UNDERSTANDING THE PERCEIVED HUNGER RATE

UNDERSTANDING THE PERCEIVED HUNGER RATE My dear countrymen: Perhaps most of us know what the latest perceived hunger rate of the Philippines is, but how many of us understand how the data was collected? Let us look at how the Social Weather Stations (SWS) does it. The SWS uses a sample size of 1,200 respondents. The four regions surveyed are the National Capital Region (NCR), and the balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Each region uses a sample size of a minimum of 300 respondents. The first question asked is this: “In the past three months, has your family ever experienced hunger and not have anything to eat?” If the answer is yes, the follow up question is this: “Did it happen only once, a few times, often or always?”. If the respondent answers “only once or a few times”, he or she is categorized under “moderate hunger”. If the respondent answers “often or always”, he or she is categorized under “severe hunger”. Based on the data collected, the SWS concluded that the incidence of hunger in the Philippines as of the first quarter of 2024 was 14.2%, of which 12.2% is under the moderate category, and 2.0% is under the severe category. Based on an estimated total population of 117 million people, that amounts to about 16 million hungry people. What are we going to do with that data? Which government agency is responsible for dealing with this problem? Many people would probably say that this is a problem for the DSWD to solve, but that is only partially correct. There is no question in my mind that DSWD is in charge of poverty alleviation, but which agency is really in charge of poverty reduction? Sad to say, in my long career as a government official, I have met some officials who do not even know the difference between poverty alleviation and poverty reduction. To me, poverty alleviation is like easing the pain of poverty, but not liberating a person from the condition of poverty itself. It does not really take a genius to understand that the problem of hunger is a subset of the problem of poverty, and that the problem of malnutrition is a subset of the problem of hunger. Down the line, it also does not take a genius to understand that the problem of stunting in children is a subset of the problem of malnutrition. In other words, this is a domino effect that we must stop. It is a vicious cycle that that we must terminate. It also does not take a genius to realize that if a person has a means of livelihood like a job or a business, he or she could be liberated from poverty, assuming that he or she will be earning a steady income. The solution to the problem of poverty is therefore no other than livelihood. That said, I will now repeat my question: which agency is in charge of livelihood? Or to be more precise, who is in charge of livelihood creation? To answer these two questions, I think that it is best to answer this other question: which agency is in charge of poverty reduction? Very truly yours, IKE SENERES/11-07-2024