Disasters imperil M.D.G. attainment

THE United Nations raised concern that the series of catastrophes that hit the Philippines in the last two months will make it difficult for the nation to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that seek to address the global poverty and hunger situation.

Jacqueline Badcock, UN resident coordinator, said the destruction and grief wrought by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng have brought the country “farther from reaching our vision of sustained growth.”

But another UN official, UN Millennium Campaign Director Salil Shetty, said in a separate interview that given the fact that the Philippines is a middle-income country, the MDGs should already be easy to achieve. Failure to do so would be “unacceptable” to the country and the world, he added.

Badcock, for her part, said the UN, which launched an earlier flash appeal to raise $74 million for the “severely affected” 1 million of the total 3.9 million victims of Typhoon Ondoy, remains committed to helping the Philippines meet the MDGs by 2015.

“With six years to go, we enjoin everyone to be vigilant in ensuring that the achievement of these goals is not derailed despite the challenges we face,” said Badcock at the UN Vin D’ Honneur held on Monday at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Through the Millennium Declaration, the UN member-states, which included the Philippines, committed themselves to achieve a set of time-bound development goals and targets. The MDGs are clear, quantifiable goals and targets for global human development which are anchored on eradicating extreme poverty by 2015.

The eight goals are eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.

Other assistance

AT the same time, the UN has allocated a total of $20 milion to fund four projects, through the Spanish government, that addresses various issues of climate change, water, youth employment and migration, and security and nutrition for children.

Badcock also said the UN continues to work for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mindanao who until now suffer from hunger, violence and lack of security. At least 270,000 IDPs remain in evacuation centers in conflict-affected provinces in Mindanao since August last year.

World Food Program (WFP) executive director Josette Sheeran will visit the Philippines on October 21 and 22 to assess the ongoing emergency relief conducted by the UN agency on victims of the two typhoons that hit the country recently.

The DFA said Sheeran’s visit aims to assess contributions of the WFP and other humanitarian agencies to support the government relief effort at this time of critical need. Poland and other European countries have reportedly pledged to assist through the WFP.

The WFP donated a separate $26 million worth of food relief to victims of Typhoon Ondoy which include around 26,000 metric tons of food to feed around 1 million people for three months; 30 inflatable dinghies; and the use of three helicopters.

Germany donated an additional €800,000 (P55 million) in humanitarian aid for victims of Ondoy and Pepeng.

Ambassador Christian-Ludwig Weber-Lortsch said the new amount brings the overall aid of the Federal Government of Germany to €1.3 million.

Nonachievement of MDGs ‘unacceptable’

EVEN with the effects of disasters on the economy, the UN still considers it “unacceptable” if the Philippines fails to achieve the eight MDGs by 2015.

In an interview, UN Millennium Campaign Director Shetty said the goals are even considered very low for middle-income countries like the Philippines, which he noted is in a better position to raise funds to achieve the MDGs through proper allocation, less corruption and better policy implementation.

“If the Philippines doesn’t meet the goals, this will be unacceptable. The goals are unreasonably low for the Philippines and [as such] should be met by the country,” Shetty said in an interview on Monday in Makati City.

“It is unacceptable to the international community and it is unacceptable to Filipinos,” he added.

Around a third of Filipinos still live below the poverty line and around 5 million children are not in school. The country also has a low probability in achieving the MDG on maternal mortality.

Shetty added that even if progress on the MDGs recently suffered setbacks due to typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, the Philippines should use the destruction and misfortune brought by typhoons as a stronger reason to continue working to achieve the goals.

More important, the deadline for achieving the eight goals is only six years away and next year, the next president of the Philippines is scheduled to present a report to the UN on its progress, 10 years after the Millennium Declaration was signed in 2000.

“We hope the next administration will give priority to achieving the goals since the next six years will be crucial. The Philippines [also] needs to be more self-reliant.”

Being more self-reliant, Shetty said, will work for the country since aid is not expected to increase that much even if the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries meet their 0.7 percent of gross national income commitment to finance the MDGs.

Shetty said the UN is aware that with the economic crisis that started in 2008, there is a very high probability that official development assistance (ODA) levels will not be as high as before.

Nonetheless, Shetty takes comfort in the fact that since ODA started 49 years ago, it has amounted to $2 trillion. Still, this is only a fraction of the $20 trillion worth of bailout packages implemented in only one year.

“This means they can find a way and nobody can say there’s no money [for the MDGs],” Shetty said. –Estrella Torres & Cai Ordinario / Reporters, Businessmirror