Sustainability: South-Eastern Asia Development Goals

The millennium development goals are a set of eight goals agreed to be achieved by 2015. These goals were set by the 193 countries that conform the United Nations. The fulfillment of these 8 goals in south East Asia has been:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
  • Decrease by halve the population living with less than $1 per day
  • Full and productive employment  (including women and young people)
  • Decrease by halve the population who suffer from hunger

It is previewed that South Eastern Asia will be able to meet the hunger reduction target by 2015. One of the initiatives found for the achievement of this goal in the Philippines consists in creating ambulant food vendors. They are provided with energy efficient stoves and micro financing to allow them to pursue this entrepreneurial activity. This was catalogued as one of the best practices lead by Asian Alliance of Appropriate Technology Practitioners NGO.

• Achieve universal primary education.
  • Boys and Girls on a global scale complete primary school

In Southeast Asia already around 90% of children attend school. For example in Indonesia YCAB Foundation is attacking this problem by educating street children. They target street children that have drop-out of school for at least six months. They have achieved great results having 90% of their students passing the national education examinations and 80% of their graduates getting jobs.

• Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Eliminate gender disparity in education primary and secondary specifically

Southeastern Asia has accomplished the goal of achieving gender parity in primary education. One of the approaches being given to this initiative in the Philippines is being lead by ISIS (international women’s information and communication service) in The Philippines. The main idea is to promote gender parity by encouraging women’s participation in media by increasing access, participation and ICT (information, communication and technologies) skills. This is done by imparting seminars, workshops and training programmers.  By getting women involved in media   the idea is this will have a multiplier effect in promoting gender equality.

• Reduce child mortality rates,
  • Reduce   child mortality under five years old by two thirds

Although South East Asia is well on track on the under five mortality rate and it is previewed it will accomplish this goal for 2015. The region still has a lot of work to be done on the overall infant mortality rate.

• Improve maternal health,
  • Reduce by three quarters the rate of maternal deaths

In this goal the leading countries are Fiji, China, and Thailand.  As for the whole region maternal deaths per 100,000 births have reduced from 230 to 92 between 1990   and 2008 in the region. While the proportion of deliveries attended by skilled health personnel, between 1990 and 2009 from 49% to 72%.

• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,
  • Halt and start reducing the HIV epidemic
  • Universal HIV/AIDS treatment for those who need it
  • Halt and reverse incidence of malaria and other diseases

Southeast Asia has handled this goal very well in fact they have achieved these targets ahead of time. The number of new HIV infections per year per 100 people aged 15-49 stayed at a level 0.4 between 2001-2009 and the percentage of women given retroviral drugs to prevent newborn infection increased from 28% to 54% between 2004-2009.

• Ensure environmental sustainability,
  • Introduce the principles of sustainable development into government policies reverse loss of environmental resources
  • Reduce biodiversity loss
  • Reduce by halve the population with access to clean drinking water

Although South-Eastern Asia has already met the MDG drinking water target it still hasn’t met sanitation for rural areas and   in some urban areas water coverage is failing due to population increase. While in the environment it has achieved the protected area a head of time, but unfortunately the forest cover areas are still diminishing and far from meeting the goals to reduce biodiversity loss. In terms of  CO² emissions it is not improving but rather increasing between 1990 and 2008, CO²  emissions increased from 0.3-0.8 (Billions of metric tons).

• Develop a global partnership for development.
  • Address the special needs of the least developed countries,
  • Develop a fair financial and trading system

In most of the goals for the new millennium South-East is well on track to accomplish them aside from the environmental sustainability targets. But we have to remember that the achievement of these goals is just part of the process of development and the region still far from achieving developed countries indexes.

References:

The millennium development goals report 2011

Successful Models on achieving the Millennium Development Goals in South East Asia By Youjin Jung* December 2010

The Millenium Development Goals: Progress in Asia and the Pacific 2007

Comments Off on Sustainability: South-Eastern Asia Development Goals / 19 Jan 2012 por Javier Solano Palacios
IMSD /

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