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Approving the Official Methodology for the Estimation of First Semester Provincial Poverty Statistics

NSCB Resolution No. 8
Series of 2013

APPROVING THE OFFICIAL METHODOLOGY FOR THE ESTIMATION 
OF FIRST SEMESTER PROVINCIAL POVERTY STATISTICS

 

WHEREAS, reducing poverty remains the overarching goal of the Philippine government, in accordance with its commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing the worst forms of human deprivation by halving poverty by 2015;

WHEREAS, the first official poverty estimation methodology for triennial poverty estimates was adopted in 1987;

WHEREAS, the Technical Committee on Poverty Statistics (TC PovStat) was established through NSCB Memorandum Order No. 8, Series of 2003 to recommend improvements in the official poverty estimation methodology;

WHEREAS, three major refinements were made in years 1992, 2003 and 2011 to address the various issues on the official poverty estimation methodology, as follows: (1) overestimation of the poverty threshold and poverty incidence; (2) demand for provincial poverty estimates specifically for targeting the poorest provinces; (3) concerns on the estimation of food and poverty thresholds, incidence and other poverty measures, and improvement of relevance of poverty statistics, respectively;

WHEREAS, in response to urgent need and demand for more timely official poverty statistics, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Technical Staff (TS) conducted the Model-Based Estimation of Annual Income and Expenditure based on the FIES First Round Results Towards Improving the Timeliness of Official Poverty Statistics Project, using thefirst semester data of the 2003 FIES, with funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2007 to 2008;

WHEREAS, based on the results of the NSCB-UNDP Project, the TC PovStat recommended the release of the 2009 first semester poverty statistics using direct estimation, based on the 2009 First Semester FIES;

WHEREAS, on 10 February 2010, the NSCB Executive Board expressed reservation in releasing the 2009 poverty statistics based on the first semester FIES due to possible differences between the results of the first semester and annual poverty statistics considering the possible effects to household income of typhoons and other major weather disturbances in 2009;

WHEREAS, in 2012, there is a renewed clamour for the timely release of official poverty statistics through the generation of first semester poverty statistics using the 2012 First Semester FIES;

WHEREAS, the NSCB Executive Board approved in its 14 February 2013 meeting, the methodology proposed by the TC PovStat to use average annual FETBE ratio based on the 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009 FIES (i.e., instead of the 1st semester FETBE ratio);

WHEREAS, in the 22 March 2013 meeting of the Board, Sec. Balisacan suggested that in the computation of the 1st semester provincial food thresholds, the 2006-based regional CPI for food for the 1st semester shall be applied on the 1st semester provincial food thresholds (using a reference year) to obtain back and forward (including those for 2012) estimates of 1st semester provincial food thresholds; 

WHEREAS, the Core Group of the TC PovStat agreed, in its 4 April 2013 meeting, on the use of actual provincial prices for the 1st semester in the computation of 1st semester provincial food thresholds;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the Board approve the official estimation methodology for first semester poverty (Annex BR- 08-20130417-01) per recommendation of the TC PovStat.

BE IT RESOLVED FURTHER, that the:

  1. first semester provincial poverty statistics be released using the official estimation methodology for the years when FIES is conducted starting with 2009;
  2. 2003 and 2006 first semester provincial poverty statistics be released using the official methodology (i.e., back estimates shall be computed using 2006-based regional CPI for food);  
  3. official first semester poverty statistics be released, with urban-rural disaggregation at the national and regional levels;
  4. official first semester provincial poverty statistics be released, however, considering measures of precision at lower levels of disaggregation, clustering of provinces will be made available instead of rankings and no urban-rural disaggregation will be released
  5. official first semester provincial poverty statistics be released to the public one month after the provision of the FIES data files with the corresponding metadata and information on limitations of the methodology;
  6. communications plan on the release of the first semester provincial poverty estimates be formulated to effectively disseminate the series of releases on poverty statistics.

Approved in principle on the 17th day of April 2013 thru a Referendum.

Attested by:

 

JOSE RAMON G. ALBERT
Secretary General