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You may proceed with Activity 7 provided that you would consider the following:

*very broad topic. please be specific po. might as well focus on one problem that cause poverty.. (brainstorm with the "4 ways wherein programs help reduce poverty and choose one, connect that in your petition about poverty if possible.)

*missing individual task

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4 Ways Wherein Programs Help Reduce Poverty

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4 Ways Wherein Programs Help Reduce Poverty

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1. Greater Access to Education: The Philippines signed the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act in 2017 to encourage more people to enroll in higher education and to address the issue of education inequality. The government subsidizes the cost of tuition for State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) students as well as other expenses such as school supplies. Private institutions also have access to a tuition subsidy. The Act aims to decrease the number of dropouts in higher education and promote the idea that higher education is available to all.

2. Greater Access to Healthcare: In an effort to improve the healthcare system, President Duterte signed the Universal Healthcare Act in February 2019. The UHC Act provides access to the full spectrum of healthcare by enrolling citizens in the National Insurance Program and granting health coverage to all. While healthcare is not completely free, those in poverty will have more access to health services. To ensure the effectiveness of healthcare, the Act will form the Health Technology and Assessment Council (HTAC). The Council will consist of health experts who will assess health developments, such as technology, vaccines, and other advancements. Additionally, the Philippines will allocate more funds to PhilHealth, which will improve the quality of service and lower the cost of medicine.

3. Family Aid: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in 2007. The 4Ps is is a conditional cash transfer program for impoverished households. The program gives households grants so long as they meet certain requirements, including keeping the children in school, having regular health check-ups, and having parents or guardians attend Family Development Sessions. The 4Ps program benefits about 20 million Filipinos, 9 million of whom are children. Therefore, the program reaches about 20% of the population with the goal of greater poverty reduction.

4. Economic Improvement: With the goal of reducing poverty by strengthening economics, President Duterte signed the Rice Tariffication Law in February 2019, amending the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996. The Law places a 35% tariff on imported rice with the goal of prioritizing local rice production for the population by stabilizing the supply. The tariff also aims to benefit local farmers by creating a more efficient and competitive agricultural system.

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The Philippines has a fairly high poverty rate with more than 16% of the population living below the poverty line. Because of the many people reliant on agriculture for income and inequality in wealth distribution, about 17.6 million Filipinos struggle to afford basic necessities. From 2015 to 2020, the rate of poverty declined from 21.6% to 16.6%. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte aims to reduce the rate of poverty to 14% by 2022. Through its strategy, AmBisyon 2040, the Philippine government plans to eradicate extreme poverty by 2040. Furthermore, the government has implemented various programs and reforms to reduce poverty by targeting education, healthcare, and the overall economy.

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Is the Philippines' demographic profile at stake?

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PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF PH

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PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF PH

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It has been found that ever since the global COVID-19 striked, the Philippines had also struggled in attaining a good source of income. Results showed that 90% were earning less than PHP 10,000 a month, and of these, 63% were earning less than PHP 6,000 a month. Thus, these data were gathered shortly before the pandemic, having 18,000 respondents from different parts of the country who experienced having low income in their household. Under the UNDP-ZEP’s survey, Sarangani was the chartbuster with 80% of earning less than PHP 6,000 a month.

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Poverty in Philippines, High for Asia, Falls as Economy Strengthens

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Poverty in Philippines, High for Asia, Falls as Economy Strengthens

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Poverty in the Philippines, a chronic development issue that makes the country an outlier in Asia, is declining because of economic strength followed by job creation.

The archipelago’s official poverty rate dropped to 21% in the first half of last year from 27.6% in the first half of 2015, President Rodrigo Duterte said in his July 22 State of the Nation Address.

Economic growth of 6% plus since 2012 has helped to create jobs, especially in Philippine cities such as the capital Manila, economists who follow the country say.

“Twenty-seven percent is actually pretty high by kind of Asian standards, so I think that progress is attributable to the rapid economic growth that’s happened in the Philippines since 2012,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at the market research firm IHS Markit.

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Poverty in the Philippines, a chronic development issue that makes the country an outlier in Asia, is declining because of economic strength followed by job creation.

The archipelago's official poverty rate dropped to 21% in the first half of last year from 27.6% in the first half of 2015, President Rodrigo Duterte said in his July 22 State of the Nation Address.

