CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6 higher in rural areas: 56.0 percent versus 37.9 percent in 1991, 47.0 percent versus 30.1 percent in 1994, and 44.4 percent versus 23.2 percent in 1997. Poverty data were not available for urban and rural areas in 2000, but the less urbanized regions and provinces registered higher income poverty rates (NSO 2003a). The neglect of the agriculture sector and the uneven distribution of resources worsened the poverty situation in rural areas. Only remittances of migrant workers to their families had enabled the latter to survive crippling poverty brought about by stagnant agricultural productivity, stiff competition from cheaper food imports, and periodic droughts and floods that devastated crops and livelihoods. 507. Unequal distribution of income remains an issue. The poorest 30 percent of families get no more than 8 percent while the richest 10 percent capture almost 40 percent of the total (NSO 2002). 508. The country’s foreign debt and fiscal deficit restrict government spending, particularly on social services that benefit the poor. For a few years during the period under review, the social service budget increased, but it continued to vary inversely with the size of the debt service (Annex Table B14.1). Cutback in public spending on social services (education, health, family planning, social welfare) adversely affects women more than men, as they dominate the sector work force and as they are expected to supply services that the state has stopped providing. 509. The notion of women as homemaker and supplementary earner continues to shape the recruitment of women by government and NGOs as health and nutrition volunteers or as participants in micro-finance or micro-level income generating projects. Women producers have long been classified as unpaid family workers and rarely as clients of agricultural extension work or of agricultural technology development and transfer. The view that the farmer, fisher or rural producer is male persists, affecting rural women’s access to land and other resources. It also excludes large numbers of women farmers from farmers’ organizations and cooperatives, which generally consider men for membership. Recent data from the Cooperative Development Authority show that women represent 35 percent of members of farmers’ cooperatives and 21 percent of cooperative leaders. 510. Farmers’ cooperatives, however, account for a small portion of the cooperatives in the Philippines. Many more are open, community cooperatives that take in women and men who are interested to join and able to contribute their equity in the group. Overall, women members outnumber the men. A 1999 survey of a sample of the 1,200 affiliates of the National Confederation of Cooperatives, the country’s largest federation of privately owned, memberbased and savings-driven cooperatives, showed women accounting for about 60 percent of the membership, 42 percent of board members, 23 percent of board chairpersons, 51 percent of cooperative managers and 59 percent of employees. While the data indicate that women were a majority of the members, managers and staff of cooperatives, fewer women were elected to the board of directors. B. ACTIONS TAKEN: POLICY AND PROGRAM DEVELOPMENTS 511. Legislative and executive initiatives aimed at improving the situation of the rural populace include: 137