Ever wonder why our country used the slogan “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”?
Well, it’s pretty obvious that other countries very much agree to that and it looks like they already experienced the “fun” themselves, not just in terms of our country’s beauty and locals’ hospitality but also because of the time we allot in giving for other people.
Filipinos ranked 7th as the world’s most giving people relating to the number of people volunteering time, according to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) World Giving Index this year.
Presenting a “unique insight into generosity around the world,” Charities Aid Foundation [CAF] is a leading international charity registered in the United Kingdom, existing in nine countries covering six continents – with the mission of motivating society to give ever more effectively and help transform lives and communities around the world.
It also aims to provoke debate and encourage people, policymakers and civil society to think about what drives giving, and put in place policies to grow the culture of giving worldwide.
In terms of number of people volunteering time, India ranked first place with a score of 55% due to its large overall population, followed by the United States, Indonesia, China, and Brazil.
It is said that, “the proportion of Indians volunteering in 2016 increased by six percentage points from the previous year, equating to 56 million more people participating in this way.”
According to the survey, the top 10 by number of people remains largely unchanged, except for France, which replaces Germany in tenth place.
As for the CAF’s initiative, ‘The Groundwork for Growing Giving’ campaign, which seeks to highlight the potential for the fast growing emerging economies, they want to create an ‘inclusive culture of generosity and envisions a world where everyone gives.’
And for them to achieve this, CAF suggested and called for the governments to: make sure that civil society organisations are regulated in a fair, consistent and open way; make it easy for people to give and offer incentives for giving where possible; promote civil society as an independent voice in public life and respect the right of not-for-profit organisations to speak out on important issues.
Even though there’s a decrease in giving across the globe in terms of other behaviors, just like in the proportion of people across the world who reported donating money in 2016 – when the research for this year’s report was conducted – is the lowest seen for three years, there are still other countries who remained at the top of the list.
According to CAF, despite every Western country in the top 20 has a decreased score this year, as well as Asian countries, Africa has seen to have increase in all giving behaviors. | (Tina Joyce Laceda – PTV)