Poverty as seen in the slum areas; Informal settlers; street vendors; construction

workers, pedicab drivers; out of school youth

Group Members:

Atienza, Luis Miguel

Botones, Aylmer Alexander

De Jesus, Kobe

Magsipoc, Joyce

Nabaunag, Francis

Tabas, Ajay

Vargas, Gian

I. Introduction

Poverty is a rampant issue in our country nowadays. Wherever you go you can see
signs of poverty, especially on squatter areas where you can see informal settlers who
provide their own illegal housing. Our country is also overpopulated, which means there
are less work for the one who needs it, resulting into people trying to earn money in
their own ways such as being a street vendor and pedicab driver. Poverty also causes
out of school youths, because of lacking income, some students tend to find work rather
than going to school which can also cause badly because uneducated people would
also add to the problems that our country is currently facing right now because it could
also result to poverty, acting like a cycle where in poverty causes youth to work rather
than learning which probably results to poverty again. In these times we need more
educated people, to fight and change all the bad things and problems that our country is
currently facing. Lacking work here in our country also causes our fellow citizens to
migrate and start another life in other countries, where in they believe that their lives are
going to be better because of the chances and promising benefits that other countries
can give. Poverty is mainly caused by bad governance, low economic growth and
increasing population rates, solving these problems can help our country fight against
poverty.

II. Social Analysis

Economical Aspect

A society's development has both a cause and an effect on how well-nourished it is. An
approach to the decisions made by underprivileged rural households regarding food
acquisition and nurturing behaviour has been developed recently as a result of research
based on the new economic theory of household production. Because of inequality,
which stifles investment and depletes social and human capital, people living in poverty
must contend with conflicts and disorder. Economic growth has not resulted in a
decrease in poverty in recent years. Even though some nations have recently
experienced modest economic growth, the rate of poverty reduction has been slow.
Because inequality is still high, growth's beneficial effects on reducing poverty have
been lessened. As a result, budget protection and resource mobilization are needed for
social sector and poverty reduction programs.

The government owns the land that informal settlers and illegal immigrants now occupy;
they are also to blame for the population's rise into poverty as a result of economic
growth, corruption, a lack of employment, and unfulfilled financial programs/services.
People with higher social/financial status have received and continue to receive more
government wealth and welfare. Even by today's standards, people on the verge of
poverty and those who are currently in that situation are still required to pay taxes on
the same level as those in the upper classes, despite the fact that they are unable to
grow their financial wealth due to society's inequitable tax distribution among the various
classes. The deprivation that impoverished people in the Third World face is a form of
socially constructed scarcity brought on by the economic development process.
Scarcity, as experienced by the poor in the so-called "poverty sector," is created outside
of this sector, within a web of connections that extends across larger society on a
technical, social, ecological, cultural, political, and academic level. Each relation in the
nexus creates a site where scarcity is created through the interaction of discursive and
nondiscursive practices. The dominant discourse on development is a barrier to ending
poverty because it disempowers the poor and misleads people with good intentions by
encouraging scarcity and concealing how those mechanisms work.

People who are struggling with financial wealth are constantly cautious when it comes
to managing their goods and commodities, especially since the government offers little
assistance to those who are poor. Those in poverty are currently struggling to earn
minimum wages to bring home to their families and barely provide them with basic
necessities such as food, water, and electricity. Economic growth in the lower classes is
limited, so workers in these classes are forced to do hard manual labour just to make
ends meet.

In order to use social capital as an analytical construct, a change in perspective is

analyzing anti-poverty strategies from an individual to a community's perspective. Social
capital is a communal asset, not an individual's possession. People can therefore
contribute to it and use it, but they cannot own it. Social capital is particularly crucial in
ensuring those aspects of personal welfare that the individual alone can rarely provide
because it is a "common good." Evidence has accumulated over the past ten years
demonstrating the importance of social connections and civic engagement for family
well-being, even in underdeveloped areas. Communities that are more prosperous do
have more resources, both financial and human. They have stronger public institutions,
like their schools. It might be more efficient because these other resources build upon
their social capital. The neighbours of low-income residents, for instance, may be
friends, but they are unable to connect them with high-paying employers or give them
referrals. Thus, those who belong in low status communities are forced to resort in high
labour-low capital, while those who belong in flourished communities are given a much
higher capital with almost the same level of labour.

