The state of MDGs in Bikol

THE RECENT State of the City Report featured, among others, a study I made on the progress of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Bicol region. To recapitulate,

The MDGs is all about putting people first in development – by reducing extreme poverty by half in 2015, which is just eight years away. They were called as such because MDGs are time-bound and measurable goals and targets for combating the multiple dimensions of poverty and deprivation. They date back to September 2000, when 189 countries, including the Philippines adopted the UN Millennium Declaration and committed themselves to making the right to development a reality for everyone. This right to development is to be measured against a set of 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators, covering the period 1990 to 2015.

And what is the report about? The latter part of Chapter 1 explains:

The report sought to address information gap at local level: the gap in monitoring the progress of MDG localization efforts. Given the national and international emphasis on putting the MDGs as top priority in local development agenda, there has been very little effort, if at all, to see how municipalities, cities and provinces are actually faring in regard to these benchmarks...

It therefore sought to track down performance levels of the six Bicol provinces and three leading cities on the MDGs. In the process, it also identified and tackled issues and concerns regarding the MDG benchmarks at the local and regional levels. By looking at the way data is collected and organized from the ground up, it identifies areas through which a regional monitoring system for these development goals can be strengthened.

So, if you want to find out how the provinces of Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate and Sorsogon compare with the cities of Iriga, Legazpi and Naga insofar as the MDGs are concerned, this report is for you.

It provides data on their comparative poverty incidence, hunger; elementary participation, cohort survival and completion rates; gender parity; child and infant mortality rates, immunization coverage; maternal mortality ratio; mortality and morbidity in TB and malaria; and access to safe drinking water and sanitary facilities.

Thanks to my newly created account with eSnips, you can access the full report here.