Localizing Child Protection: Does the Local Council for the Protection of Children Matter?

Child protection pertains to “preventing and responding to violence, exploitation, and abuse against children.” More specifically, it encompasses all processes, policies, programs, interventions, and measures that aim to prevent and respond to violence, exploitation, and abuse against children, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the overall development of children to their fullest potential. The Local Council for the Protection of Children (LCPC) is responsible for planning and spearheading programs for children in the locality with the end in view of making the locality child-friendly. The LCPC matters but its current status in the country does not quite show it. The big challenge is how to convince all local government units to organize their own LCPC and, more importantly, how to encourage them to activate, strengthen, and sustain the already organized LCPCs.children's welfare, Philippines, children's rights, child protection

Proliferation of Street Children: a Threat to the MDGs

The abundance of street children in major cities in the country does not sit well with the country’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Street children are everywhere, especially in urban areas. In the context of child protection, street children are among those children in need of special protection (CNSP) because of the risks and hazards they face while on the streets without adult supervision. In particular, they are exposed to violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, STI and/or HIV/AIDS, drug or substance addiction, and accidents. If not properly addressed, the proliferation of street children poses a threat to the attainment of the MDGs.Philippines, street children, child protection

Pitfalls in Targeting

Almost three years after the government launched two hunger-mitigation initiatives--the Food-for-School and Tindahan Natin programs--questions are being raised on whether these programs have adequately met their objectives. Did the programs benefit their intended beneficiaries? How well was the targeting for the programs made? This Policy Notes assesses the targeting rules used for the two programs.Food-for-School Program (FSP), conditional cash transfers, leakage rate, Tindahan Natin Program, hunger mitigation, food price subsidy

Efficiency of State Universities and Colleges in the Philippines: a Data Envelopment Analysis

In view of the long-standing issues and concerns that beset the Philippine system of higher education, the study attempts to evaluate the performance of state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the period 2006-2009 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In particular, it estimates the efficiency of 78 SUCs based on available input data (i.e., expenditure data) and output data (i.e., number of enrolled students, number of graduates, and total revenue). Also, it examines productivity change in these institutions by applying the Malmquist approach on a four-year panel data set of 78 SUCs. The DEA results indicate that majority of the SUCs have efficiency score less than 1 and thus, they are considered inefficient. In addition, the target input and output levels derived from the DEA suggest potential cost savings for each of the SUCs. Further, productivity of about 62 percent of the SUCs has slightly improved in the period under review. The findings of the study point to a potential research in the future that would take a closer look on each of the SUCs identified as inefficient in this exercise with the end in view of identifying, understanding, and hopefully, addressing the factors that affect their operation and performance

Benefit Incidence Analysis of Public Spending on Education in the Philippines: A Methodological Note

Benefit incidence analysis (BIA) is a tool used to assess how tax policy or government subsidy affects the distribution of welfare in the population. In other words, it evaluates the distribution of government subsidies among different groups in the population, in particular, among different income groups. The methodology involved in benefit incidence approach is straightforward. Nevertheless, defining deciles (or quintiles) is critical as benefit incidence estimates depend heavily on the number of individuals occupying each decile (or quintile) cell. Deciles can be defined over population, i.e., across individuals and across households. The purpose of this methodological note is to briefly illustrate the difference in benefit incidence estimates that are obtained when deciles of population/individuals in lieu of deciles of households are used in the analysis as applied on government spending on education in the Philippines

An Analysis of Philippine Trade Reforms in 1995-2000 Using the 1994 APEX Model

There are three major developments in the area of foreign trade in 1990s: (a) the WTO-Uruguay Round agreement in 1995; (b) the AFTA agreement; and (c) the series of unilateral trade reform programs of the government. The paper attempts to make an impact assessment of these reforms during the period 1995 and 2000 using the updated APEX model, a computable general equilibrium of the Philippine economy. Part of the trade reform process is the shift to transaction valuation of imports. The paper also attempts to analyze the possible effects of this shift

Benefit Incidence of Public Spending on Health in the Philippines

Directing government subsidies to social services such as health care is expected to bring about positive external/social benefits and improve equity in access to health services. In general, government spending on health is envisioned to improve the well-being of beneficiaries and enhance their capability to earn income in the future. Given this perspective, the question that this paper addresses is: to what extent have the poor benefited from publicly provided health services? In particular, it attempts to assess whether government expenditure on health sector had a redistributive impact by making use of benefit incidence analysis

Estimates of Total Factor Productivity in the Philippines

The paper presents an updated TFP estimates in the Philippines. The present estimates were derived using a modified set of methodologies, thus may not be comparable with those derived in the previous estimates (Cororaton and Caparas 1999). Modifications were introduced in the method for computing sectoral employment, sectoral investment and sectoral capital stock. Based on the revised TFP estimates, one can observe favorable as well as unfavorable trends. Sectoral estimates showed improving TFP in the 1990s, although a number of the sectoral TFP levels are still negative. However, for the economy as a whole, 1990 saw a slight decline in TFP. This could indicate that there may seem to be some unfavorable resource allocation effects. Looking at the factor intensity results, the growth during the period could generally be described as capital accumulation type of growth. This is particularly true for nontradable sectors, specially the service-related sectors. The labor-capital ratios and the sources of growth analysis indicate a movement of capital towards these sectors, relative to the rest of the sectors. One factor which may have contributed to this type of resource movement is the prolonged real appreciation of the currency in face of an aggressive trade reform programs in the first half of the 1990s. This kind of an economic environment may not be conducive to production activities, both for domestic consumption and exports. In a period when capital inflow is massive, which actually transpired during the first half of the 1990s, nontradable, service sectors could become an attractive destination of capital

Lipa City...Emerging City for All Seasons???

The paper focuses on the socioeconomic development experience of Lipa in its journey to being an emerging city. Specifically, it presents the urbanization process in the city particularly the demographic and socioeconomic process with emphasis on the changing economic structure as well as the living condition of the populace. In addition, it investigates whether booming economic activities are attracting migrants and creating revenue-raising opportunities, which in turn will finance increasing demand for basic services. Lastly, the study attempts to identify the issues and challenges that come along with urbanization as well as the citys potentials for further economic development. These factors will determine whether Lipa City remains a promising city or transforms into a highly urbanized one

Who Benefits from the Food-for-School Program and Tindahan Natin Program: Lessons in Targeting

The prevalence of hunger in the Philippines prompted the government to launch its hunger mitigation initiative in November 2005. The initiative consisted of two programs: the Food-for-School Program (FSP) and the Tindahan Natin Program (TNP). The FSP belongs to a class of social safety nets called conditional cash or in-kind transfers. There is a growing interest on these instruments worldwide because of evidence that they have not only been useful in providing assistance to poor families but more so because they have been found effective in securing investments in human capital among the poor. On the other hand, the TNP is a targeted food price subsidy program. Like other food price subsidy programs, it operates by lowering the price of certain food items. The lower food price effectively results in increased purchasing power that translates into an increase in the real income of beneficiaries. The budget allocation for these programs has been increasing in recent years. One interesting question to ask now is: Who benefits from the governments hunger mitigation program? The answer to this question has a large bearing on both the effectiveness and efficiency of the program. Given this perspective, the paper assesses the 1) distribution of the benefits from the FSP and TNP in 2006, and 2) implications on targeting of the use of public schools and day care centers as distribution points. In the process, it also draws some lessons in targeting