Those who receive high privileges benefit from the economic structure even when they
have enough/receive privileges which affects the poor because they receive nothing or
even little amount of help. Although ecological processes and healthy environments are
a part of all human societies, rural poor people rely significantly more on natural capital
and ecosystems that provide basic necessities than the rest of the population. When
other sources of income are insufficient, poor people turn to natural resources as their
main source of income. These strategies, though, might fall short of realizing the full
potential of natural resources (goods and services) as wealth-generating assets for the
poor because they might not fully take into account the connections between resource
management and poverty reduction.

Because of the difficulty in supplying the communities’ needs, especially for the poor, it
results to pressure on land, and exploits the environment and soil and deforestation.
Due to lack of education, reminders and maintenance, many people living in poverty
work on the land but do not have access to training on how to protect the environment
which also causes pollution, biodiversity. The structure of the global economic order has
the potential to exacerbate or alleviate poverty. Wealthy countries dominate
organizations like the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. As a result of
embedded practices that frequently disadvantage developing countries, they have
attracted attention. Certain conditions, for example, must be met before the World Bank
will lend money to a low-income country. These are referred to as conditions. Policy
changes such as privatizing government-run utilities such as electricity, water, and
sewage could be among them. It has been demonstrated time and again that imposing
such requirements, or structural adjustments as the World Bank calls them, causes
more harm than good.

Social Aspect

Out of school youth, informal settlers, pedicab drivers and street vendors relate to each
other because they all have one thing in common which is they are the ones who
experience poverty here in our country. Being imprisoned with their status in life, the
government should help them to change their ways and try to live like everyone else.
The relationship between these people is mainly that they share one goal and that is to
make a difference in their lives, where they would be able to eat 3 times a day, to be
able to have proper education, to have work and money and lastly to try to elevate their
status in life. I think that no one is getting developed in this situation, because
development means that they are in the process of improvement, yet after all the years
that have passed, we could not see development, yet we could see that poverty is
getting rampant and is rapidly increasing every year. We can see poverty everywhere,
even on streets and highways. We see these people wherein they sleep on sidewalks,
being a vendor in the middle of the street and most of them being street beggars. We
cannot say that the government or the higher-class people are the ones that
manipulated them, because it could be their own fault why they are struggling in life
right now. Simple things such as laziness, improper education and failure of family
planning could be the cause as to why they are experiencing poverty right now, yet
corrupt politicians can be considered to be manipulators for they steal the money that
should be used to help these people. Overall, we can fight against poverty, if we would
just help each other and make the government notice what is really happening in our
country.

Political Aspect

Many governmental organizations manage low-income family assistance programs or

keep records that are useful to researchers studying poverty. These links give users
access to pertinent information, program statistics and rules, agency organization, and
contacts. A few examples of institutions are social networks, gender roles, the legal
system, the politico-administrative system, and all of which interact with one another in
the state more generally. Institutions can be either state-run or not. The public delivery
of basic health and education services is just one example of the various areas that
state institutions serve. infrastructure, services, and general safety and order.
Depending on the type of government, there will the extent to which the poor have
access to these public services, their quality, and availability getting to them.
Institutions, standards, and norms that are not governed by the state are social ones.
Social capital is a crucial social institution that consists of unwritten rules or long-
standing connections that allow people to work together to achieve goals. For the
underprivileged, social capital is especially crucial. Other institutions that support
poverty and inequality include gender roles and ethnicity, both of which are still strongly
felt throughout Asia and result in discrimination against women and minorities.
Consequently, a number of institutions and sociocultural elements, in addition to
economic growth, can explain why certain nations have decreased poverty and
inequality more quickly than others or why it is so challenging to address poverty and
inequality in other contexts. Each of the three pillars of the ADB's poverty reduction
strategy is pro-poor, sustainable economic growth; social development; and governance
is influenced by institutions and policies.

