‘WE CAN’T MEET SOME M.D.G. GOALS’

DAYS before the national government delivers a report to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, an official revealed the government’s view that not all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be met by deadline year 2015.

The latest government assessment showed the goals for education, maternal health and arresting the incidence of AIDS faced low probability of being met even while there are renewed efforts to hasten the achievement of the MDGs.

National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director General Dr. Cayetano W. Paderanga said along with policies being crafted to meet the MDGs, the government is also preparing to implement policies to help meet the needs of those who will be left behind after 2015, an event he said will be brought about by the “new global environment.”

“[In] some areas we have not done well up to now because it’s coming out of the character of growth these past years. This is why we have a lot of emphasis on the social investments we are making because we feel that in the new global environment some sectors will really be left behind and we have to take care of them,” he said.

He does not see donors withdrawing aid to the Philippines because of the non-achievement of all the MDGs. He said that if there were threats like these, the government intends to use them as encouragement in achieving the goals.

“It’s more really of an encouragement but having said that, we really would like to meet those goals. It’s a good target and we will try; we have four years to do that. Maybe we would be able to tell you more in a year’s time how reachable these will be. We also are trying new policies. We would like to have policies that are inclusive.”

The country’s fourth progress report on the MDGs showed the country has a low probability of achieving indicators such as a higher elementary education net enrollment rate, elementary education cohort survival rate, elementary education completion rate; reduction by three-fourths the maternal mortality rate; universal access to reproductive health; a halt to HIV prevalence among 15-year-olds; and the provision of comprehensive correct knowledge about HIV/AIDS to 15-to 24-year-olds.

The report also showed the country has a medium probability of achieving the indicators on halving the proportion of the population below the poverty threshold of P15,057 per year per person, halving the prevalence of underweight children under 5 years, halving the proportion of households with per capita intake below 100 percent dietary energy requirement, universal access for the proportion of the population with advanced HIV infection to antiretroviral drugs, and halving the proportion of the population without access to safe water.

The indicators also showed the Philippines has a high probability of halving the proportion of population below the food threshold of P10,025 per year per person, all the indicators of Goal 3 pertaining to gender equality and women empowerment, indicators under Goal 4 of reducing child mortality, the malaria morbidity rate, the malaria mortality rate, the tuberculosis detection rate, tuberculosis cure rate, and the proportion of the population without access to sanitary toilet facilities.

The MDGs are a set of eight goals, 22 quantitative targets, and more than 60 specific indicators meant to serve as a focus for international and national development policy.

The first seven goals are concerned with outcomes, identifying the progress toward certain standards of human welfare and development that should be achieved globally and nationally by 2015. The eighth goal is concerned with “global partnership for development” to support the realization of all the goals. –C. Ordinario