A Report on

Increasing Social Access to Basic Services

By:
John Byron Jakes T. Lasam
2015-2604
Philippine Christian University
Theory and Practice in Public Administration
Dr. Enrique D. Rodrigo

INCREASING SOCIAL ACCESS TO BASIC SERIVCES

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Basic Services are defined as those activities that lead to the satisfaction of
basic needs which in turn has many referents, from minimum psychological needs.
Needs which pertain to the basic necessities of life have to be provided to each
individual or family.
Provision of basic services include only the act of making them available and
does not mean that a particular person or organization is necessarily either their
supplier or recipient, or even that those two roles are always filled by different
entities.
This comprises both the distribution of a service by the supplying organization
as well as the co-production of that service by both the organizations employees
and its clients.
Generally, access is the relation between the administrative allocation of
goods and services and the people who need them or for whom they are intended.
The object of the service must be able to avail of and use the same.
Social access, on the other hand, specifies the target recipient to be those
who are disadvantaged and the poor in society.
The Limits of Redistribution through Increased Access
The best administrative efforts can be stopped by policies which accept the
unequitable structure that provides relief only to a few individuals among the poor.
The efficiency of access as a redistributive strategy is contingent on the
degree to which the political system has already responded to the demands for
combating poverty through structural changes.
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASING SOCIAL ACCESS
The Lack of Effective Demand
Many public officials criticize the lack of the demand of the poor and the
difficulty to reach them. Ignorance also presents itself as a barrier. This does not
mean the inability to see a good thing when one sees it, rather, ignorance as to how
a service can be used. People may not be aware of the available services for them.
The Problem of Supply
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When services are desired, they do not necessarily reach the poor. Several
factors might be considered as to why this is happening. Some of these are: the
competing demand of the higher classes, biases of policy and of regular program
providers, poverty as a growth industry, internal administrative problems, and
problems of institutionalization and participation.
Thus, it is not surprising that when the service-provider does not set targets
for his service, it is likely that the middle class and the rich will get it more easily and
in greater quantity and quality. To say that a service is available to all can mean that
it is available first to the higher classes.
Biases of policies and policy makers
Basic services may not also reach the poor because they are defined from the
viewpoint of the rich rather than the poor. This can easily occur to the government as
well as to the NGOs if their policies are not formed to meet the needs and demands
of the common people. Representation by the poor in decision making is quite
unbalanced, particularly at central levels. At times, the poor are not easy to organize.
They may also have different interests and needs.
The poor are usually led by persons who are better off socially and
economically. This is a persistent trend in Philippine rural communities despite the
community development programs. Thus, they may use their positions not to speak
for their members but for their own individual advancement.
Another perspective is that public welfare may be a process of regulating the
poor. Instead of providing basic needs to the poor, these policies can serve as
instruments for keeping them in their place (Bautista, 2003).
STATE PROVISION OF UNIVERSAL BASIC SOCIAL SERVICES
There are four main arguments for the state provision of universal basic social
services: moral, instrumental, consensual and historical.
The moral argument:
Basic social services have inherent importance because they produce such
benefits as learning and good health, and that they should be accessible to all. This
argument sees basic social services as merit goods or goods that have an intrinsic
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worth and that should be provided whatever the situation, even if there seems to be
no definite demand.
The instrumental argument:
The instrumental argument for basic social services is based on the fact that
their delivery supports the accomplishment of other human development goals.
Education, for example, contributes to better productivity, better health, more
equitable income distribution, and less poverty.
The consensual argument:
There is a general consensus that access to basic social services should be
universal. This consensus is contained in the Convention on the Elimination of all
Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), and explicit in the Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Declaration on the Right to
Development (1986) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). It was
reiterated in the Plan of Action from the World Summit for Children (1990) and in the
Copenhagen Declaration from the World Summit for Social Development (1995).
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Economic growth does not, by itself, warrant human development. Poverty
can decline with economic growth but it is also true that the same can increase the
gap between rich and poor. It is likewise true that social development alone
(specifically health and education development) may not be enough to reduce
income poverty or encourage economic growth. However, development in one area
supports progress in the others. This interaction and overlap between different
factors can be called synergy. Governments must tap into two such synergies if
economic growth is to go hand in hand with human development. They must exploit
the effect between basic social services and the links between income poverty
reduction, social development and economic growth.
There is a synergy between social interventions in basic health care,
reproductive health care, education, nutrition, and water and sanitation. Interventions
in any one of these will have an impact on all the others. Basic education, for
example, facilitates the rapid adoption of good hygiene. Safe water and sanitation
improve the nutritional status and the learning abilities of children by reducing
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infectious disease, especially diarrhea. The synergy among social interventions is

illustrated by the effects of greater access to education on the life-cycles of women.
Educated women are likely to marry later, have fewer children, and to provide better
physical care for their children than women without any education. As more women
become educated there is an accumulative effect on more households with respect
to fertility. As more households become smaller, the provision of care improves for
more children. Taken together, the benefits of greater education among women adds
up to a virtuous circle of social development.
Then there is the synergy between income poverty reduction, social
development and economic growth. It is often said that economic growth promotes
poverty reduction and social development, but it is rarely argued that this conditional
relationship applies in reverse. In fact, the synergy is so marked that direct action to
reduce income poverty and improve health and education may be every bit as fruitful
as economic growth in terms of total outcomes. Without efforts to thin out disparities
in the distribution of incomes and assets, economic growth cannot guarantee an
overall improvement in the quality of life. It may not enrich all citizens. It may, indeed,
impoverish many. The significance of economic growth should not be depreciated,
however. Constant enhancement in health and education indicators and service
quality may not be attainable without income expansion. Similarly, economic growth
should not become such a prevailing objective of development strategy that social
policies are forgotten. Sustained economic growth may be impossible without
adequate education and health care and without improving the distribution of
income. Even if it were possible, such economic growth would be harmful to social
unity (Santosh Mehrotra, 2000).

Increasing Social Access

The following values infuse structures and guide activities which implement
redistributive access:
1) Commitment to equity which accepts that benefits must be allocated to
and received by the poor;

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2) People-orientation which holds the human being as capable of making

decisions affecting his life and that of others in the community and the
nation;
3) Decentralization which requires that decisions must be made at the level
closest to those affected and that each approach take into account factors
specified to the area of operation;
4) Involvement which demands that decisions and activities towards access
and equity be made by all persons to be affected.
The administrative arrangements and methodologies for social access should
be evaluated based on how well they can highlight these values (Bautista, 2003).

References:
Bautista, et. al. (2003). Introduction to Public Administration in the Philippines.
NCPAG UP.
Santosh Mehrotra, J. V. (2000). Basic Services for All? Retrieved from unicefirc.org: https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/basice.pdf

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