Introduction
There are still doubts on whether foreign aids to developing countries really help foster economic, social and political development. Most argues that foreign aid are more than likely to be wasted within corrupt systems of developing countries. While others are optimistic that foreign aids will help promote economic and social development. Accordingly foreign aids were first set up after the World War II, to help newly independent countries to restart their war-torn societies (Abouraia, 2014). As of today, the norm of foreign assistance to less developed countries are continuing. Developed countries are encouraged to increase their foreign assistance to developing nations. Many foreign aids have different agendas, from economic growth to human development.
This paper will explore the effects on foreign aid in the Philippines. Specifically, it will evaluate the effects of the assistance to improvement in the Philippine’s health sector, as well as the well-being and development of its human capital. Lastly, the paper will delineate different implications of an improved heath sector and human capital to the Philippines’ social and economic growth and development.
The Philippine Profile
The Philippines population as of 20515 is at about 103 million. By 2050, they are projected to increase at about 157.1 million (2015 World Data Population Sheet, n.d.). The Philippines has a strong English-speaking labor force (Carter, Funnel, & Rogers, 2012). A large part of the population, about 8.7 million, are living or working overseas. The Filipino Overseas Workers (OFW), contributes to about 10 percent of the country’s GDP through remittances. Unfortunately, this also caused brain drains in most professional sectors of the Philippines and have greatly reshaped and changed the traditional Filipino family (Ibid).
The Philippines also experiences numerous natural disasters, most of which are typhoons, landslides, earthquakes and droughts and floods. For example, the typhoon Haiyan have displaced millions of Filipinos and have attracted worldwide attention due to their dire circumstances (ibid). Aside from natural disasters, the Philippines are also experience numerous conflicts especially in the Muslim south or Mindanao (ibid).
The Philippines has also struggled with recurring poverty and inability to provide basic public services for the Filipinos. According to the US Aid (2016), the Philippine economy has grown by 7 percent in the years 2011-2013. However, efforts on poverty reduction are still lacking, as 42 percent of its population are still under the $2 per day international poverty line.
For the most part, the health status and healthcare in the Philippines continues to be a concern. The leading cause of death in PH is heart disease, followed by other vascular diseases. Communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia are also major causes of death, most especially for children.
There is much to be improved in the healthcare systems of PH. New threats of diseases such as HIV/Aids and influenza fevers are now putting pressure to its health care system (Romualdez et al., 2011). Improvements on facilities, especially in public hospitals, and accessibility of hospitals for far flung regions, is a must (Romualdez et al., 2011). Furthermore, reductions on health indicators such as child mortality and maternal mortality are moving at a slow pace. Maternal morality ratio is still at 165 deaths per 100,000 live births, and under-5 and infant mortality are at 18. And 19 deaths per 1000 live births (Ibid). There are also disparities among the regions in terms of health. NCR or National Capital Region, is the country’s center and most developed region. NCR, compared to other regions in the PH, enjoys a much higher rate of health care (Ibid).
Foreign Aids in Health Care, Poverty and Education
The Philippines is one of the developing countries that receives a high amount of foreign assistance from Japan, EU, and US. Aids from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank are also its large donors (Abouraia, 2014).
In terms of health care, the Philippine government launched the Universal Health Care as part of the Aquino Health Agenda (EU, n.d). It aims to reform the PH heath sector through expanding health insurances available, improving health care facilities as well as access to it, and striving to attain MDG ad SDG goals (Ibid). The health care reforms were supported by the European Union and UNICEF programs. The EU donated approximately 42 million pesos or 7 million pounds to fund the development of disadvantage areas in Mindanao, one of the country’s poorest areas.
Poverty alleviation is also one of the agenda of the Aquino administration. Pattered from the policies in Latin America, the PH conditional cash transfer is currently the country’s biggest and well-funded tool for poverty alleviation (Reyes & Tabuga, 2012). Its expansion in 2008, were aided by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The PH government was able to borrow at about $805 million to finance 2. 3 million households in the country and further expand to 3 million and more (Reyes & Tabuga, 2012). Aside from poverty alleviation, the CCT are also targeting to improve several MDG goals such as maternal health care, education, gender equality, and reduced child mortality. So far, evaluations of the CCT has proved to be promising (Chaudbury, Friendman, & Onishi, 2013). It was reported that child health and sever stunting were reduced, poor mothers now receive ante and post-natal care and are now able to deliver babies in hospitals rather than at home, and high percentage of children are enrolled in schools (Ibid).
The CCT has, so far created a more substantial impact on the improvement of health in the PH. It is a promising tool towards further improvement on the PH human capital, since it endeavors to break the cycle of poverty by incentivizing children to go to school, providing health information and access. In the long run, the development of health and quality Filipinos will have a great impact on the Philippines’ economy. According to Bloom and Canning (2008) a healthy population offers a higher productivity for work, since healthy labor force can work more. Children who are healthy avoids absence in school and are able to focus more in learning. A healthy population also lessens the burden for the health care system and public insurance. Finally, it allows family to save more because incomes are not spent in purchasing medicines and health services for sick family members.
Despite the presence of foreign aid in the Philippine development programs, many of the different sectors such as health, education, and public service are still in need of improvement. Kang (2010), studied the PH’s capacity to absorb and utilize the myriads of foreign aid given to many of the country’s health and poverty programs. He argued that structural and political barriers in the government play a large part of hindering its progresses. For example, there are difficulties in handing down the budget needed by the local governments to carry out the Universal health Care and CCT programs especially in heavily corrupted local governments (Kang, 2010).
For over the years, foreign aid has played an important part of PH economic development. However, its effect has varied across time periods and leaderships in the Philippines. Under the Marcos dictatorship era, Labs (1997) posits that the excessive foreign aid to the Philippines has driven PH to high external debt. During this time, the PH was marred with corrupt officials and national oppression. However, a change of leadership also changed the effects of foreign aid to the PH. After the Marcos era, foreign assistance were once again used to solve the economic and social problems left by Marcos (ibid).
In essence, the effects of foreign aids to health or to other sectors or agencies of a developing country is not solely on the magnitude of the aid. Structural and political barriers are always at play. The quality of the program and its implementation can make or break the quality and amount of the aid.
References
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