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3 BOHOL
A Roadmap Out of Poverty
Bohol Poverty Reduction, Peace and Development Program
BOHOL’S successful efforts in reducing poverty is due to a deliberate
action plan undertaken as the Bohol Poverty Reduction Program by the
Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office.
Bohol’s long journey out of poverty is graphically chronicled in the
following series of statistics covering a span of seven years, from 1997
to 2005.
A Tale of Dates and Figures
In 1997 Bohol’s poverty rate was recorded at 37.3%. The following year
it had risen to 47.3%. In 2001 Bohol was 7 th among the country’s 20
poorest provinces, according to a United Nations Development
Programme ranking. The following year, 2002, it was ranked 16 th in
terms of poverty incidence by the National Statistics Coordination Board.
Three years later, in 2005, the Philippine Human Development Report
ranked Bohol 41 st among the country’s 79 provinces in terms of human
development. Bohol had moved out of what was called Club 20.
Groundwork started in 1997 with the holding of the Bohol
environmental summit, where participants from local government units,
government agencies and civil society formulated plans. The summit
advanced a vision of Bohol as “a prime eco-cultural tourist destination
and a strong agro-industrial province”.
In 1998 the province adopted the Bohol Environmental Code, which
provided for the creation of the Bohol Environmental Management Office
(BEMO) and the Bohol Tourism Office (BTO).
In 2002 the provincial government prepared the Bohol Program
Framework for Poverty Reduction. It aimed to reduce poverty incidence
by at least 2% per annum.
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