To better understand poverty and pro-poor growth and to develop national poverty
reduction measures that are more successful, it is important to examine the nature of
these institutions and policies. The provision of essential social services and the direct
implementation of poverty alleviation programs are just a few of the ways that social,
cultural, and institutional variables have a pervasive impact on reducing poverty.
Political exclusion, for instance, may prevent some groups from accessing publicly
funded social services and initiatives to combat poverty because they are not seen as
having political clout. The institutional issues in legislation and implementing successful
land reform can make agricultural expansion less pro-poor. Additionally, some groups
may purposefully choose not to take part in government-run anti-poverty initiatives due
to social taboos and beliefs.

Politics that affect a lot of countries may become permanently dependent on foreign
help due to the volatility of economic growth. Wars are more likely to happen in nations
where certain cultural or ethnic groups perceive economic, political, or social imbalance,
creating a vicious cycle that feeds poverty. The underprivileged are frequently left out
and have their voices silenced. The poor depend on fundamental public services more
than any other group. When poor people take involved in service, delivery innovations,
these services are more beneficial to them. These services are especially hard to find in
countries where there are conflicts. Today's global problem of poverty is largely
influenced by political instability, bad governance, and corruption. The term
"governance" refers to how societies and nations manage their political affairs as well
as how power is used. The impact of good or particularly bad governance on the lives of
the poorest and most vulnerable people is significant. For example, the inability of
government institutions to prevent conflict, provide basic security, or basic services can
have life-or-death consequences. Similarly, the lack of opportunities can prevent
generations of impoverished families from lifting themselves out of poverty. The poor
rely on basic public services more than any other group. Access to healthcare and
education is critical to a family's ability to rise out of poverty. Politics is important
because when low-income citizens participate in service delivery reform, services for
the poor become more effective. The study looks into the best ways to accomplish this.

For a long time, poverty has been an issue. A significant portion of today's global
population is impacted by it. And it'll keep growing. There will always be people who
cannot buy enough food, water, and shelter, regardless of how much money they make.
How would you characterize poverty? The definition of poverty given in dictionaries is
"the state of being severely poor." My definition of poverty, though, is not having enough
money to meet your necessities, which include: a place to live, food to eat, clothes to
wear, water to drink, health care to get, and a job. Like sickness, poverty is continually
expanding. Over 700 million people live in extreme poverty, according to the World
Bank. Rural communities typically have high levels of illiteracy because the government
cannot afford to upgrade educational infrastructure. People who lack education will
never be able to find employment or escape from poverty. The absence of family
planning is another consequence of the education deficit. A major contributor to poverty
is overpopulation, which occurs when uneducated individuals have too many children
that they can't sustain. These households only make a modest income, which creates a
significant challenge. No clean water, electricity, or other utilities will be available to
these families. Another significant contributor is a lack of education. A country's ability to
create a prosperous economy is hampered by the high unemployment rate that results
from overpopulation. Natural catastrophes are another factor since they have an effect
on the economy of the nation and make it more difficult to restore the damage.
Organizations like the World Bank, which lend money to other nations, should assist
less developed nations.
If we don't take action, poverty will continue to be a major issue in many nations and will
even get worse. Poverty affects many people, most of whom are themselves poor. Rich
nations should work together and aid developing nations to eradicate poverty. Millions
of lives are lost worldwide as a result of poverty. Children in developing nations
experience malnutrition as a result of a shortage of nourishment. If organizations kept
assisting less developed nations, poverty might eventually disappear. For instance, the
Philippines is gradually escaping poverty with the aid of USAID and UNDP programs.

Cultural Aspect

Poverty is a global problem. People from every nation, religion, and culture are
impacted by it. Despite recent reductions in global inequality, several nations continue
to have an advantage over others and, in many situations, are better positioned to
provide assistance. Poverty's appearance and means of escaping are influenced by
culture. On a global basis, these cultural disparities are still present. Culture affects
poverty both directly in the way it interacts with poverty, and indirectly, with the
conditions that stimulate or prevent poverty. The normative family structure of a culture
is at the centre of many important elements.

Historical Aspect

Over time, the Philippines find it hard to address and reduce in this poverty incidence.
Even before 2000s, the Philippines has been behind its neighbouring countries in
poverty reduction.

