NSCB Resolution No. 9
Series of 2011  

APPROVING THE REFINEMENTS 
IN THE OFFICIAL POVERTY ESTIMATION METHODOLOGY 

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

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

WHEREAS, to address the issue on the overestimation of the poverty threshold and poverty incidence, the first refinements in the official methodology were made in 1992 thru NSCB Resolution 10, Series of 1992 Adoption of the New Methodology for Poverty Assessment;

WHEREAS, recognizing the demand for provincial poverty estimates specifically for targeting the poorest provinces under the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI) Program of the government, a methodology for estimating official provincial poverty statistics was approved by the NSCB Executive Board in 2002 through NSCB Resolution No. 4, Series of 2002;

WHEREAS, the NSCB Executive Board, in its meeting on 6 November 2002, instructed the NSCB Technical Staff to undertake a phased revision on the approved provincial poverty estimation methodology;

WHEREAS, in line with the instructions of the NSCB Executive Board in November 2002, the following NSCB Resolutions were approved towards further improving the official poverty estimation methodology:

1. NSCB Resolution No. 1, Series of 2003 – Approving the Proposed Methodology for the Computation of Provincial Poverty Statistics;
2. NSCB Memorandum Order No. 8, Series of 2003 – Creating the Technical Committee on Poverty Statistics (TC PovStat), which was tasked to recommend improvements to existing methodologies and estimation procedures used in generating official poverty statistics, among others;
3. NSCB Resolution No. 5, Series of 2005 – Approving the Interim Modifications in the Official Estimation Methodology for the 2003 Poverty Statistics; and
4. NSCB Resolution No.11, Series of 2006 – Approving the Refinements in the Official Estimation Methodology for the 2003 Final Poverty Statistics and 2000 Back Estimates

WHEREAS, in the NSCB Resolution No. 5, Series of 2005, the NSCB Executive Board instructed the Technical Committee on Poverty Statistics (TC PovStat) to conduct an overall review of the poverty estimation methodology and come up with a revised methodology, which would allow the generation of provincial-level poverty estimates, notwithstanding the design limitations of the 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), one of the main sources of data for poverty estimation;

WHEREAS, in 2008, the TC PovStat members engaged in a Project on the Comprehensive Documentation of the Official Poverty Statistics spearheaded by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), which came up with a comprehensive documentation of the official poverty estimation methodology;

WHEREAS, in December 2008, the TC PovStat started its overall review of the official poverty estimation methodology taking off from the outputs of the Project by creating small working groups to facilitate the review of the different components of the poverty estimation methodology;

WHEREAS, the TC PovStat and the small working groups had at least six and 18 meetings, respectively, from 2008 to 2011, to discuss/review the official poverty estimation methodology;

WHEREAS, the TC PovStat finalized its recommendations in a workshop held in August 2010;

WHEREAS, the NSCB Technical Staff did computational exercises based on the recommendations of the TC PovStat on the proposed refined poverty estimation methodology for the years 1991, 2003, 2006 and 2009; 

WHEREAS, release of back estimates is a practice among statistical offices whenever improvements/changes in the methodology are adopted;

WHEREAS, back estimates were generated for specific years only due to limited time and manpower constraints; 

WHEREAS, a Consultative Forum was held on 28 January 2011 to present the proposed methodology, which generally received favorable feedback from the forum participants on the proposed refinements in the methodology;

WHEREAS, the TC PovStat presented the proposed methodology to the Board in its February 2011 meeting and was approved with instruction that:  (1) poverty estimates for the years 1991, 2003, 2006 and 2009 using both the existing and proposed methodologies be made available;  and  (2)  consultations with stakeholders including the National Wages and Productivity Commission and the National Tripartite Council be conducted;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the Board approve the proposed refinements in the official poverty estimation methodology (Annex BR-09- 20110524-01) per recommendation of the TC PovStat.

BE IT RESOLVED FURTHER, that:

1. the official poverty estimates using the refined methodology be released at the national, regional and provincial levels;
2. the official poverty estimates to be released at the national and regional levels shall also have urban-rural disaggregation;
3. the official poverty statistics resulting from the said methodology be released to the public with documentation on the metadata and limitations of the methodology;
4. poverty estimates for the years 1991, 2003, 2006 and 2009 using both the existing and proposed methodologies be made available;  and 
5. consultations with stakeholders be conducted.

Approved in principle on the 1st day of February 2011, in Pasig City.
Confirmed this 24th day of May 2011, in Pasig City.

Attested by:

ROMULO A. VIROLA
Secretary General