Apart from insufficient funds, the lack of data and cooperation is among the reasons the Philippines will fall short in meeting all the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the end of this year.
Health Assistant Secretary Enrique A. Tayag said for the Department of Health (DOH), funds to support the MDGs have not been a problem.
Despite this, MDG 5 on Maternal Health is one of the goals that the country will not meet this year. The latest data showed that maternal death rate in the country was at 221 per 100,000 live births, over four times the target of 52 per 100,000 live births.
“Ang katotohonan ho niyan, malaki talaga ang naging investments para ma-achieve natin ’yung targets, but hindi lang pera ang problema. Sabi ko nga kahit bilhin mo lahat ng bakuna, kung ayaw mo pabakunahan ’yung bata, walang magbabakuna, walang hiringgilya, karayom, hindi dinala ng nanay, pano? Kailangan din natin kumilos. [The truth of the matter is that we have invested to achieve the targets, but the problem is not just all about money. Even if we could be able to procure all the vaccines, what happens if there’s sheer lack of will to vaccinate the children?],” Tayag said on Tuesday.
The DOH allocated some P37.37 billion for MDG-related activities between 2014 and 2016. Around P8.78 billion of the amount was allocated for 2014 and over P14 billion annually will be allocated this year and 2016. However, he said what the DOH found particularly challenging is the lack of data, since only 66 percent of deaths are registered in the Philippines.
The DOH official said, nonetheless, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), through the civil registration system, is now asking the cause of death of women aged 15 to 49 to check if the women died of childbirth.
This, he said, is a better measure than survey data. Tayag said civil registration is the new “gold standard” in monitoring MDG performance, particularly in child and maternal mortality.
Tayag added that, for certain goals such as those on maternal health, the DOH found it difficult to convince mothers to make lifestyle changes that involve giving birth in hospitals. Apart from MDG 5, the Philippines may also not meet MDG 1 on poverty and MDG 3 on Gender Equality by year-end.”
In a presentation at the forum, Michael Provido of the National Economic and Development Authority Social Development Staff said MDG 1 on Poverty may already be statistically difficult to achieve, given the short period of time until the deadline.
Provido said, as per the MDGs, the country’s goal is to halve poverty incidence to 17.2 percent by year-end. But as of 2012, poverty incidence was still at 27.9 percent.
He added that the progress of attaining the goal nationwide has been uneven. Data showed that there are regions, like the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where poverty incidence worsened over the 15-year period since the 1991 baseline.
In 1991 poverty incidence in the ARMM was at 30.5 percent. But in 2012, poverty incidence in the region increased to 55.8 percent.
Meanwhile, Provido also said that MDG 3 on gender equality was a contentious goal since it would be difficult for any one country to achieve a perfect equality between genders.
Provido said there will always be more girls or more boys in a certain country. Perfect equality is seen as a ratio of 1 and the country’s ratio in 2012 was 0.92.
In terms of gender equality in secondary and tertiary education, the Philippines actually has more girls than boys. It is only in elementary that there are more boys than girls.
Data showed that in secondary education, the ratio of girls to boys has consistently been higher than 1 since 1996. In 2012, the ratio was at 1.02.
In tertiary education, the country’s ratio has exceeded 1 since 2000. In 2011, data showed that the ratio of girls to boys in college is 1.19.