The situation developed over time due to the increase in population. It has been evident
in surveys that there is a fast growth in population resulting in families moving around
one province to another to find a better form of living. This links to low-income growth as
well as the slow economic development of the Philippines.
Agrarian resources and infrastructure are relatively a contributing factor in poverty.
These areas can generate national income, open more job opportunities in the
provinces and can provide food security.

Socio-Cultural Aspect

Beginning by discussing cultures and beliefs and values, which are arguably its most
significant facets. A culture uses its values as a benchmark for what is moral and just in
a given society. People's ideals or convictions are known as their beliefs. Values are
embedded profoundly and are crucial for transmitting and teaching the beliefs of a
culture. In a society, people uphold both shared standards and their own personal
beliefs.

Being poor is a human state. Political, psychological, economic, social, and other
factors all have an impact on society and can either help or worsen poverty. A special
viewpoint on the problem of poverty is offered by religion. This article proposes three
roles for religion in addressing poverty. First, religion can shift people's attention from
financial concerns to spiritual ones, putting a greater emphasis on spiritual poverty.
Additionally, it can offer the moral fibres required in society. When moral concepts are
implemented inside economic systems, religion can have an ethical impact that affects
how we respond to poverty. By encouraging a disposition of wanting to practice
kindness, religion can also affect how we respond to poverty.

Communities can be educated through religion to restore everyone to their rightful place
in society. Thirdly, religion may actively support and contribute to the system that works
to reduce poverty.

Poverty as Ideology demonstrates how, in reality, the prevalent ways of studying

poverty have served to support the neoliberal ideology that is now in place while
ignoring the broader objectives of social justice that are essential to building more equal
societies. Instead, our development policies have given rise to a "poverty industry" that
hides how poverty is constantly reproduced in modern capitalist development and
encourages segregation in the name of science and altruism. Some claim that to
address global poverty in a way that is both successful and long-lasting, we must shift
our focus from the current obsession with productivity to more fair allocations of income
and resources.

Involuntary poverty may be accompanied by a variety of attitudes, including disbelief in

Divine Providence, resentment, jealousy, and envy, blaming others, a lack of gratitude
and the capacity to see the good, laziness, and a lack of initiative. Increasing
expectations, gluttony, greed, and meanness. The severity and ways in which
imperfections present themselves can vary based on temperament and personality
characteristics in difficult situations, they can happen as a result of living in poverty and
being deprived, though poverty is not always the only factor contributing to their
occurrence. People expect those in poverty to lack financial aid, a majority of the
working class, and those who provide minimal contributions towards the community.
Overly optimistic people have no idea what they are looking for, the desire for illusory
dominance over others in terms of wealth and career advancement, the failure to meet
one's true needs, reveals a person's low self-esteem because they change into
individuals who try to deal with it by transferring it to the material plane.

III. Conclusion/Insights

Governmental organizations, departments, and agencies are the ones who oversee
facilitating projects and programs that are for the less fortunate. Government
institutions, sociocultural elements, and economic growth are the factors that can
explain why some nations have a more evident decrease in their rate of poverty in
comparison to other nations. To assess the effectiveness of the programs and projects
that are meant to alleviate the less fortunate, we need to examine the nature of the
different government institutions and their policies since the social, cultural, and
institutional factors have a pervasive impact on reducing poverty. Conflicts may arise in
nations where certain cultural or ethnic groups perceive economic, political, or social
imbalance, creating a vicious cycle that feeds poverty. This results in the less fortunate
having their voices silenced and their needs unmet. The main influence of poverty is
political instability, bad governance, and corruption. Many don’t realize that the impact
of electing a good or bad government employee is significant on the lives of the less
fortunate and most vulnerable people. If the government is unable to provide for the
basic needs, security, and opportunity for the less fortunate, this can hinder poor
families from raising their standard of living. When it comes to raising their standard of
living, the less fortunate have the odds against them since they have less opportunities,
connections, and means of lifting themselves up from poverty. Illiteracy, lack of
education, absence of family planning, and overpopulation are among the factors that
affect the rate of poverty.

Culturally, poverty is a global problem that is experienced by every nation. In order to

reduce the rate of poverty, many nations have implemented different programs and
projects, but it has been evident that some nations are more successful in reducing the
rate of poverty compared to others. It can be said that culture does indeed influence
poverty since it can affect one's attitude, beliefs, values, and practices. People who are
from a less-fortunate community have different sets of attitudes, beliefs, values, and
practices and they have less opportunities compared to those from a more-fortunate
community.

