2004-2010 Government Action Plan to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion

The Government Action Plan to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion brought together a slate of measures worth $4.5 billion over the past six years. These measures had a significant effect on the daily lives of low-income individuals and families. Deployment hinged on close collaboration by all the partners concerned by the fight against poverty and social exclusion.

The first action plan was primarily based on two principles:

• Employment is the leading solution in assuring the economic security and social inclusion of individuals
• More protection must be granted to individuals with a severely limited capacity for employment.

Acknowledging the value of work through work incentives and assistance measures for low-income workers was the fundamental principle of the action plan. Consequently, a Work Premium to replace the Parental Wage Assistance Program was established for all low-income households as of January 2005. In April 2005, a participation premium was added to support the efforts of social-assistance recipients to enter the workforce. Between May 2004 and May 1, 2010, minimum wage increased from $7.45 to $9.50. The Child Assistance measure, that came into force in January 2005, improved family income, especially that of low-income families.

The action plan also included improvements to the Employment Assistance Program, particularly through the following measures: a baseline threshold for poverty; a personalized youth approach making it possible to provide better-adapted assistance that included coaching; and substantial investment in housing, including the construction of low-cost or affordable rental units.

Insofar as the battle against poverty and social exclusion is a society-wide challenge, the first Action Plan relied on the unity and involvement of local and regional communities through the Fonds québécois d’initiatives sociales, which fostered local action based on an integrated territorial approach and provided financial support for initiatives in the territories deemed priorities.

Lastly, given the importance of civil society’s contribution in combating poverty and social exclusion in Québec, creation of the Comité consultatif de lutte contre la pauvreté et l’exclusion sociale, whose members hail from an array of civil society sectors, was among the government’s important moves in terms of unity and cooperation at all levels.

This Action Plan, initially intended to cover the period from 2004 to 2009, was extended by a year to enable consultations aimed at laying the groundwork for a second action plan. The 2010-2015 Government Action Plan for Solidarity and Social Inclusion, entitled Québec’s Combat Against Poverty, was made public in May 2010. It provides for total investments of nearly $7 billion over five years

POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES

It seems the 600 or so people that scavange in the landfill or “smokey mountain” as it is often referred to by Filipino will loose the meager earnings they gleam from the waste of others.

If you haven’t already seen these two post I made about poverty in the Philippines, you should really check out this link:  ”Poverty In Philippines” as it is a sad eye opener about the poverty in the Philippines. I don’t know how much help these folks will get from authorities and it would be out of line for me to suggest they should.  The city clearly has to do something and this makes a lot of sense to me.  Maybe some nongovernmental organizations (NGO) can move in to fill any void that it creates.

There are programs in the Philippines designed to reduce the poverty in the Philippines.   There is one that gives money to extremely poor families that keep their children in school.  An NGO is also involved in this program.

RURAL POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES

About half of the Philippines’ 88 million people live in rural areas. Poverty is most severe and most widespread in these areas and almost 80 per cent of the country’s poor people live there. Agriculture is the primary and often only source of income for poor rural people, most of whom depend on subsistence farming and fishing for their livelihoods. In general, illiteracy, unemployment and the incidence of poverty are higher among indigenous peoples and people living in the upland areas. Overall, more than a third of the people in the Philippines live in poverty.

The poorest of the poor are the indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers who cultivate land received through agrarian reform, landless workers, fishers, people in upland areas and women.

There are substantial differences in the level of poverty between the regions and provinces and the poverty gap between urban and rural areas is widening. Indigenous people living in highly fragile and vulnerable ecosystems, people in the uplands of the Cordillera highlands and on Mindanao Island are among the poorest in the country.

The causes of poverty in rural areas in the Philippines vary widely from island to island. Among the causes of rural poverty are a decline in the productivity and profitability of farming, smaller farm sizes and unsustainable practices that have led to deforestation and depleted fishing waters. Rural areas lag behind in economic growth and they have higher underemployment. This is partly because poor people have little access to productive assets and business opportunities. They have few non-farm income-generating activities, and people lack access to microfinance services and affordable credit. Some vulnerable groups also face specific problems. For example, indigenous peoples have high illiteracy rates and are affected by the encroachment of modern technology and cultures onto traditional norms and practices. Fishers face continuing reduction in their catches and they have few opportunities or skills outside of fishing. Women have limited roles outside of marketing and family responsibilities.

The Nature of Povery

Poverty is pronounced deprivation of well-being. But what is “deprivation,” and how can it be measured Traditionally poverty was understood primarily as material deprivation, as living with low income and low consumption, characterized primarily by poor nutrition and poor living conditions. However, it is easy to observe that income poverty in most cases is associated with so-called human poverty—the low health and education levels that are either the cause or the result of low income. Income and human poverty also tend to be accompanied by such social deprivations as high vulnerability to adverse events (for example, disease, economic crisis, or natural disaster), voicelessness in most of society’s institutions, and powerlessness to improve one’s living circumstances. This multidimensional nature of poverty is revealed by interviews with the poor themselves and confirmed by special sociological studies.


The broader definition of poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon leads to a clearer understanding of its causes and to a more comprehensive policy aimed at poverty reduction. For example, in addition to the issues of economic growth and income distribution, it brings to the  fore equitable access to health and education services and development of social security systems. Poverty reduction strategies also must allow for the fact that different aspects of poverty interact and reinforce each other. For example, improving social security not only makes poor people feel less vulnerable, but also allows them to take advantage of higherrisk opportunities, such as moving to another location or changing qualifications. And increasing poor people’s representation and participation not only helps them overcome the feeling of being excluded from society, but also contributes to better targeting of public health and education services.

What is HUNGER?

Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food. It is a sensation experienced when one is required to eat food. In contrast Satiety is the absence of hunger; it is the sensation of feeling full. Hunger is also the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who suffer from a chronic lack of sufficient food and constantly or frequently experience the physical sensation of hunger.