I recently had the opportunity to listen to a World Bank briefing on the “Philippines Systematic Country Diagnostic Update” during one of a series of consultative meetings done with various sectors. The main purpose of the report is to identify priorities for a country to most effectively and sustainably achieve its goal to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a liveable planet.

For the decade 2010-2019, economic growth accelerated and became more inclusive, with poverty declining by 9.5 percent. Progress accelerated from 2015 to 2018 but the pandemic which hit in 2020 reversed some of those gains.

Today, more than half of the world’s population live in cities. This proportion grew from just 30 percent in 1950 and is expected to reach around 66 percent by 2050. The same trend is true for the Philippines. Over half of our population lives in 1,634 cities and municipalities across the country, with a large proportion of them residing in 147 large cities.

Ambassador Peter Kell introduced the New Zealand Embassy's public sector innovation program known as the "Govtech Accelerator," during a Liveable Cities Lab held last August 3. He was joined by CreativeHQ's Head of Government Innovation Jonnie Haddon and Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Philippines' Deputy-Director General and OIC Ernesto Perez.