In ensuring the continuity of policies, projects, and programs, development plans have to be anchored to a long-term view of what we want, and where we want the country and the economy to be in the foreseeable future. Hence, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) started developing the Long-term Vision (LTV) project in early 2015.
This project is envisioned to be a basis of unity among Filipinos where we generally want the Philippines to be by 2040, and serve as a guide in development planning across administrations.
Producing the outputs of this project involved conducting series of nationwide consultations, writing of evidence-based thematic papers, and quantitative projections, among others. We want this project to come up with the reflections of the Filipino people’s sentiments and vision for themselves and for the country, supported by evidence and considering current realities.
The LTV project has several components, namely: national consultations, thematic papers, projection modeling, integrative report, and the communication campaign.
Nationwide consultations through focus group discussions (FGDs) and national survey
A total of 42 FGDs were conducted nationwide in June to August 2015, which were participated by representatives from various sectors, such as: youth, fisherfolk, formal workers, farmers, urban poor, disaster survivors, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, families of overseas workers, local migrants, and government workers. These were followed by the national survey, with around 10,000 respondents, which was rolled out in January 2016.
Thematic studies on key areas of development
As important as it is for this project to yield a comprehensive vision of the Filipino people, it is equally valuable to discover the means towards realizing these aspirations. Hence, NEDA partnered with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to produce thematic studies. This component looks at the areas of health, education, employment, infrastructure, environment, energy, science and technology, financial inclusion, governance, and other aspects of development, as they relate to the vision. These provide evidence-based examinations of the aspirations, constraints and possibilities of attaining the goal.
Development of an integrated long-term model for sustainable development
This project also involves a capacity building for the development of an integrated long-term model for sustainable development using the Threshold 21 (T21) Model, customized and calibrated based on the country’s context. T21 is a system dynamics model that integrates three spheres of sustainable development, namely: economic, environment, and society. This allows simulation of long-term development scenarios that could guide policy decisions, especially those that involve the rate of use of natural resources, demographic changes, increased budgetary allocation on specific socio-economic sector (e.g., infrastructure, social services like education, health care).