Social

Protection and Poverty Alleviation in Asia 2015 Workshop

Department of Asian and Policy Studies | Centre for Greater China Studies
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
27 July 2015

Neoliberal Economic Policies and Social

Protection A Dichotomy


The global economic paradigm of neoliberalism with its principal international
policy instruments like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and
the World Trade Organization (WTO) has permeated the countries of the world with
economic and fiscal policies that do not usually answer the root causes of poverty in
each of those countries including the Philippines. Civil society organizations, think
tanks and academic institutions have pointed out the dissonance between social
protection policies of the state and the poverty alleviation requirements of its people.
Measures of poverty have been altered the same way as economic indicators have been
changed in various points of time where international organizations such as the IMF, WB
and WTO adopted international rules of economic activities within and between
countries. With such premise, this paper undertakes a review of economic and fiscal
policies adopted by such international instruments, how did policymaking bodies in the
Philippines adopt such policies, its impact on social protection policies of the state and
ultimately on the conditions of the poor. A structural and policy studies on the agencies
involved in social protection and economic and fiscal administration in the Philippines is
also done. Data were taken from expert interviews from the government, the private
sector and the civil society groups as well as the academe. To cross-validate the results,
a review of related literature from major academic journals and professional research
articles was done. The findings suggest that there is a dichotomy between the global-
market-driven social protection policies of the state and the poverty alleviation needs of
the Filipino poor.


GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE PAPER
Title: Neoliberal Economic Policies and Social Protection A Dichotomy
Author: Karl Mark G. Labagala
Institutional Affiliation: Kerson Capital Limited
[former student of the National College of Public Administration
and Governance, University of the Philippines-Diliman]
Email Address: karl@kerson.com | kmlabagala@gmail.com