Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the ESCAP Ministerial Conference in preparation for the World Summit for Social Development

[Delivered at PICC, Manila, October 18, 1994]

Toward a world compact
on social development

WITH THE Manila Declaration on the Agenda for Action on Social Development in the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) region, we have forged a common vision for three-fifths of humanity spread across the 54 countries and areas from where we come.

We have agreed to build on “a firm foundation for peace and development in the twenty-first century…rooted in the dynamism of the economies of many countries in the region.”

We have identified three important priorities to guide our actions: “poverty alleviation, which encompasses both the eradication of absolute poverty and the reduction of relative poverty; employment expansion, which covers the expansion of opportunities for productive employment leading to the reduction of unemployment and underemployment; and social integration, which refers to the enabling of all social groups to live together in productive and cooperative harmony.”

Our long-standing needs

These priorities reflect, to my mind, not so much the rapid and dramatic changes that have lately taken place in the global economy as the long-standing needs of our societies that we simply cannot afford to neglect—even and especially in an environment of economic growth.

For far too long, there has been a dangerous tendency among impetuous growth-seekers to equate economic development with the further empowerment and rapid enrichment of a small elite. This has mired the masses in even more abject poverty, and has merely perpetuated an ancient and inimical feudal order into the modern period.

I have said this many times before, but it bears repeating in the light of this conference’s objectives: development must be for the many, and not just for the few. And to achieve this objective, the people must be integrated from the very start into the development process itself—not only as its distant and hopeful beneficiaries, but also as its agents, its motive force.

Furthermore, we must seek the development not just in the economic sphere, but in all aspects and phases of human life. For our societies, development must be a bonding, not a divisive, element.

Our social reform agenda

We have embodied this philosophy in our Medium-term Philippine Development Plan for 1993-98, which is our road map to our shared vision of a newly industrializing country by the turn of the century, a vision we have called “Philippines 2000.”

The plan stresses a vital consideration: “the goal of all economic development efforts is the development of the human person and the improvement of the quality of life.”

We have made this even more explicit in a social reform agenda, which we translated into master plans of operation in this same venue exactly three weeks ago. Leaders of government and heads of sectoral organizations on that day agreed on a partnership to:

One, ensure quality services to meet basic human needs and to enable our people to live decent and productive lives;

Two, address inequities in the ownership, distribution, management and control of productive resources and access to economic opportunities;

Three, adopt reforms in decision-making to enable effective citizen participation, either as individuals or through social organizations reflecting the collective interest of like-minded citizens, as mechanisms toward self-governance.

It is an agenda to put people, especially the poor, back in the center of development, as beneficiaries and as actors. It is an agenda to effect a genuine democracy of means and opportunities among those who need it most.

We further agreed on indicators for achieving this three-point agenda, and on nine social reform packages. Six of them are addressed to specific sectors:

For fanners and the landless rural workers, we seek agricultural development;

For fisher folk, fisheries and aquatic resources conservation, management and development;

For indigenous peoples, protection of ancestral domains;

For workers, especially in the informal sector, workers’ welfare and protection;

For the urban poor, socialized housing;

For members of disadvantaged groups—among them women, children and the elderly, comprehensive integrated delivery of social services.

Three concerns cut across sectors. These are institution building and effective participation in governance; improving access to credit; and increasing livelihood opportunities.

Through a series of consultations in the provinces, we are now localizing this social reform agenda. In particular, we are focusing on 19 priority provinces where concentrated pockets of poverty exist.

These measures were agreed on at a point when the basic policy reforms, long needed to push our country’s economic growth, had been more firmly put in place.

Since early this year, these reforms have begun to produce dramatic results with accelerated growth in gross domestic product, exports, investments and foreign-exchange reserves, even as inflation remained low and interest rates fell sharply.

New ground to cover

However, we have far more ground to cover, the past decade of sluggish growth having held us back from even greater accomplishments. The Philippines has long had its woeful share of poverty—according to United Nations data, we have 2.7 percent of the world’s poor. In proportion to our population, poverty has declined. But with fast-growing population and the various crises that plagued our country in the last decade, the absolute number of the poor has actually increased.

In assessing the state of Philippine social development, a useful indicator would be the United Nations computation of our human development index.

The Philippines ranked among those considered medium on the index, but there is a wide dispersal of development among localities and among components of social well-being.

In terms of human development, our National Capital Region compares with the Republic of Korea, which ranks among the top five developing countries, while three of our poorest regions compare with developing countries where human development is low.

We rank high on our people’s state of knowledge—eighth among developing countries, with an average 7.6 years schooling—but low on longevity indicators, being 76th in the same group of developing countries on the measure of child nutrition.

Thus while there are many achievements we can be proud of, many challenges remain to be addressed.

All these documents before us are more than just pieces of paper. Before me are concrete and effective responses to the challenge of development—realizable visions of better futures for our children.

By these measures, we can expect to replace that distressingly familiar foster child of Asia and the Pacific from one defeated by pain and hunger to one radiant with health and hope.

Our children are the society of tomorrow and any investment in their health, nutrition and education is a basic investment as well in the well-being of our nations, and the peace and prosperity of our region.

We firmed up this understanding among nations in an action plan to the year 2000 for their survival, protection and development, adopted at the 1990 World Summit for Children.

Philippine authorities have translated this into the Philippine Plan of Action for Children, as have some 16 other nations of East Asia and the Pacific with whom we signed the Manila consensus last year.

A crusade for children

We then reaffirmed our commitment to the vigorous pursuit of national action plans for children, marked by mid-decade goals for our national children. These are the signposts we will check ourselves against, to ensure that we remain on track toward achieving our goals for children by the turn of the millennium.

