HUMAN security refers to both “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear” for all persons. This is an emerging paradigm that tackles vulnerabilities that individuals face in today’s world. The current Human Development Report of 2015 has assembled various data from different sources related to human security. The results of our data mining give us some insight on how citizens from different countries are relatively secure, including the Philippines.
In terms of freedom from want, the various human-development indicators in the report will give us a glimpse on how the Philippines fared. The Philippines is included among countries with medium human development and ranked at 115th out of 188 countries, with a Human Development Index (HDI) value of .668. The HDI summarizes long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development—a long and healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth; access to knowledge, measured by mean years of education for the adult population and expected years of schooling for children of school-age entrance; and a decent standard of living, measured by gross national income (GNI) per capita expressed in constant 2011 international dollars using purchasing power parity (PPP) rates.
Overall, the Philippine HDI value increased by 14 percent between 1990 and 2014. In 2014 life expectancy at birth of Filipinos was at 68.2 years, and expected years of schooling was 11.3 years. GNI per capita, meanwhile, during the same year was recorded at PPP $7,915.
Comparing the Philippine HDI for 2014 with other countries and regions, we observe that the Philippines’s 2014 HDI of 0.668 was higher than the average of 0.630 for countries in the medium human-development group, but lower than the average of 0.710 for countries in East Asia and the Pacific.
In the Asean region, countries which were at the same level as the Philippines in terms of 2014 HDI and rank (and, to some extent, in population size) are Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.
When the Philippines’s HDI is discounted for inequality, the value falls to 0.547. This can be interpreted as an 18.1-percent overall loss due to inequality in the distribution of the basic human-development indicators. The overall loss due to inequality is lower in the Philippines than in other medium HDI countries (25.8 percent), and East Asia and the Pacific (19.4 percent). Thus, this clearly shows that addressing inequality can greatly improve overall human development in the country.
The most recent figures reported for the Philippines’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) show that 6.3 percent of the population are multidimensionally poor, while an additional 8.4 percent are near multidimensional poverty. With regard to the Gender Inequality Index, the Philippines ranks 89th out of 155 countries, with a value of 0.420. Meanwhile, our Gender Development Index is at 0.977 and higher than the average of the medium HDI group, and countries in the East Asia and the Pacific.
Around 40 percent of our workers are also categorized under “vulnerable employment,” which is measured in terms of the number of unpaid family workers and own-account workers as a percentage of total employment. Youth unemployment is at a high of 15.7 percent in 2014.
In terms of indicators related to freedom from fear, 62 percent of Filipino respondents in a Gallup Poll (2014) said they feel safe walking during the night in the area where they live. This is relatively higher than the average for medium-development countries, which is 59 percent and those with low human development at 53 percent. However, 71 percent of respondents in countries with very high human development feel safer in a similar situation. Moreover, we have around 77,000 internally displaced persons from their homes and an annual average of about 98,000 homeless people due to disasters. Vulnerability of our citizens to conflicts and disasters still exists in various parts of the country and are sources of insecurity.
In terms of trusting the national government and the judicial system, 69 percent and 63 percent of the respondents answered “yes,” respectively. This is similar to the percentages of respondents among countries in the medium human-development category and much higher than those in the low human-development cluster at 48 percent and 49 percent, respectively. Finally, in terms of overall life satisfaction with 10 as the highest, Filipino respondents in the same poll had an average response of 5.3 percent, again higher than those in medium human-development countries at 4.7 percent and low human-development countries at 4.4 percent.
These data show that the Philippines has already improved in many aspects of human security. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of work required for a broader impact and sustainable growth. The next president should prioritize on how to build on these indicators, which can facilitate poverty reduction, lower risks and vulnerabilities, and make our economic growth inclusive.
Dean and professor of Economics, School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University, Dr. Fernando T. Aldaba is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Human Development Network.