The book shows that the Philippines has achieved modest success in the area of poverty reduction and human development. Life expectancy has gone up, mortality rates have gone down, malnutrition prevalence has declined and school participation rates have improved. Poverty incidence has been reduced but the actual number of the poor has gone up due to high growth in population. Moreover, spatial disparities remain large and some regions have lagged behind. The pace of improvement has also made it possible for other neighboring countries to overtake us based on the human development index.
