Foreword | Acknowledgments | About Us

Official poverty statistics in the Philippines are generated by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) with geographic disaggregation from the national up to the provincial level. In addition to the official statistics, there are several ongoing efforts to generate other poverty indicators' with disaggregation below the provincial level. The wealth of poverty statistics at the subnational level offers an opportunity for an integrated poverty mapping system that shows the various dimensions of poverty and allows users of poverty statistics a micro perspective on the poverty situation in the Philippines. While several efforts have been exerted in the past to produce poverty maps, sustainability and institutionalization have not been achieved. In recognition of the need to regularly provide planners and decision makers with useful tools for the formulation of poverty reduction strategies, the NSCB has initiated efforts to produce poverty maps for all the provinces of the country. 

The Minimum Basic Needs framework with its three major concerns of survival, enabling and security, was used as basis for selecting the measures of poverty because this was deemed to contain indicators that are already being measured and collected at the municipal level, the framework having been in place for several years now. Thus, indexes were computed out of the indicators for the components of the three major concerns of SURVIVAL, SECURITY and ENABLING.

The municipal indexes were plotted on the maps using GIS tools and technology. Maps were made for the individual indicators, the composite indexes and the over-all poverty index for the six provinces of the region.

The poverty maps serve as very useful tools to local government units as well as local chief executives particularly in identifying priority areas that should benefit from anti-poverty programs and interventions. The poverty maps will be generated in all the provinces of Bicol region to assess and address the weaknesses of its municipalities in terms of improving the quality of lives of its citizens.

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