Serving the Urban Poor through Public-Private-Community Partnerships in Water Supply

There are good reasons to believe that provision of water for the poor and poor communities can be a potent tool for poverty alleviation. As such, the special water supply programs intended for poor communities that were set up by the two private water concessionaires, after MWSS' privatization, in partnership with the communities, LGUs, NGOs, other private parties and the MWSS itself are laudable and should be considered for replication in other areas wherever possible.urban poor, private sector participation, public-private-community partnership, water services, water supply, water provision, water pricing

How Much Water Do Households Require?

What is the basic water requirement per month of a Philippine household consisting of six members? This study provides an estimate based on various household activities dovetailed to local practices and situation which may serve as a valuable input in water sector planning, water supply allocation, and water pricing determination.water sector, water demand

Potential Benefits of RCEP on the Philippines: Accelerating Recovery Through Trade and Other Economic Opportunities

The Philippines, as a member of ASEAN, is part of the RCEP, which is the world’s largest trading block in terms of population and GDP. RCEP was signed on November 15, 2020, by 15 member countries. This policy note discusses the potential effects of RCEP on the Philippines. Using a global CGE model calibrated to the most recent GTAP 10 database, the results indicate that the Philippines will benefit from higher exports, lower consumer prices, higher factor prices, and factor incomes of households. Among the Philippine sectors, the largest positive effects are observed in electronic equipment. Interestingly, the impact on the agriculture-food sector is also notable

Water in Metro Cebu: The Case for Policy and Institutional Reforms

Over the past decade, Metro Cebu has been rapidly moving toward growth and industrialization contributing as much as 70 percent to Visayas’ industrial output. However, associated with this progress are the concerns of various sectors about the quality of water services. Only 23 percent of the total households and a very small portion of industrial and commercial sectors are serviced by the Metro Cebu Water District. Hence, the large majority of households, industrial and commercial firms have to rely on private wells and private water vendors. This paper examines the policy and institutional factors that may be preventing the efficient, equitable and sustainable Metro Cebu’s water resource management. It also provides policy areas through which policy and institutional reforms can be implemented.water sector, water allocation, governance

Banning Commercial Foresting: What are the Costs?

The Philippines' forest cover has suffered from massive denudation through the years due to uncontrolled and indiscriminate commercial logging. Because of this, calls for a total logging ban had been raised in various fora, including in the legislature where bills that consider the possibility of a ban are being studied. However, the possible economic costs of such ban as espoused in some studies has delayed the passage of these bills. This Policy Notes provides some economic costing based on computations that may help in firming up decisions regarding the proposed ban.forestry sector, environmental issues, environmental management

Urban Water Pricing: The Metro Manila and Metro Cebu Cases

Water is a critical commodity for human survival and a scarce resource that must be appropriately priced to ensure that it is not wastefully and unsuitably consumed. This Notes offers an optimal pricing scheme, together with suggestions on the improvement of the overall water resource management that could provide the proper environment by which such pricing scheme can succeed.urban management, water sector, water demand

Economic Violence and its Associated Factors on Filipina Women: Evidence from the 2013 and 2017 Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey

Economic violence is referred to as any act that controls a victim’s ability to acquire, use, and gain resources, which threatens the victim’s economic security. This type of violence against women has largely been neglected in most literature, despite intimate partner violence being one of the more pervasive social problems globally. Most empirical studies focus on physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or a combination of these, necessitating the study of economic violence, particularly in low- and middle-income nations such as the Philippines.High-income countries showed a lower lifetime prevalence of economic violence given that these countries have better-developed protective laws, and economic ability and rights for women. Although other studies like Antai et al. (2014), Yount et al. (2016), Adams et al. (2015), and Asencios-Gonzales (2018) looked into the association between economic violence and other demographic and socioeconomic characteristics in a year and did not consider husband/partner’s alcohol consumption, we examine numerous factors that are associated with the occurrence of economic violence to women in the Philippines between two time periods. In the National Demographic and Health Surveys, the binary logistic regression model was applied to pooled cross-sectional weighted data from women aged 15 to 49 years old in the Philippines, in 2013 and 2017. The analysis of this study only includes weighted observations of women who are currently in a union. Results showed that economic violence is strongly associated with other forms of violence—physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Measures of socioeconomic inequalities and other explanatory variables have shown that having more children, lower educational attainment, and having a husband who drinks alcohol were significantly associated with increasing the odds of experiencing economic violence. This suggests that there is a need to address the factors that contribute to economic violence to put a stop to the prevalence of economic abuse against women in the Philippines

Can the Philippines Achieve its CO2 Reduction Commitment with Renewable Energy?

The Philippines always aims to achieve economic growth, which requires expanding economic activities, resulting in increased pollution (Stern, 2017). The country signified its intention to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 75% in COP26 (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC], 2021). Part of its strategy to combat CO2 emissions is by increasing its share of renewable energy (RE) sources to at least 35% of the total energy matrix (Department of Energy [DOE], 2021). The Philippines’ ability to reach its COP26 commitment through a scenario approach on the effects of increasing GDP and share of RE to CO2 emissions using Kaya Identity and EKC was investigated. Geometric growth and target-oriented forecasting were performed to generate the forecast period. The Kaya Identity computed the total factor CO2 emissions of the country. The EKC investigated whether increases in GDP, incorporated with the share of RE, result in declining CO2 emissions. Results showed that in scenarios 5 to 7, where GDP and share of RE are increasing based on targets, the Philippines enters post-industrialization stage 3 of environmental responsibility, wherein increases in GDP result in declining CO2 emissions. Evidence suggests the Philippines must remain aggressive in its RE investments to reach its COP26 carbon dioxide emissions reduction commitment

Path Towards Energy Sustainability: AMultidimensional Analysis of EnergyPoverty in Philippine Households

Measuring energy poverty to meet one’s basic needs is vital for household assessments concerning accessibility of energy, affordability of energy prices, usage of energy resources, and sufficiency of energy consumption. In this Policy Brief, we have listed recommendations and rationale to improve the energy conditions of Philippine households

Examining and Evaluating the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI) in the Philippine Household Context

Energy poverty refers to insufficient energy consumption to meet one’s basic needs. Measuring energy poverty is a vital calculation for a household assessment concerning accessibility of energy, affordability of energy prices, usage of energy resources, and sufficiency of energy consumption. Previous literature has extensively used the multidimensional energy poverty index (MEPI) to analyze the lack of access to modern energy services, including energy poverty intensity and incidence, and provide a framework for government policymaking. However, there is a variation between countries on how MEPI energy deprivation factors affect household welfare. This study aims to determine more accurate measures of household energy poverty in the Philippines using the 2004 and 2011 Household Energy Consumption Survey (HECS) and illustrate critical factors that affect the energy deprivation scores of the improved MEPI in the Philippine household context. In conclusion, with the improved energy poverty weights and measures that are Philippine-specific, it revealed that households who are multidimensionally energy-poor across all regions have slightly worsened from 2004 to 2011. This calls for more interventions and more appropriate policy implementation of promoting access to modern energy services and aiding to improve the conditions of Philippine households