AsPac region way behind MDG targets for 2015

MANILA, Philippines - The Asia-Pacific region is way behind the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) targets for 2015, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In a report, the ADB said the Asia-Pacific region is way behind in meeting the MDG targets on hunger, health and sanitation.

“The Asia-Pacific region remains woefully off-track in meeting the MDGs on such basic areas as hunger, health, and sanitation,” the report said.

Despite a reduction in poverty in recent decades, the region remains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor and more than 60 percent of its people are hungry.

In addition to the ‘unfinished agenda’ from the MDGs, the region must address new emerging challenges like rising inequalities, unplanned urbanization, climate change, pollution and water scarcity, the  ADB said.

 â€œUltimately, for any new agenda to be sustainable, it will need to be underpinned by the principles of inclusive growth, social equity, and environmental responsibility, which will require improvements in health and education, generating quality jobs, and increasing social protection for the poor,” it added.

Countries like Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines altered some of the targets to suit their specific conditions or cultures.

The Philippines for example drafted the Philippine Development Program (PDP), although the Philippines formulated the MDG without the direct participation of the civil society.

But non-government organizations (NGOs), think tanks and grassroot organizations used the MDG to push their respective agendas, including in areas such as health, gender inequality, education, and the environment.

The Philippines has difficulty reducing the poverty. The country also recorded almost flat growth in enrollment rate for elementary levels.

However, it had reduced to half its mortality rate for infant and under-5 levels, as well as maternal mortality ratios.

ADB’s Strategy and Policy Department director general Kazu Sakai said the MDG had become a powerful tool for rallying global support around common goals.

“The report proposes the inclusion of new goals on zero income poverty and zero hunger and malnutrition by as early as 2030, as part of a broad post-2015 agenda,” Sakai said.

It proposes 12 specific goals that the international community should work to end poverty and other deprivations by 2030.