ABSTRACT
The chapter relates the problems to changing family and community contexts, analyzing the survival strategies adopted by urban poor families and households over time, and the children's family, school, peer, community and institutional relationships. Turning to policy and programme issues, it summarizes tendencies in social policies and provides an in-depth analysis of introduction of the Urban Basic Services Programme and the National Project for Street Children in three cities like Olongapo, Davao and Metro Manila. Economic pressures, exacerbated by family and community stresses, cause urban poor families to move within cities as a survival strategy. Embedded in that discussion are concepts about work, childhood, child development and family survival. The UNICEF-supported Country Programme for Children and the Philippines Plan for Action for Children, both incorporating principles contained in Convention on the Rights of the Child, have been included in Government's Medium Term Plan.
