Gov’t aims to slash poverty rate by 20%

THROUGH an accelerated antipoverty drive, the government aims to bring down the poverty incidence in the country by 18 to 20 percent by 2016.

Government agencies concerned set the wheels in motion when they recently launched the Accelerated and Sustainable Anti-Poverty Program (Asapp) which aims to significantly reduce the number of the country’s poor.

Poverty incidence is defined as the proportion of families or individuals whose annual per capita income fall below the annual per capita poverty threshold.

Asapp is spearheaded by the National Economic and Development Authority’s (Neda) Social Development Committee and the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster, which is headed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, Secretary Rene Almendras and Neda Director General Arsenio Balisacan led in the introduction of the program in Cebu.

Soliman said the government’s response to poverty was seen through the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster framework, which involves expanding people’s choices and allowing them to access these choices to ensure inclusive growth.

The government aims to achieve this by creating employment opportunities in cities and municipalities with the potential to grow economically but which are constrained by having a population with limited skills, limited expansion opportunities for businesses and huge inmigration. This will include self-employment for the poor.

Soliman said the government was working closely with the private sector and local governments to make the program operational, specifically in providing business and job opportunities to target households.

“All of these are realized through employment and livelihood, education, health and asset reform, or the equitable distribution of resources, housing and food security,” she said.

In Cebu, the program will be initially implemented in Sta. Fe, Tuburan and Dalaguete.

Asapp was also launched in the provinces of Pangasinan, Camarines Sur, Negros Occidental, Leyte, Davao del Sur and Sulu. It will also be implemented in Quezon, Iloilo and Zamboanga del Sur.

“These steps are meant to bring out the human in us so that we can create a society that cares for one another, where development is a process that protects and promotes equal opportunities, empowerment of the people, good governance, equity and restorative justice in order to transform society,” Soliman said.