 2016 and 2017 based on existing surveys. The data for the MPI is derived from a combination of the FIES and the Labor Force Survey (LFS) and the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS)-LFS.

The CBMS, which was passed into law in 2019, will cater to the data support for the MPI, along with other Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, at lower levels of disaggregation so that no one will be left behind.

“CBMS data will be available at the city/municipality levels and will be useful to the LGU executives in monitoring poverty incidence in all dimensions and planning necessary intervention,” Mapa told the Businessmirror.

Last week, Mapa spoke at the 52nd Session of the UN Statistical Commission on Multidimensional Poverty Indices.

Mapa said the country’s MPI, particularly the methodology, is being refined to include other relevant indicators. It is also taking into consideration the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

These efforts, he said, aim to take advantage of the expertise of the members of the Technical Committee on Poverty Statistics to ensure the methodology is vetted and rigorously crafted.

Mapa said this will also enable the creation of appropriate poverty-related policies and programs, in line with the theme of the 2021 UNSC: Better Data, Better Lives.

The MPI aims to provide relevant information to policymakers and programs implementers, with the view to achieving the SDG target 1.2 —to reduce by half the proportion of women, men, and children living in poverty in all its dimensions, according to national definitions, by 2030.