With the Philippines set to reach upper middle income status, and as the country works toward long term aspirations to have a predominantly middle-class society where no one is poor, it faces immense opportunities and challenges to expand the middle-class while eradicating extreme poverty. This comes at a time of global fragmentation, polarization and conflicts. Opportunities include tapping global capital, harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, climate transition, servicification of sectors, and easier access to data towards new wealth creation. However, challenges like geo-political conflicts, inequalities of opportunities, lack of competitive sectors, underdeveloped infrastructure and failures in leveraging human capital need to be addressed in order to meet the SDG promise of leaving no one behind.
The 2024 Annual Public Policy Conference (APPC) of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) seeks to answer key questions : How can the Philippines harness emerging economic disruptions to foster societal well-being in a world rife with global polarization? What adaptive policies and governance strategies are essential to achieve this goal?