The PSA-7 was invited by the Commission on Population 7 (POPCOM 7) to react on the topic “Harvesting from the Demographic Transition and Demographic Dividend: Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022” during their Population Development (POPDev) conference on 26 November 2018 at Golden Prince Hotel, Cebu City. The conference was attended by planning officers and stakeholders from the different local government units (LGUs) and government agencies in region 7 to hear important updates and significant inputs with regards to POPDev integration and planning as a key strategy in achieving inclusive and sustainable development at the local level.

Engr. Felixberto M. Sato, Jr. Senior Statistical Specialist of PSA 7 attended and made a reaction on the said topic. He made mention that while the PSA exercises its mandate to generate general purpose statistics, the PSA was happy to note that data was of used in the formulation of analysis and strategies in harvesting from the so-called demographic transition and demographic dividend. He quoted a statement from a demographic analyst that demographic dividend is the economic growth that may result from changes to a country’s age structure, due to the shift from living short lives and having large families to living long lives and having small families. Because of this change in age distribution, fewer investments are needed to meet the needs of the youngest age groups and resources are freed up. This means that the labor force is growing more rapidly than the population that is dependent on it, creating a window for faster economic growth and family welfare. 

He said further, that one of the benefits of a demographic dividend is about Human Capital, decreases in fertility rates result in healthier women and fewer economic pressures at home. But the challenge is that there is a high fertility rate among poor households as reported in the recent result of the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).

Looking at the opportunity to showcase the latest data generated by the PSA, Engr. Sato presented the findings of the 2017 NDHS for Central Visayas more specifically in the areas of fertility, family planning, maternal health care and childhood mortality. In addition to this, the labor employment situation of Central Visayas was also presented.

Among the invited reactors during the conference were representatives coming from the Department of Health (DOH 7), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG 7), Commission on Population (POPCOM 7) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA 7).