RP to launch update on Millennium Development Goals

MANILA, Philippines - With five years left until the deadline, the Philippines will launch next week its latest official report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said over the weekend.

The report noted that the Philippines continues to lag behind in some goals such as improving access to education, improving maternal health in the country and addressing the rising incidence of HIV/AIDs and malaria.

The report also contains recommended strategies for attaining the MDGs for the next five years, in terms of financing, monitoring, localization and advocacy.

The MDGs are a set of specific and time-bound development goals committed by governments to be achieved by 2015, with 1990 data as baseline.

The eight MDGs include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality/women empowerment, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing global partnership for development.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. said the country has a high probability of meeting most of the targets, including reducing the number of Filipinos below subsistence threshold, or those whose income cannot provide the basic food requirements.

“From 24.3 percent in 1991, the percentage of Filipinos living below subsistence threshold was reduced to 14.6 percent in 2006, which is near the 2015 target of 12.15 percent,” said Paderanga, quoting official data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

But if the total poverty incidence of the population is considered, which includes food and non-food necessities like clothing and shelter, the likelihood of achieving the 2015 target of 22.65 percent is medium, the report also said.

In 2006, the percentage of Filipinos under the poverty threshold was at 32.9 percent.

Nevertheless, the government said, the country also has high probabilities of meeting the targets on reducing child mortality, promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, particularly on eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, reversing the incidence of malaria and tuberculosis, and providing access to sanitary toilet facilities.

However, Paderanga noted that the Philippines continue to lag in several targets, specifically in achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDs.

Paderanga said earlier that the MDGs will be a priority of the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2010-2016.

Two weeks after the launch, the Fourth Progress Report will then be presented to the United Nations (UN) during the High Level Plenary Meeting on the MDGs in New York on September 20-22, 2010.

The said summit was called by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take stock of proven MDG initiatives and for governments to commit to a concrete action agenda to achieve the goals in the next five years.