Business Mirror

24 June 2009 - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has confirmed what Social Watch Philippines (SWP) has been saying in its critique of the national-budget inputs – the country’s achievement of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly putting an end to poverty and hunger, are not only on the brink of failure, but the trend is reversing.

Renaud Meyer, UNDP country director, said on Thursday the Philippine overall performance for the realization of the MDGs – goals set by consensus by the United Nations – is deficient so that the situation is expected to get worse due to the global recession. “Unfortunately, the global recession is negatively affecting the attainment of the MDGs.”

He said, “We are seeing a reverse trend and NSO figures showed that the number of people under extreme poverty is rising.”

“The overall situation in the Philippines” is not rosy … there is nothing to be comfortable with,” added Meyer in an interview at the sidelines of the UNDP forum on HIV/AIDS held on Thursday.

He said the country is only performing well in one goal, the furtherance of gender equality.

The MDGs have a deadline for accomplishment by 2015, and they include halving extreme poverty and hunger incidence, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, thwarting the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, promoting environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.

He said the government should strengthen social-protection policies, noting that present social-security programs are too independent, privately driven and only cater to selected populations and that there is more need for social-security protection at the macro level.

He said the Philippines’ performance on the other seven goals “is (also) not good.” He particularly mentioned the clean-air law and how the government manages natural resources, particularly forestry programs.

The UNDP-Philippines is expected to come up with a comprehensive review of the Philippine performance in the MDGs early next year in time for the MDG progress review of UN member-countries in New York in September next year.