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Country profile
The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, with a rapidly growing population of 89 million. It is the fastest urbanising country in Asia, with Manila already the 11th largest city in the world. The Philippines has a number of natural development advantages, including its biological diversity, mineral wealth and strong human capital. High rates of migrant labour provide large remittance flows. The government has acknowledged a range of governance problems, and has undertaken ambitious reform and anti-corruption measures.
Economic growth averaged 5.1% between 2000 and 2008, but this has been slow to translate into poverty reduction. Poverty rates are down to a third, compared to half in the mid-1980s, but high rates of regional and rural/urban inequality are holding back further progress. The Philippines is on track on most of its MDG commitments, with good progress on child mortality, disease control and water and sanitation. However, it will need to intensity efforts on primary education, gender equality, maternal mortality and reproductive health.
ODA totalled US$562 million in 2006, which was a mere 0.4% of GNI. The largest donors were Japan, the World Bank and ADB, although substantial flows from China are not included in the official statistics. The government’s development agenda is set out in the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan 2004-2010, which is linked to a Public Investment Programme 2005-2010, with a 3-year rolling set of priorities. The development agenda is led by the National Economic and Development Authority. Government shows strong leadership over aid management and coordination. It co-chairs the Philippines Development Forum with the World Bank, and has developed a number of sectoral working groups to improve aid coordination.
The Philippines participated in the Paris Declaration monitoring process for the first time in 2008. The survey revealed good progress in a number of areas, including use of country systems, but noted that bilateral donors in particular need to improve the predictability of their disbursements and make more use of PBAs.
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