Meeting MDG targets

President Benigno Aquino III’s address to the United Nations and meetings with UN leaders such as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon afforded him the chance to reaffirm the Philippine government’s resolve to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. But just five years into the deadline, it appears remote that all the targets would be met.

At the least, it could be said that the Philippines appears set to meet with varying degrees of success the eight targets that the 189 member-countries of the UN had pledged in September 2000 to meet in 15 years, such as poverty eradication, universal primary education, gender equality, reduced child mortality, improved maternal health, stemming of dread diseases, environmental sustainability, and global development partnership. From these eight major targets are derived 21 sub-targets.

According to a report by the UN and the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines has matched its Southeast Asian neighbors in fighting poverty, disease, pollution and environmental degradation and illiteracy; in short, it is set to meet half of the chief targets. But the report also states it is faring badly in the sub-indicators, such as fighting hunger and promoting general education. The report notes with alarm the high primary and secondary school dropout rates, resulting in a decreasing turnout of graduates of basic education.

Of the sub-targets, according to the report, the Philippines is likely to meet 11 by 2015, such as the eradication of tuberculosis and women’s empowerment, as well as environmental objectives such as securing the forests, limiting carbon emissions and curbing “ozone-depleting substances.” Against doomsday scenarios painting an epidemic of HIV-AIDS in the country, the report likewise notes that the Philippines has managed well the prevalence of the disease. Likewise, the country is doing well in making available to the masses safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

But the report also says that Southeast Asia in general has already achieved 12 of the sub-targets, including improving primary-school graduate turnout and combating extreme hunger. Progress in the Philippines on these two regional strengths, the report says, has been “slow” or “regressing.”

To the administration’s credit, it is not denying that the Philippines has to play catch-up to meet the deadline five years from now. A report by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to the President said the Philippines is in serious danger of missing many of the UN development goals, including halving poverty by 2015.

Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga said there’s only a “medium” chance poverty would be halved and a “low” chance that fewer mothers would die while giving birth. He also reported that government is behind target on providing basic education.

Halving poverty is particularly problematic so that the President himself announced that the Department of Social Welfare and Development had begun implementing a Conditional Cash Transfer Program that provides cash grants to poor families that keep their children in school and bring them to health centers for check-ups. But the cash transfer program should at best be a stop-gap measure. Arresting hunger and halving poverty would greatly depend on a comprehensive economic program that would uproot the causes of poverty and address them thoroughly and effectively.

Thankfully, the new administration will soon be unveiling its 2010-2016 Medium-Term Development Plan which includes, according to a government statement released prior to the UN summit on the MDG, “an appropriate mix of physical and social infrastructures (and) social safety nets.” Moreover, the President has reaffirmed his administration’s determination to fight corruption to make sure that bilateral and multilateral aid to the anti-poverty campaign will not be wasted. “Better governance, transparency and accountability will ensure more efficient use of funds for MDGs and will minimize leaks and waste in the use of public funds,” he said.

We can only agree. Making a dent on the age-old poverty problem has something to do with checking the age-old problem of corruption. It is to be hoped that the anti-corruption campaign will not take a millennium to succeed. –Philippine Daily Inquirer