Civil Society Citizens Participation in the drive for Anti Poverty Reduction through the National Anti Poverty Commission: Centennial Challenges and Changes!
Paul Richard Paraguya
Congress and Senate passed Republic Act No. 8425 in December 11, 1997 entitled “AN ACT INSTITUTIONALIZING THE SOCIAL REFORM AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAM, CREATING FOR THE PURPOSE THE NATIONAL ANTI-POVERTY COMMISSION, DEFINING ITS POWERS AND FUNCTIONS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES”. It is called briefly as the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act. It was enacted in order to alleviate poverty by empowering Filipino families to meet their needs by actively pursuing asset reform and redistribution of economic resources and institutionalizing the Social Reform Agenda (SRA). It created the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) which served as coordinating and advisory body.
The primary purpose is to reduce the level of poverty in the country. The poverty incidence in 1997 was 31 percent (2014 – 25.8%). The SRPA Act shall follow the following principles in addressing poverty:
1) Adopt an area-based, sectoral and focused intervention to poverty alleviation wherein every poor Filipino family shall be empowered to meet its minimum basic needs of health, food and nutrition, water and environmental sanitation, income security, shelter and decent housing, peace and order, education and functional literacy, participation in governance, and family care and psycho-social integrity;
(2) Actively pursue asset reform or redistribution of productive economic resources to the basic sectors including the adoption of a system of public spending which is targeted towards the poor;
(3) Institutionalize and enhance the Social Reform Agenda (SRA), which embodies the results of the series of consultations and summits on poverty alleviation;
(4) Adopt and operationalize the following principles and strategies as constituting the national framework integrating various structural reforms and anti-poverty initiatives.
The composition of NAPC ensures inclusive participation of major poverty stakeholders. It brings into the governance structure fourteen basic sectors. These are the:
1.Farmers,
2.Fisher folks,
3.Urban poor,
4.Cooperative,
5.Indigenous People,
6.Formal Labor and Migrant workers,
7.Women,
8.Children,
9.Youth,
10.Persons with Disability,
11.Victims of disaster,
12.Senior Citizens,
13.Workers in the Informal sector, and
14.Non-Government Organizations.
These sectors conduct their National Sectoral Assembly (NSA) every three years. It conducted its last NSA last January 2015. During the NSA, they review the poverty analysis, plan for the next three years, and elect twenty five representatives to sit in the Sector Council. The twenty five members of the council then elect their three nominees for the Sectoral Representative (SR) Position. The President of the Philippines selects from the three nominees and appoints him/her as member to the National Anti-Poverty Commission. The SR heads the Sector Council and sits in the Sectoral Representatives Council (SRC). The current elected and appointed individuals will serve for the next three years (from 2015 – 2017) until the next SRA.
CODE-NGO, through its representative, Paul Richard Paraguya, had been appointed by the President to head the NGO sector.
Reducing poverty in the next three years will be full of challenges and opportunities. There are three (3) relevant factors to consider: First is the Emerging Sustainable Development Goals. Second is the Presidential and Local Elections. Third is the Strategic Fit and Operational Sync.
Emerging Sustainable Development Goals
At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015. These have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
MDGs are the world’s time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions – income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights – the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
The world of nations have made significant moves along the MDG. It has prepared since 2011 what would be the next steps after the MDG. It had started consultations and fora to determine what would be important to the members of the United Nations that should be addressed post MDG. These consultations, fora, and meetings is now reflected in a document called “Zero Draft Outcome Document for the General Assembly Summit to adopt Post 2015 Agenda”. The seventeen new indicators of focus is now unfolding dubbed as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), it is intended to govern all member nations from 2015 to 2030.
Once adopted in the UN Summit and General Assembly in September 2015, will it make a difference in our social reform and poverty reduction in the country in the next three years?
Presidential and Local Elections
The next presidential elections in the Philippines is scheduled on Monday, May 9, 2016. Incumbent President Benigno Aquino III is barred from seeking re-election, pursuant to the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Therefore, this election will determine the 16th President of the Philippines. The position of president and vice president are elected separately, and the winning candidates may come from different political parties.
This will be the 16th presidential elections in the Philippines since 1935, and the sixth sextennial presidential elections since 1986. This will be a part of the 2016 general elections where elections to the Senate, House of Representatives and local government, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao shall be held.
The current elected and appointed members of the sector councils and the SRC will traverse through this 2016 elections. One of the biggest challenges is for the fourteen sectors to participate in the drafting of the new and upcoming Philippine Development Plan (PDP). The formulation of the new plan had started, through National Government Agencies led by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA). These will intensify by January 2016. It will be finalized once the new president is elected in May 2016. The new PDP will then have the new president’s platform of development. The president will then present it during his first State of the Nation Address in July 2016.
We strongly pray that inclusive growth of the country will start from the basic sectors participation in the crafting of the new PDP.
Strategic Fit and Operational Sync
The National Anti-Poverty Commission en banc still has to meet during this term of President Benigno Aquino. There are many poverty reduction initiatives planned, budgeted, and implemented by in the different national government agencies. The fourteen basic sectors also had contributed to this endeavor. New approaches and analysis on poverty are emerging. Four (4) major resolves to ensure strategic fit and induce synchronization in the whole poverty reduction operation:
Basic Sector (BS) Participation in the crafting, monitoring, and evaluation of PDP
The business as usual in formulation, monitoring, and evaluation of PDP is through the national government agencies and regional development councils. The question is did the fourteen basic sectors form part and parcel of this business as usual process? As a sector, the fourteen basic sectors had been absent in the business as usual. There may be participations but they had not been there as a recognized sector or unit of government that is tasked to address poverty reduction and social reform in the country. BS should have their own process of crafting, monitoring, and evaluating their own poverty plans and make this automatically part of the PDP.
GOCC, Regional Development Council, and Local Special Bodies BS Inclusion
The bodies that are relevant in coming up with sustainable economic growth in the country are the private sector, national government agencies, regional development councils and all the local special bodies. There are government owned and controlled corporations (GOCC). These corporations are gaining income (some are losing). It is important for the basic sectors as basic sectors to be represented in these bodies. Of special mention are the following processes:
* BS to be present in all national government agencies operations, that is creation of operational councils where they should be members to join in the planning, budgeting and evaluation
* BS should be given automatic representations in all GOCC
* BS should be given autonomic membership in all Regional Development Councils and all other councils and local special bodies
* BS should be part of all overseas development assistance operations, this includes debt servicing and loans.
The primary aim is to let the BS mainstream their analysis and plans in relation to poverty reduction and social reform.
Autonomy and Peace
The leadership of the President to address peace process with the insurgents and peace stakeholders had been remarkable. Considering, on the other hand, that it needs more than a term of the president to resolve armed conflicts, it is then important to let the BS be involved in solving the root cause of the rebellion. It is important to note that autonomy and decentralization can play a vital role in addressing the conflict and promoting equitable growth and development.
NAPC internal reform
NAPC shall endeavor to energize and synchronize all planning, budgeting, implementation, and M&E, including retrofitting all units within NAPC.
It is Just In Time (JIT) for all of us to prepare for a dynamic, fruitful, and evidence-based participatory governance in our country to significantly and sustainably prepare for our next chapter, to our journey and struggle for a Philippine Change and Revolution!
Paul Richard Paraguya is the newly-appointed NAPC Basic Sector Representative for NGOs. He is the Project Manager of CODE-NGO’s Citizens Monitoring of LGU Performance (CML) Project supported by the Delegation of the European Union in the Philippines.
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