Economic growth of 6% plus since 2012 has helped to create jobs, especially in Philippine cities such as the capital Manila, economists who follow the country say.

"Twenty-seven percent is actually pretty high by kind of Asian standards, so I think that progress is attributable to the rapid economic growth that's happened in the Philippines since 2012," said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at the market research firm IHS Markit.
Asian outlier
Poverty around Asia had declined from 47.3% in 1990 to 16.1% in 2013, according to World Bank data. Factory jobs, often driven by domestic export manufacturing industries, have fueled much of the boom, especially in China.

Poverty lingered in the Philippines largely for lack of rural jobs, economists believe. Rudimentary farming and fishing anchor the way of life on many of the country's 7,100 islands. Foreign manufacturers often bypass the Philippines because of its remote location, compared to continental Asia, and relative lack of infrastructure that factory operators need to ship goods.

But the country hit a fast-growth stride in 2012 with a pickup in manufacturing and services. After growing just 3.7% in 2011, the GDP that now stands at $331 billion has expanded at between 6.1% and 7.1% per year.
More jobs
Urban jobs are getting easier to find as multinationals locate call centers in the Philippines, taking advantage of cheap labor and English-language proficiency.

A $169 billion, 5-year program to renew public infrastructure is creating construction jobs while giving factory investors new reason to consider siting in the country. Most new jobs now are in construction, with some in manufacturing, said Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moody's Sovereign Risk Group in Singapore.

Underemployment, he added, has "improved quite a bit," de Guzman said.

"Jobs are being created (and in) the jobs that do exist, I think there's more work to do, so to speak," de Guzman said. "I guess less underemployment if you will, and again this is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia."

Philippine unemployment edged down just 0.1 percentage point to 5.2% in January 2019 compared to a year earlier, but underemployment fell from 18% to 15.6% over that period, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Tax reform
Duterte is also advancing tax reforms that he expects to lower poverty to 14% of the 105 million population by 2022.

Tax revenue collected under these reforms will allow the government to spend more on health, education and other social services aimed at making people more prosperous, the Department of Finance said in a statement last year.

The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN), which Duterte signed into law in 2017, spells out changes in the tax code.

"Actually, one of the key elements there is the first tax laws that was passed, we call it the TRAIN one," said Ramon Casiple, executive director or the advocacy group Institute for Political and Electoral Reform in Metro Manila.
Rural income
Longer-term poverty relief will come down to creation of rural jobs such as "specialized" or "advanced" agriculture, Biswas said. The 21% poverty rate is "still high," he said. Government agencies and private firms over the past few years have already introduced hybrid seeds and new technology to make farming more self-sufficient, domestic news outlet BusinessWorld reported last year.

Natural disasters such as seasonal typhoons and a 50-year conflict between Muslims and the military in the south further hobble poverty relief, some analysts believe. Local government corruption also stops aid from reaching some of the poor, they suggest.

"Both growth and, in turn, poverty reduction seem to be hindered by several factors, including unequal wealth distribution both in terms of social groups and geographic distribution...corruption as well as natural disasters and ongoing conflicts, with the latter triggering a series of negative collateral effects," said Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia-specialized associate researcher at the Taiwan Center for International Strategic Studies.

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Poverty in Philippines, High for Asia, Falls as Economy Strengthens

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Poverty in the Philippines, a chronic development issue that makes the country an outlier in Asia, is declining because of economic strength followed by job creation. The archipelago's official poverty rate dropped to 21% in the first half of last year from 27.6% in the first half of 2015, President Rodrigo Duterte said in his July 22 State of the Nation Address.

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The Philippines' poverty and unemployment rates will remain elevated even after the President steps down from office, as the pandemic scars the labor market.

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Pandemic scars: More Filipinos to remain poor, unemployed even by 2022

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Pandemic scars: More Filipinos to remain poor, unemployed even by 2022

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Philippine state economists see unemployment staying elevated and more people remaining below the poverty line until 2022, as the coronavirus pandemic leaves scars on the economy.

The country's poverty rate is projected to average between 15.5% and 17.5% in 2021, likely near the 16.6% posted in 2018, officials of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Thursday, February 4, during the launch of the updated Philippine Development Plan (PDP).

Before the pandemic, the government's economic team aimed to reduce poverty to 14% of the population by 2022. The target was for the Philippines to be classified as a middle-income country.