Recent policy-oriented research and current policy issues : a cursory review

Abstract

A good number of policy-oriented studies on Philippine social and economic development have been undertaken in the last five years. Many of these studies have had a profound impact on the policies adopted by the current government under President Corazon C. Aquino. When the new government took over in February 1986, one of the first tasks that had to be addressed was the preparation of an: agenda for economic policy reforms. For this purpose, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, 1/ or PIDS for short, convened a group of economists and other social scientists and came up with the report (Alburo et al. 1986) entitled "Economic Recovery and Long-run Growth: Agenda for Reforms." This report, also known as the "Yellow Report," drew heavily on the findings of several policy-oriented studies which had been completed or in the process of being completed at the time of its preparation. The Report was first presented to various audiences in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, Subsequently, it was submitted to the President and her Cabinet who decided to adopt the Report's recommendations. The government's official economic agenda entitled "Policy Agenda for People-Powered Development" was largely based on the recommendations of the Yellow Report. In turn, this Policy Agenda provided the policy framework for the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan, 1987- 1992. On the heels of the Yellow Report was the "Agenda for Action for the Philippine Rural Sector" which was prepared upon the request of the Department of Agriculture. The preparation of the Agenda was spearheaded by the Agricultural Policy and Strategy Team under the combined auspices of PIDS and the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. Like the Yellow Report, the Agenda was presented and discussed in various public fora in the different regions of the country. Moreover, its recommendations became the basis of the strategy for agricultural development which was officially adopted by the Department of Agriculture. These examples demonstrate how policy-oriented research activities in the Philippines have helped in development planning and policymaking. In fact, the relative ease and dispatch with which the two reports were prepared can be explained by the accumulation over time of policy-oriented research conducted by researchers in PIDS and other research institutions in the country. This paper attempts to provide an overview of the policy-oriented research on Philippine development completed in the last five years, i.e., from 1983 to 1988. Where relevant and helpful, a few studies completed earlier are mentiohed in passing. The paper also identifies and discusses current and emerging policy issues in the country which need to be addressed by the research community in the next few years. This review is by no means comprehensive or intensive. Not all studies listed in the bibliography are cited in the text, while others may have been simply missed. To facilitate the review, the studies are grouped into those dealing with the 1983- 1984 economic crisis and those looking specifically into: (1) Trade and industrial Policies; (2) Agricultural Policies; (3) Natural Resources and Environmental Management; (4) Financial Policies; (5) Energy; (6) Rural, Urban, and Regional Development; (7) Poverty and Equity; (8) Population and Human Resource Development; and (9) Macroeconometric Modelling.