MDG progress slow despite CCT program

MANILA, Philippines – Despite having a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program in place, achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will require more innovations and efforts from Local Government Units (LGUs).

In the latest Statistically Speaking, former National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Secretary General Romulo A. Virola said the country’s progress in meeting the goals by 2015 and ultimately reducing poverty slowed in the past few years.

“Clearly, the overall change in the poverty situation of the municipalities and cities in the country over a span of 6 years is not something we can be happy about,” Virola said.

MDG progress

Virola said the CCTs is an effective way to keep children in school and ensure that pregnant mothers get regular check-ups.

These efforts directly impact the country’s efforts to meet targets of MDG 2 on achieving universal primary education and MDG 5 on reducing maternal mortality.

However, Virola said these are not enough since progress in achieving the goals has slowed to 0.53 in 2009 from 0.65 in 2006.

“Is this the result of possibly our distorted priorities and aspirations, or of failure of governance? Whatever, it urgently calls for innovative ideas from our municipal and city mayors,” Virola said.

He said that LGU executives in their individual or collective capacity must do more to achieve the goals by 2015.

The goals

The MDGs are a set of 8 goals, 22 quantitative targets and more than 60 specific indicators meant to serve as a focus for international and national development policy.

The first 7 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 8th goal is concerned with “global partnership for development” to support the realization of all the goals. –CAI U. ORDINARIO, Rappler.com