The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) has produced poverty maps for the province of Leyte in Philippines. Poverty maps are useful tools for locating the poor and describing their conditions. The maps can also be used for ranking the municipalities based on their overall poverty situation. These maps are generated based on the Minimum Basic Needs indicators gathered from line agencies. The NSCB, the agency mandated to come up with the poverty data, has produced poverty maps for the four provinces in Region 8, which belong to the 44 poorest provinces in the country. This includes the province of Leyte. The poverty mapping in the province of Leyte has been established with the provision of ArcView GIS 9.0 software from the United Nations Habitat-Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. grant which the NSCB has applied for in connection with its poverty mapping activities. The Provincial Planning and Development Office staff was trained by NSCB on data gathering, computation of indexes and generation of poverty maps using the GIS.
