REPORT LAUNCH Overcoming Poverty and Inequality in the Philippines

Dr. Mary Racelis is a Research Scientist at the Ateneo de Manila University’s Institute of Philippine Culture and Senior Professorial Lecturer in its Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

She also teaches social anthropology at the University of the Philippines–Diliman. Her active involvement with NGOs and urban poor people’s organizations (POs) is well known, including consultancies with the Philippine government, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, United Nations and International NGOs. Her research has focused on poverty and well-being, urban poor settlements, the informal economy and community organizing, gender, children, reproductive health, indigenous people, and sociocultural change. In 1979 she joined UNICEF New York as Senior Policy Specialist for Family/Child Welfare. Women’s Development and Community Participation. That was followed by her appointment in 1983 as UNICEF Regional Director, Eastern and Southern Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her return to the Philippines in 1992 came with her designation as the Country Director of the Ford Foundation. In 2000 she rejoined the Ateneo and IPC/DSA. Writing for scholarly journals and books is complemented by advocacy for the rights of marginalized groups, especially the urban poor, through articles appearing in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Rappler. Her students learn early on through actual field involvement with urban poor communities what co-knowledge generation partnerships mean.

Dr. Cielo Magno is an Undersecretary at the Department of Finance. She oversees the Fiscal Policy and Monitoring Group which is responsible for recommending fiscal policies, formulating tax reform proposals as well as forecasting and programming national government revenues.Prior to being appointed as Undersecretary, Dr. Magno was an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics. She has more than twenty years of experience in research and policy work with the public and the private sector including local and international agencies. Dr. Magno has broad experience working with governments, the private sector, and the civil society. She was a member of the international board of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and an advisory committee member of the CONNEX Global Initiative. She also sat on the board of various civil society organizations. She obtained her Masters degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines, School of Economics and a PhD in Law and Public Policy from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts as a Fulbright scholar.

Francisco Alcuaz Jr. is the executive director of Makati Business Club. He was previously bureau chief at Bloomberg News, head of business news at ABS-CBN News Channel, and contributor at Rappler.