The country's economists and political leaders, especially those who belong to the Aquino administration, are quite ecstatic about the 6.6% growth of the economy last year. There are those however who think that this is not enough; they say the benefits from this growth do not filter to local communities and needy households. Yesterday, a political leader said many people still depend on loan sharks, those who charge excessive interest, to get funding for their livelihood projects. He said this indicate that so-called economic growth does not translate into actual benefits for the people in local communities.
For his part, Pres. Aquino has taken note of what critics from the Opposition calls "jobless economic growth." The economy may improve but it does not lead to an increase in job opportunities because the growth is in sectors which do not need significant job creation to grow. To be sure, the private sector will not create jobs just to be able to provide employment for the poor. Job creation for their part is linked to a company's pursuit of its commercial objective and the Government is expected to formulate policies that will enable participation of the private sector in the initiation and development of businesses which will require more people to get employed.
In a developing country like the Philippines, where population rate outpaces economic growth, no amount of economic growth will be enough to give jobs to all those who are employed and underemployed. Hence, we again fall back to the old realization that to be able to make a dent on poverty, we must not only try to do something about the galloping population rate, but do something about helping people find jobs and for government to improve the outreach of basic services.
For job creation, we need not limit ourselves to the formal sectors. There is a need to go to the informal sectors, the enterprises traditionally engaged in by local communities and households, and try to further scale them up through improved technology, more effective linkage to market, and more efficient production system. Unfortunately, the so-called capacity-building programs undertaken by government agencies do not first look into what are existing in local communities and help develop them. Extension workers and trainers are just so enamored with powerpoint presentations and presenting them as their contents or messages are gospel truths. The training participants who are enticed to attend such training with free food and accommodation learn very little of value from such kind of training.
Delivery of basic services by the government suffer from the same mindless pursuit of ineffective strategies, more of showbiz stuff or "paculo," like enticing people from rural villages to come down to the poblacion or town center to be able to partake of government services. And this is done once a year! In fairness, this is good for awareness building, on making people know which services are available, but such annual activities should not be a substitute for more effective system to deliver services to households who live beyond 7 kilometers from the town center.
We must go back to the old-fashioned community development approach of starting where the people are, improving what they have, and truly building on their existing assets and skills. Specialists are needed to assist government extension staff and NGO fieldworkers on how to do basic social investigation, community diagnosis, mobilization of community volunteers, community organizing work and linking organized communities both for livelihood development and the provision of basic services with a bias to those who are more disadvantaged than others.
Let us go back to the old PACD but rather than have the old much-maligned Presidential Assistant for Community Development, let us all work together for Practical and Appropriate Community Development.
We must go beyond showbiz stuff in dealing with our own people.
For his part, Pres. Aquino has taken note of what critics from the Opposition calls "jobless economic growth." The economy may improve but it does not lead to an increase in job opportunities because the growth is in sectors which do not need significant job creation to grow. To be sure, the private sector will not create jobs just to be able to provide employment for the poor. Job creation for their part is linked to a company's pursuit of its commercial objective and the Government is expected to formulate policies that will enable participation of the private sector in the initiation and development of businesses which will require more people to get employed.
In a developing country like the Philippines, where population rate outpaces economic growth, no amount of economic growth will be enough to give jobs to all those who are employed and underemployed. Hence, we again fall back to the old realization that to be able to make a dent on poverty, we must not only try to do something about the galloping population rate, but do something about helping people find jobs and for government to improve the outreach of basic services.
For job creation, we need not limit ourselves to the formal sectors. There is a need to go to the informal sectors, the enterprises traditionally engaged in by local communities and households, and try to further scale them up through improved technology, more effective linkage to market, and more efficient production system. Unfortunately, the so-called capacity-building programs undertaken by government agencies do not first look into what are existing in local communities and help develop them. Extension workers and trainers are just so enamored with powerpoint presentations and presenting them as their contents or messages are gospel truths. The training participants who are enticed to attend such training with free food and accommodation learn very little of value from such kind of training.
Delivery of basic services by the government suffer from the same mindless pursuit of ineffective strategies, more of showbiz stuff or "paculo," like enticing people from rural villages to come down to the poblacion or town center to be able to partake of government services. And this is done once a year! In fairness, this is good for awareness building, on making people know which services are available, but such annual activities should not be a substitute for more effective system to deliver services to households who live beyond 7 kilometers from the town center.
We must go back to the old-fashioned community development approach of starting where the people are, improving what they have, and truly building on their existing assets and skills. Specialists are needed to assist government extension staff and NGO fieldworkers on how to do basic social investigation, community diagnosis, mobilization of community volunteers, community organizing work and linking organized communities both for livelihood development and the provision of basic services with a bias to those who are more disadvantaged than others.
Let us go back to the old PACD but rather than have the old much-maligned Presidential Assistant for Community Development, let us all work together for Practical and Appropriate Community Development.
We must go beyond showbiz stuff in dealing with our own people.
No comments:
Post a Comment