We achieved a big step forward in the Philippines in pursuing our mid-decade goals for children when we localized this action plan. The heads of our own leagues of provinces, municipalities and cities: Governor Pagdanganan and Mayors Devanadera and Osmena—presented today their reports on how we are progressing in these goals, and are even ahead of our targets for the immunization of one-year-old children and the reduction of protein malnutrition.

I must note that we have taken on some challenging targets in this crusade for children.

Iodine deficiency is a case in point. Studies have shown that children who lack iodine can have up to 10 intelligence quotient (I.Q.) points less than other children. All other tilings being equal, children who are deficient in iodine are slower, less vigorous and have a harder time keeping up with the demands of schoolwork, in the process affecting their future productivity as adult citizens.

About a year ago today, Health Secretary Juan Flavier reported to me that 40 percent of our population (or 25 million Filipinos) live in iodine-deficient areas, and that 30 percent of all babies living in Metro Manila itself are deficient in iodine.

Our response to this has been simple but effective—and that is, to take action toward the universal iodization of salt. As long as we have the technology and the delivery mechanism, all it takes is the political will to get it done.

And it must be done. In the compelling words of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “With each child, the world begins anew. With each child, we have the opportunity and the reason to remake the world.”

Similar concerns in ESCAP

Indeed, in the final analysis, it is for the children that we are doing all these. I heard about one of our labor leaders saying, very candidly, at a meeting between labor federations and industry associations, that his father and grandfather were also trade-union leaders before him. However, he does not want to see his son still there manning the ramparts after him.

We want his wish to come true. We want to address the reasons for manning the ramparts. We want to eradicate poverty. We want to improve employment. We want to strengthen cohesion in our societies.

The concerns of our countries, and the actions we must take, are similar for most of the Asia-Pacific region. Admittedly, a substantial and growing proportion of people in the ESCAP region today enjoy longer life expectancy, improved health, better education, access to safe water and sanitation, higher incomes, and generally greater opportunities to pursue their economic and social aspirations than was possible a decade ago.

We can take justifiable pride in that achievement. We did a difficult job well.

At the same time, the development processes under way throughout the region have intensified long-standing social economic problems and unleashed new ones.

These problems bear adverse implications for the quality of life, and include environmental pollution, urban overcrowding and deteriorating conditions of family life.

Of particular concern is the impact of development on the region’s poverty. Clearly, the improvements in the quality of life associated with development have not been shared by all the people in the region.

Growth with social equity

As the International Labor Organization indicated to the first preparatory committee to the World Social Summit: “Productive employment is the key to combating poverty and social exclusion.” In the Philippine case, for instance, our economists have always asserted that “eliminating unemployment will wipe out poverty.”

Thus we have sought growth with social equity, and the democratic distribution of economic and livelihood opportunities.

We have put the eradication of poverty in the forefront of our agenda, and addressed related issues of human security regarding health, education, shelter and population management.

We are ensuring the long-term sustainability of development by addressing environmental concerns.

We have set clear targets for employment generation, most of them immediate and addressed to specific groups—the informal sector, small farmers, industrial laborers and migrant workers.

We are providing for the disadvantaged among the workforce—the rural and urban poor, women, children and the elderly.

We have noted that successful campaigns against poverty and unemployment themselves significantly reduce threats to social cohesion. But we also provide for action against disasters and crime, and for social protection, particularly for those likely to be affected by the pace and pattern of structural change.

The ultimate test

The ultimate test of any human society is the way it treats the poorest among its people. We must not fail this test of governance and compassion.

We must ensure that politics remains in the service of the nation, not just of an individual, a sector, or a party. We must redefine politics as the choosing of the correct policy alternatives for our country.

How each nation will proceed on the implementation of this agenda will depend largely on its circumstances. But we do urge strengthened national implementation and evaluation mechanisms, and strong efforts to mobilize enablers as partners of government.

Part of the effort will also involve international support, particularly in terms of the “20:20 Compact” suggested by the United Nations Development Program.

We urge efforts at improving the international economic environment to encourage long-term investments and enterprises that recognize the requirements of human security.

We encourage the exploration of innovative financing mechanisms for social development with consideration for reducing the debt burden that remains a drag on growth in a number of developing countries.

What we accomplished here today is merely one step in a continuing process of advocacy. We have a common agenda for regional advocacy—an agenda for our own countries, an agenda for our children’s future, an agenda to present to the World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in March 1995 which I intend to attend as head of the Philippine delegation.

The summit takes place as the world commemorates the first 50 years of the United Nations and contemplates its future.

I should like to assure the distinguished ministers and delegates to the ESCAP member-countries and associated members that the 1994 Manila Declaration with the accompanying Agenda for Action on Social Development in the ESCAP region, which I am honored to receive on behalf of the Philippine Government and people, shall be the centerpiece of the Philippine preparation at the world summit.

To the summit, we shall present our agenda as a concrete action program, reflecting our common principles and values regarding the betterment of the human condition; respect for the dignity of each human being; the basic quality of individuals, groups and nations; and tolerance and respect for one another.

Basis for social compact

We have each to address our own countries’ requirements for social reform so we can become more involved citizens of the world. To our peoples, therefore, we present our agenda as the basis for social compact to complement our drive for structural reforms and sustained economic growth.

And to the world, we present the agenda as a commitment, and an appeal for the reorientation of mindsets toward a recognition of the oneness of humanity, that we can be united in diversity and truly act as citizens of the world.