Rudy Romero :
In September 2000, I was part of a group of Filipino journalists who journeyed to New York to sit in the gallery of the UN General Assembly auditorium and witness President Joseph Ejercito Estrada and the heads of state of 189 UN member-states or their representatives place their signatures on the Millennium Declaration of 2000.
The signing ceremony, arranged by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, took place at the start of the 2000 regular session of the General Assembly, when heads of UN member-states usually go to the iconic building along the East River to address the Assembly.
Clearly, it was a momentous occasion for President Estrada, for he was in the company of most heads of state of the UN member-states as chief executive of the Republic of the Philippines, which, history records, was in 1945 one of the 50 signatories of the UN Charter.
It was no less a momentous occasion for my journalist colleagues and me, for we were witnessing the signing of one of the most important documents ever prepared by the UN.
The Millennium Declaration of 2000 gave rise to a set of eight Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, which were a set of time-bound development goals and targets.
The MDGs were to be achieved by signatory countries over a 15-year period beginning Jan. 1, 2001. Thus, the MDG achievement period has only a little over a year left to run.
The MDGs are as follows: Goal 1, eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent; Goal 2, achievement of universal primary education; Goal 3, promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women; Goal 4, reduction of child mortality; Goal 5, improvement of maternal health; Goal 6, combatting of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; Goal 7, ensuring of environmental sustainability; and Goal 8, development of a global partnership for development.
The history of the MDG program in this country during the last 14 years can be divided into three phases.
The first phase was typically Filipino in character. No sooner had the ink from President Estrada’s pen dried than the Philippine bureaucracy adopted a ‘saka na’ posture and proceeded to give the Millennium Declaration less than high priority.
The second phase ran from the latter part of the past decade, when, realizing that time was running out, the administrations of Gloria Arroyo and PNoy Aquino placed the bureaucracy in a frantic catch-up mode.
The third phase has been the last two years or so, when, apparently accepting that it had not used the time well, the Aquino administration has slipped into a mode of resignation as to the achievability of some of the MDGs.
Truth to tell, the MDGs appear to be slowly being forgotten.
One doesn’t hear much about the Goals anymore in government circles. They are virtually off the government’s radar screen.
Admittedly, the achievement of Goals 1 and 2 has been hamstrung by the all-too-familiar budgetary constraints. The conditional cash transfer program has been a significant support for the government’s primary education program (and for Goal 5’s achievement as well). But there is a realization that programs like CCT are only stop-gap, band aid-like solutions.
And the RH program, coming rather late in the day, has thus far not done very much toward making possible the achievement of Goal 5.
This is all a pity, for the MDGs provided an opportunity for a focused, systematic approach to national development.
This country has not used the last 14 years well. Other developing countries used the time well and a few have recorded particularly significant MDG achievements.
There is one year left for a last-two-minute MDG effort. Much can still be done if the Aquino administration wants to use the last two minutes effectively.
The MDGs must not be forgotten in the remaining Millennium Declaration period. They should be placed back in the government’s radar screen.
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