With the pandemic still going on, it will be more challenging to reduce poverty at

this time.
The pandemic has taken its toll on the economy and it will take several years
before we will be able to go back to pre-pandemic growth path. It will take
sustained economic growth to raise mean incomes. Furthermore, redistributive
policies are necessary to ensure that the poor are given opportunities to
participate in the economic growth. This includes opportunities in education,
proven to be an important pathway out of poverty. Equitable access to health
care services is also critical to address population management issues. In addition,
given how prone we are to natural and man-made shocks, agricultural insurance,
health insurance and other risk management tools are necessary to help the
vulnerable to fall into poverty or the poor into greater poverty, increasing
transient poverty. The lack of data on chronic and transient poor prevents us from
understanding better the dynamics of poverty. With adequate data, differentiated
policies and programs can be designed to better address the needs of the chronic
and transient poor, rather than treating them homogeneously.

WAYS ON HOW TO REDUCE POVERTY

1. Family Planning
Family planning plays a pivotal role in population growth,
poverty reduction, and human development. Providing family
planning services is also highly cost-effective, making it a logical
starting point for poverty reduction. For a relatively modest
investment, family planning can enhance maternal and child health,
and even save women’s lives.
Expanding access to family planning can also lead to smaller
families and slower population growth. Families, communities, and
countries in the developing world are better able to meet the
educational, health, and employment needs of young people when
the population is growing at a moderate pace.
2. Create or Produce Job Opportunities
Unemployment and underemployment lies at the core of
poverty. For the poor, labor is often the only asset they can use
to improve their well-being. Hence the creation of productive
employment opportunities is essential for achieving poverty
reduction and sustainable economic and social development. It
is crucial to provide decent jobs that both secure income and
empowerment for the poor, especially women and younger
people.
Given the importance of employment for poverty
reduction, job-creation should occupy a central place in national
poverty reduction strategies. Many employment strategies are
often related to agricultural and rural development and include
using labor-intensive agricultural technologies; developing
small and medium-size enterprises, and promoting micro
projects in rural areas. Many strategies promote self-
employment, non-farm employment in rural areas, targeted
employment interventions, microfinance and credit as means of
employment generation, skill formation and training.

3. Access to education
Education is one of the major pathways out of poverty. Those
with higher education attainment tend to land better-paying
jobs. A worker who is a college graduate tends to earn twice
than of a high school graduate and 2.5 times that of an
elementary graduate. An employed worker with a doctoral
degree earns double that of a college graduate. However, the
poor tend to have lower access to opportunities in education,
and this inequity is more pronounced in the secondary and
tertiary levels. The lower income groups have lower
school attendance rate for all levels of education. More
recently, the emphasis has been on increasing opportunities
 for the poor, particularly in the area of education, by providing
universal access to tertiary education. The universal access
to quality tertiary education act aims to make higher education
more accessible to students by
waiving tuition expenses and other school fees from all public
higher education institutions operated by the government.
Education is often referred to as the great equalizer: It
can open the door to jobs, resources, and skills that help
a person not only survive, but thrive. This is why access
to quality education is a globally-recognized solution to
poverty. Education will help end poverty because, with
basic education, parents learn more about how to care for
themselves and their families, which in turn leads their
children towards healthier lifestyles.

4. Expand access to healthcare

Poverty is a major cause of ill health and a barrier to
accessing health care when needed. This relationship is
financial: the poor cannot afford to purchase those things
that are needed for good health, including sufficient
quantities of quality food and health care. But, the
relationship is also related to other factors related to
poverty, such as lack of information on appropriate health-
promoting practices or lack of voice needed to make social
services work for them. The Universal Health Care Act (Republic
Act 11223) aims to provide access to quality and affordable health
care for all Filipinos, by automatically enrolling everyone into the
National Health Insurance Program (NHIP).

5. Support fair renumeration of employees (Increase minimum

wage)
6. Good Governance
Good governance is essential to combating poverty.
Governance is about politics, or the way in which citizens and
governments relate to each other. Good governance requires
state capability, responsiveness, and accountability. It means
making politics work for the poor. Prosperity and the quality of a
country’s institutions typically go hand in hand. Governments with
well-run, accountable institutions are better able to deliver public
goods and support an environment that can generate jobs and
growth. 

Promote transparency and accountability.

Openness about the use of public resources builds trust between
citizens and their governments. It can make public spending more
targeted and effective. This is why we work with governments to
make their budgets and the way resources are used more
transparent. This also reduces fraud and corruption, and makes
citizen voices heard.