Friday, October 19, 2007
‘Spend more for the poor’
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BERLIN - With barely eight years left to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a high-ranking official of the United Nations urged governments of developing countries to spend more for development projects for the poorest sectors.
The eight goals under the Millennium Declaration are achievable with the technology available and enough government funding, said Dr. Renee Ernst, the representative of the UN Millennium Campaign in Germany.
Ernst made the call as civil society, non-government organizations (NGOs) and other sectors in the Philippines continue to push the National Government to spend more to keep children in school and increase access to reproductive health services.
The Philippines is one of the 199 countries that signed the Millennium Declaration in 2000 at the UN headquarters in New York, and committed to achieve the MDGs by
2015.
Aside from poverty reduction and achieving universal primary education, the declaration also seeks to promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, fight HIV and Aids, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.
“These goals are achievable because they are the minimum consensus. We have the technology, we have the resources, we’re not talking about rocket science, we’re only asking for vaccination and mosquito nets, that’s all people,” Ernst said.
Wanted: will
“It’s only about political will, it’s about putting it on the top list of our priorities. If you ask me, it’s achievable, it’s just a question of where the resources go,” she told journalists from eight developing countries in Asia and Africa.
Ernst led hundreds of Berliners, foreign students, tourists, local NGOs and other groups during the “Stand Up, Speak Out Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals” event at the Sony Square in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.
Citizens, young and old alike, went to the square with their balloons, streamers and whistles, and literally stood up together five minutes before 12 noon to show their support for the MDG efforts.
The activity was held simultaneously last Wednesday in over 80 countries, including the Philippines, to raise awareness on the MDGs and to encourage the citizens of the committed countries “to demand what they need from their respective governments.”
Ernst also emphasized the need for civil society to help fight corruption and promote good governance and democracy to meet the goals on time.
Accountability
“Developing countries have a major task to deal with good governance, transparency, anti-corruption and the democratization process, and change the attitudes that are obstacles for development. Let the civil society raise their voice,” she said.
Government, in turn, “has to feel accountable to their citizens and not to the donor (countries)” where MDGs are concerned, she added.
Earlier this year, a National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) official noted the country’s “tremendous achievements” in ensuring gender equality in society.
But much still has to be done to meet the seven other goals before the deadline, admitted Neda Social Development Staff Marites Lagarto and Prof. Leonor Briones, co-convenor of Social Watch Philipines, the civil society group monitoring the MDGs implementation in the country.
Briones pointed out the need for an increase in funding for basic social services at the national and local level, if the Philippines is to eradicate poverty and hunger and ensure universal education by 2015.
Neda’s figures showed that as of March this year, only 88.4 percent of the country’s school-aged children were in school, or still 11.6 percent short of the 100 percent target by 2015.
Survival
She emphasized the crucial role of local government units (LGUs) in generating funds for MDGs since there is not enough funding for it from the National Government.
“Unless the necessary additional resources are raised, the Philippines will fail to meet its commitment to achieving seven of the eight MDG targets,” Briones had warned.
While the Philippines has a “low” chance of achieving universal primary education according to Neda, there is considerable progress in ensuring gender equality in society.
In public elementary schools, the ratio of girls to 100 boys is 101.8, while the ratio in high schools is 115.9 girls to 100 boys.
Lagarto also highlighted the country’s dismal elementary cohort survival rate, or the percentage of enrollees at the beginning grade or year in a given school year who reached the final grade of the required number of years of study.
At present, the elementary cohort survival rate in the country is only 64.15 percent. The target rate by 2015 is 83 percent.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (October 19, 2007 issue)
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