Poverty Maps for the Pilot Provinces - Laguna and Albay

Sample Poverty Maps

• Laguna
• Albay

The NSCB produced poverty maps for the provinces of Laguna and Albay in 2002 as part of the Poverty Mapping Study under the NSCB Project on Re-engineering the Government Statistical Services – Phase II.

The poverty mapping methodology developed by the NSCB is distinct from those used in the poverty mapping activities being undertaken by other agencies. For the two pilot provinces, municipal-level data for the Minimum Basic Needs indicators covering the three major concerns of survival, security, and enabling were collected from the Provincial Planning and Development Offices (PPDOs). Data submitted were carefully assessed and validated to check the data quality in terms of consistency and presence of outliers/extreme values. Municipal indexes were computed and plotted on the maps using a Geographic Information System software. Maps were made for the individual indicators; the component indexes; and the composite poverty indexes for Laguna and Albay.

Five intervals were used in the maps to reflect the situation of the municipalities. Two intervals with ranges 0-49 % and 50-99% represented the performance of the municipalities whose conditions were better than the provincial values. The 100-149% range included the municipalities with performance no better than or slightly poorer than the provincial condition. Similarly, the ranges 150-199 % and 200-699% indicated poorer performance of the municipalities. The lower values were represented by darker shades of green and the higher values were presented by lighter shades, thus a darker shade of green portrayed a better situation than the lighter shades of green. The figure below illustrates the map of the peace and order situation in Albay in 2000. The municipalities with better peace and order relative to the whole province were shaded with dark green, whereas those with poorer peace and order were represented with light green.

Provincial Index = 100

Peace and Order (Composite Index) of Albay

Users’ fora have been conducted to present to the users the poverty mapping efforts by the NSCB. The presentation included the rationale, derivation of poverty maps, methodology used, uses of the maps, and their limitations. Poverty maps for the provinces of Albay and Laguna were presented in the cities of Tacloban, Baguio, and Davao in 2002. On the other hand, Users’ Fora for the National Capital Region (NCR) and Region V were also conducted in 2002.