The assessment of social well-being in Indonesia an the Philippines with the use of quality-of-life indicators.

Abstract

In studying social well-being, this study attempts to assess self-actualization through active involvement in venues, institutions, and benefits offered by society, that is, through the enjoyment of a decent standard of living. The study opts for an objective approach, one that will aim at characterizing the phenomenon more concretely through objective criteria and measures that have a direct bearing on present conditions and situations. This analysis focuses mainly on Indonesia and the Philippines. The problem of poverty in these 2 countries merits more serious consideration than it presently receives, for Indonesia ranks 5th and the Philippines 17th among the world's most populated countries. The pertinent question posed by this study is how pervasive is the deprived state of well-being in these nations. A distinct approach is used to identify and explicate the problem by measuring and characterizing social well-being on a disaggregated level. To achieve this objective, the analysis focused on the areal units which constitute each of these countries: the 26 Indonesian provinces and the 73 Philippine provinces. The phenomenon of social well-being was categorized along 8 major dimensions which in turn were represented by 24 territorial social indicators. Data for these indicators were derived from recent secondary statistical sources. 5 social well-being indices were constructed from the set of indicators. The analysis consisted of 2 main phases. The 1st phase was to assess the levels of well-being of the different areal units within these 2 countries as portrayed by indices used in the study. The extent of well-being then was measured by classifying areal units into 4 category levels, i.e., high, moderately high, moderately low, and low. Slight variations were noted in the percentage distributions of areal units falling into these categories for the different well-being indices. Sizeable portions were particularly observed in the moderately high and moderately low categories, with a larger proportion notably in the latter category. More than 50% of the areal units were classified in the 3rd and 4th categories. More than 50% of the areal units in Indonesia and the Philippines were classified in the 2 "moderate" categories. More than 1/4 of the areal units in the Philippines were characterized as having low well-being. More than 30% of the area units in Indonesia enjoy high well-being, and more than half of all areal units in Indonesia were classified in the 2 top categories of well-being. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that social well-being is not a pervasive phenomenon in these countries. Although variations were observed, over 60% of areal units within these countries were deprived, to varying degrees of well-being.