In PH, stubborn gaps persist in income, gender, economic status

FAIR AND EQUAL Pupils attend class in a makeshift classroom in Labangan town, Zamboanga del Sur, in this June 3, 2019 photo. Investing in good, affordable education and skills development for everyone helps combat inequality, says the United Nations. —Leah Agonoy

MANILA, Philippines — The goal of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10, according to the United Nations, is the reduction of inequalities “in income as well as those based on age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status within a country. The Goal also addresses inequalities among countries, including those related to representation, migration, and development assistance.”

It is crucial to address such inequalities, says the UN, because failing to do so “harms poverty reduction and destroys people’s sense of fulfillment and self-worth. This, in turn, can breed crime, disease, and environmental degradation. We cannot achieve sustainable development and make the planet better for all if people are excluded from the chance for a better life.”

Needless to say, achieving that goal remains a tall order in a world where huge disparities continue to be the norm in many countries.

Major challenges

In the Philippines, for instance, social inequalities are a historic, long-festering issue, with the UN noting major challenges in the country’s progress on SDG 10. Though the country’s score in this regard is moderately improving, it is still insufficient to meet the core targets.

A World Bank report in 2022 ranked the Philippines 15th out of 63 countries in terms of income inequality. The top 1 percent of Philippine earners captured 17 percent of the total national income, while only 14 percent of the income was shared by the bottom 50 percent. The report, which referred to the country’s Gini coefficient of 42.3 percent from 2018, also found that Thailand was the only country in East Asia and the Pacific, for which data was available for the years 2014 to 2019, that had greater income inequality than the Philippines.

According to the World Bank, income inequality in the Philippines could be attributed to unequal opportunities, “slow access” to tertiary education, especially among low-income households, inequality in “returns to college education,” and social, gender-based norms relating to childcare.

Income inequality leads to stubborn levels of poverty and hunger and is “the largest poverty-increasing factor,” according to the American think tank Economic Policy Institute.

A September 2024 survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS), for example, found out that the country was backsliding in hunger, with 22.9 percent of households experiencing hunger in the third quarter of the year—the second-highest national hunger rate in SWS history. “The new survey finding was second only to the catastrophic 30.7 percent hunger rate of September 2020, during the pandemic lockdown,” said pollster Mahar Mangahas in his column in this paper.

Thus, “this is no time to relax. Although the rate of inflation in the cost of living has calmed recently, apparently it has not been deep enough or lasted long enough to stem the rise in the people’s hunger.”

From 16th to 25th

Meanwhile, in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2024, the Philippines ranked 25th out of 146, earning a score of 0.779 (with 0 indicating parity between genders in a particular country and 1 indicating the most disparity). It dropped nine places from its ranking of 16 in 2023.

In terms of the report’s subindexes, the Philippines ranked 20th on economic participation and opportunity, 86th on health and survival, and 34th on political empowerment. A sliver of good news: It was among the countries that ranked first in educational attainment.

Another global benchmark, Equal Measures 2030’s 2024 SDG Gender Index, placed the Philippines in 70th place out of 139 countries, with a score of 67.5. The score range of 60 to 70 points is classified as ‘Poor’ in the report. Still, the 2024 SDG Gender Index’s forecast for the Philippines’ gender score for the period 2022-2030 sees some progress, with the country’s score possibly increasing by some 0.2 to 0.6 points per year.

Per the UN, “one in six people worldwide has experienced discrimination in some form, with women and people with disabilities disproportionately affected. Discrimination has many intersecting forms, from religion, ethnicity to gender and sexual preference, pointing to the urgent need for measures to tackle any kind of discriminatory practices and hate speech.”

SOGIESC bill

In terms of gender representation, last May 2024, the long-proposed Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, or Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Equality Act reached the House of Representatives’ plenary discussion.

Under the proposed bill, any form of inequity on the basis of SOGIESC—such as denying an individual access to public services, promoting or encouraging stigma or abuse against an individual or group, including SOGIESC in professional, work-based criteria, refusing admission to or expelling any individual from any education or training institution, and imposing disciplinary sanctions and penalties that infringe on the rights of students—is deemed discriminatory. The measure aims to protect the rights of members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the workplace, health-care services, education, and more.

Over 200 groups urged President Marcos to certify the bill as urgent in June 2024, stating that the bill would eventually protect everyone from all forms of discrimination, bullying, and harassment.

To advance the interests of persons with disabilities, the University of the Philippines (UP) Medical Students for Social Responsibility (MSSR) also launched in June 2024 a comprehensive Filipino sign language handbook for health-related terms to help improve health-care delivery for patients with hearing impairments. It began as a collective project by MSSR applicants during the 2021-2022 term and was finalized in 2024 in collaboration with the Philippine Association of the Deaf Inc.

According to the official website of UP Manila, the MediSIGN handbook can serve as quick reference material not only for healthcare professionals and medical students but also for the public to help establish better support for patients with hearing impairments, especially in healthcare settings.

Copies of the handbook can be requested through a Google Form on UP Manila’s official website.

Sources: Inquirer archives, giz.de, dashboards.sdgindex.org, planipolis.iiep,unesco.org, sdgknowledgehub.undp.org, weforum.org, equalmeasures2030.org, upm.edu.ph, corporatefinanceinstitute.com, ourworldindata.org, oecd.org