Dev’t gaps lead to ‘missing middle class’ — NEDA

Development gaps in the country are giving rise to a “missing middle class,” or those who have no access to basic services despite increases in income, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said.

In his keynote address at the 4th ASEAN Statistical Forum yesterday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA chief Ernesto Pernia said there is a need for a more timely data gathering to enable policymakers to make well-informed and evidencebased decisions to respond to challenges.

“In the Philippines, we face income inequality, unemployment insecurity, environmental degradation, and increasing disaster risks that have challenged us more and more – each problem seems to grow a limb – as we find solutions to eradicate them. An example of this is the emergence of the “missing middle class,” who lack access to basic services despite increases in income,” said Pernia.

He noted that because various development concerns are shared by countries in the ASEAN region, there must be a stronger collaboration and cooperation among countries.

“In this regard, the ASEAN has been taking great strides to achieve the 2030 Agenda, from the eradication of poverty, improving maternal health, and to promoting gender equality. The Philippines is proud to be a part of a community that puts a lot of premium on the well-being of its people,” Pernia said.

“However, with the increasing difficulty and complexity of today’s development concerns, the need for collaboration and cooperation among ASEAN member countries has never been clearer and more pressing,” he added.

He also urged the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS) to adopt the use of the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that the Philippines has started to use to enable the region to have comparable indices for tracking development goals.

“This index may be adopted by ASEAN as a whole. We cannot stress enough the importance of developing statistics in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines – East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) – to monitor to what extent development trickles down to the poorest provinces in our respective countries,” Pernia said. Last year’s MPI showed that among the four main dimensions of poverty, Filipinos were found to be most deprived in gaining access to education.

The MPI, which has a scale of zero to 100, provides information on which basic needs Filipinos have the least access to and complements incomebased measures of poverty.

These four dimensions are education; housing, water and sanitation; health and nutrition; and employment.

Specifically, these cover 13 indicators: school attendance, educational attainment, ownership of assets, access to toilet facility, access to source of water supply, security of tenure status of dwelling, access to housing materials, access to electricity, freedom from hunger, adequate food