Officials: RP faces daunting task of reaching MDGs

Climate change and the global financial crisis are an added pressure on the cash-strapped Aquino administration’s efforts to eradicate hunger and poverty under its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Threats posed by climate change and the lingering global financial crisis are forcing developed economies to limit development assistance for the Philippines, officials said Monday. "Considering the threats of climate change, there will be a greater difficulty in the attainment of some of the MDGs given that the Philippines is one of the so called 'climate hotspots'," Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga said Monday during the first Philippine MDG summit at Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City. The country is facing the daunting task of achieving its MDGs because it has to compete for a slice of the "shrinking development pie" with the impact of the global financial crisis on developed economies, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said. Past experiences have shown that it was difficult to get official development assistance (ODA) from traditional donors during global economic down turns, he added. As a country with middle income country (MIC) status, the Philippines is less viable than low income nations to qualify for ODA and access development loans. "Our status as an MIC is of no comfort to millions of our countrymen who live below the poverty line, unaware of the dynamics of the politics of development assistance," Romulo said. Paderanga said despite government interventions for the MDGs a “significant proportion" of the country's population remain impoverished — 30 per cent to 32.9 per cent in 2006. “With five years remaining" before the MDG target by 2015, "we need to do more," he said. Usual mindset "Statistics show that the business as usual mindset will not contribute anything substantial to achieve certain MDG targets by 2015," said Paderanga. The millennium goals set by the United Nations seek to halve global poverty incidence via eight time-bound goals that include eradicating poverty and hunger, universal access to primary education, gender equality and women empowerment, improving maternal and child health, fighting HIV/AIDS and malaria, promoting environmental sustainability and global partnerships for development. As enrollment and survival rates in the primary education continue to decline, providing access to education "is in a great risk of not being achieved," Paderanga said. Achieving the target of 52 deaths per 100,000 live births in maternal mortality ratio is “unlikely to be met," the economic planning chief added. The growing number of HIV cases in the country also hampers the way to achieving the MDGs, Paderanga explained. Sustained and adequate funding and political will of the Aquino administration are crucial for the Philippines to meet its millennium development targets in the next five years, United Nations resident coordinator Jacqueline Badcock said. Some countries including Thailand and Malaysia have reached the MDG targets earlier by focusing on the creation of opportunities to "reduce inequities" in the access to the basic elements of human development like health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, technology, employment and infrastructure, she said. "MDGs with equity has to be the buzz phrase as the Philippines moves forward with its MDG agenda," Badcock said in her opening address for the summit. — VS, GMANews.TV