By: Diana G. Mendoza
ILOILO CITY – After the Covid-19 pandemic, Filipino women continue to endure another crisis that has been there all along – the effects of extreme climate conditions on their lives.
Women having to brave shortages in water, food, fuel and income for themselves and their families present a disproportionate threat to their health and livelihoods. The responsibility is heavier for women who take care of their households.
Women, according to the 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey, head one in four Filipino households that have an average of 4.2 members, with 28% of the household population under age 15.
The gendered impacts of climate change on women is shown in their vulnerability during calamities, as they become susceptible to harm, violence and reduced opportunities. Both in rural and indigenous communities and in urban areas, women experience health problems, loss of livelihood and displacement.
What is in store for women in a changing climate and why should it matter?
A warming world
July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded since 1880 by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as scientists continue to caution that the earth will keep warming in the next years to come, affecting health and human wellbeing. NASA said overall, July 2023 was 0.24 degrees Celsius (C)) warmer than any other July in its record, and it was 1.18 C warmer than the average July between 1951 and 1980.
This doomsday picture of climate extremes set the tone of the 9th National Population Health and Environment (PHE) Conference held in this city last October, with Dr. Rodel Lasco, executive director of the Oscar M. Lopez (OML) Center, echoing the state of climate crisis and how the Philippines can address the situation. The OML, a Department of Science and Technology-accredited science foundation, works with business and policy decision-makers and supports the generation of science and technology for climate action.
“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” Lasco told around 300 health, gender, population and environment advocates, academics and government policy makers in his keynote presentation.
“Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future,” Lasco further said. “How the current and future generations will live will depend now on how we address climate change.” Lasco, who is also an author of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whose studies he cited in his presentation, told the conference, “We have been warned repeatedly that the planet is warming. Our children and their children will bear the brunt of a changing, warming and boiling planet.”
Lasco said more individuals who reside in coastal communities will be affected by the rising sea levels and the degradation of coastal and marine ecologies. Currently, 20 million Filipinos experience these extreme climate events.
Spotlight on Iloilo province
Iloilo, one of the sites of the first PHE projects implemented in the Philippines and has been championing the approach since then, took center stage as Iloilo provincial administrator Dr. Raul Banias shared how the PHE program — through coastal resource environment — was first implemented in the town of Concepcion, where he was then mayor. He said these efforts are expanding to other geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
The other programs of the province that have been recognized by award-giving bodies that honor collaborative work of local governments and citizens are the establishment of marine-protected areas and enforcing fishery ordinances that saw the increase in fish catch, resulting in improved incomes and quality of life.
Banias also mentioned Iloilo’s gender and development programs such as providing women in remote areas access to water and improving women’s access to education and participation in the workforce.
He said Concepcion town also started the adolescent and reproductive health programs and the establishment of teen centers through the years that were gradually replicated in the province’s 42 municipalities and in Iloilo City.
“Some towns have more than one teen center. We have also taken this step further by establishing more youth and family development centers equipped with peer counselors and furnishings to make them functional and interesting to our teens,” he said.
Banias cited as a challenge Iloilo’s two million youth, with only 25% who finished elementary and high school and who may be unskilled for work. This is evident in the hiring rate of Western Visayas’ business process outsourcing industry where only two of 10 applicants get the job.
Another concern is teenage pregnancy and the need to improve access to reproductive health education and services.
Demographic dividend
Iloilo’s concerns about the youth and girls resonate across the Philippines, which has one of the highest adolescent birth rates in Southeast Asia. World Bank 2020 data noted 47 births yearly per 1,000 girls aged 15-19, higher than the average adolescent birth rates of 44 globally and 33.5 in the region.
Of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s estimate of a 108.8 million population in 2020, more than 53 million are below 25, and 10.3 million are adolescent girls aged 10-19.
Undersecretary Lisa Grace Bersales, executive director of the Commission on Population and Development, said that while “addressing the immediacy of adolescent pregnancies” is high in the government agenda, the country’s large youth group and the increasing proportion of the working-age population provide opportunities for growth.
She said part of the government’s goals until 2028 is to “optimize demographic opportunities, address persistent population challenges, and reap demographic dividend in accelerating sustainable and inclusive development.” Demographic dividend occurs with economic growth that happens from declines in birth and death rates, resulting in an age that requires lesser spending to meet the needs of the youngest and oldest age groups, paving the way for increased productivity among the working age group and better resources.
Crafting solutions with the PHE lens
Elvin Ivan Uy, executive director of Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), the lead convener of the conference, said, “having a young population affords our country so much opportunity to invest in this human capital and develop policies. It is vital that we continue coordinating our plans and make the most of this demographic window.”
He said the PHE lens is a collaborative platform to help everyone concerned with development to make the most of the demographic dividend, strengthen partnerships and look for ways to adapt to climate change and lower the risk of disasters.
“If we want to address population dynamics, resilience and growth, we need an approach that allows us to implement a more comprehensive, whole-of-society set of actions, and that would be PHE,” he said.
Uy said the Philippines has been a pioneer in using PHE in multisectoral approaches and integrated solutions for development. After the pandemic, he said it is important for PHE advocates to utilize new measures. “Now is also the time to further evolve and innovate in order to cope with the dynamic context and demands of this period,” he said.
Moving forward from Haiyan
Themed “From Crisis to Opportunity: Re-engineering the PHE Approach for Resilience and Economic Growth in the New Normal,” the conference was held two weeks prior to the 10th anniversary of Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever recorded that resulted in more than 7,000 deaths in Tacloban City and Eastern Visayas.
Haiyan was a reminder that the Philippines is the most-disaster-prone country in the world, according to the World Risk Index 2022. The country’s location in the ring of fire and typhoon belt in the Pacific Ocean makes it vulnerable to disasters.
A 2023 study by the Asian Development Bank said Filipinos living in poverty and those in rural areas whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, are most impacted by climate change consequences.
The PHE Network, established in 2002, is a diverse group of organizations and individuals committed to advancing integrated PHE approaches to create resilient and empowered communities in a healthy environment. The PATH Foundation Philippines, Inc., one of the members of the PHE Network, will lead the network in the next two years including organizing the 10th National PHE Conference in 2025.
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