Economic growth has not resulted in a decrease in poverty in recent years. Inequality
can be evidently seen in our society, as economies grow the rich become richer and the
poor become poorer, it is hard for the less fortunate to adjust to the growing economy
since the beneficial effects of growth on reducing poverty has lessened. The
government is the one to blame for the rise of the rate of poverty because of the
economic growth, corruption, lack of employment, and unfulfilled and inadequate
financial programs. The inequitable tax distribution among the various classes is also a
disadvantage to the less fortunate. While they pay taxes, the government does not
launch enough projects and programs that may benefit them and enhance their current
state of living, instead the more fortunate are the ones who receive and benefit from
government wealth and welfare, leaving those in poverty at a loss again. Economic
growth in the lower classes is limited because workers in these classes are barely
getting by and providing for the everyday needs of their families, they are mostly taken
advantage of by their employers since they know that they are forced to do manual
labor in order to provide for their families. Those who belong in low status communities
are forced to resort to high labor – low capital jobs, while those from flourishing
communities are given a much higher capital with almost the same labor.

Out of school youths, informal settlers, pedicab drivers, and street vendors are
considered as the least fortunate in our community. Most of them experience the
struggle to provide for their daily necessities, and they are just barely getting by in their
day-to-day lives. They are often forced to take blue-collar jobs in order to provide for
their families. With their current situation, it is hard for them to raise their standard of
living because odds are against them, the lack of support from the government is one of
the major factors as to why it is difficult for them to raise their standard of living.
Although the government is tasked to come up with programs and services that help the
less fortunate, the solutions that they are coming up with are just short-term solutions.
The government should focus on more long-term solutions such as upskilling and
educating them with ways on how they could come up with an income that can provide
their needs for a long time.

Historically, the Philippines has been behind in addressing and reducing the poverty
incidence in comparison to its neighboring countries. Poverty developed overtime due to
rapid increase in population which led to low-income growth and slow economic
development of the Philippines. There is only low to moderate economic growth in the
Philippines for the past 40 years, the employment generation and the quality of jobs
generated has not been on par with the population increase. This has led to an increase
in the rates of poverty since many were not able to provide for even the daily
necessities their families need.

In a society, people uphold both shared standards and their own personal beliefs. For
out of school youths, informal settlers, pedicab drivers, and street vendors, they may
share common values, beliefs, and traditions since society labels them as a community
or a class which is the least fortunate. Being poor is a human state, factors such as
political, psychological, economic, and social have an impact on the state of state of
poverty that they are experiencing which could either help or worsen their poverty.
Religion can offer a different vantage point when tackling the subject of poverty, which
in return may be more successful in solving the problem of poverty. In order to address
global poverty in a more successful and long-lasting way, unequitable allocation of
income and resources should be made. People see those who are in poverty lack
financial aid and provide minimal contributions towards the community. There are
people who desire dominance over others in terms of wealth, possessions, and careers,
they focus much on material possessions that they have ignored what is truly important
which is to meet one’s true needs.

References

[1] Deolalikar, A., Brillantes, A., Raghav Gaiha, E., Pernia, M., Racelis, & Development
Bank, A. (2002). Poverty Reduction and the Role of Institutions in Developing Asia.
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[2] Government Agencies. (n.d.). Retrieved from Center for Poverty and Inequality
Research website: https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/government-agencies

[3] Thelwell, K. (2018, December 24). How Politics Affect Poverty - The Borgen Project
%. Retrieved November 14, 2022, from The Borgen Project website:
https://borgenproject.org/how-politics-affect-poverty/#:~:text=The%20instability%20of
%20economic%20growth

[4] DFID. (2010). The politics of poverty: Elites, citizens, and states - findings from ten
years of DFID-funded research on governance and fragile states 2001-1010. Retrieved
from https://www.oecd.org/derec/unitedkingdom/48688822.pdf

[5] Conclusion About Poverty - 1846 Words | Internet Public Library. (n.d.). Retrieved
from www.ipl.org website: https://www.ipl.org/essay/Conclusion-About-Poverty-
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