Training Report: Millennium Development Goals in the SAARC Region

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Working Sessions Working Sessions Main points of the power point presentations by the resource persons and country reports are summarized below: Dr. Savita Sharma, Adviser, Planning Commission of India presented her paper on “Data Requirement for Monitoring of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)”. She informed that the United Nations formulated eight goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that must be achieved by 2015.The Millennium Declaration provides the basis for the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It recognizes that nations are interdependent for example in security, finance, health, migration and the environment. It articulates a composite framework combining human security, human development and human rights frameworks. MDGs are a set of tools for tracking progress toward basic poverty reduction and provide a very basic policy road map to achieve these goals. Developing countries have to achieve Goals 1 to 7. For this the Governments must implement the MDGs by integrating them into their policies, plans and budgets; improving governance, transparency and accountability. Rich countries must help developing countries to achieve MDGs 1 to 7 and do their utmost to achieve MDG 8. She noted that one of the criticisms of the MDGs is the difficulty or lack of measurements for some of the goals. It is argued that goals related to maternal mortality, malaria, and tuberculosis are in practice very difficult to measure. Household surveys are often used by the organizations to estimate data for the health MDGs. These surveys have been argued to be poor measurements of the data they are trying to collect, and many different organizations have redundant surveys, which waste limited resources. Countries with the highest levels of maternal mortality, malaria, and tuberculosis often have the least amount of reliable data collection. http://southasia.oneworld.net/Files/MDG%20Case%20Studies%202008.pdf www.worldbank.org/depweb/beyond/global/chapter6.html 5
Working Sessions She opined that prioritizing interventions helps developing countries with limited resources to make decisions about where to allocate their resources. The MDGs also strengthen the commitment of developed countries to help developing countries, and encourage the flow of aid and information sharing. The joint responsibility of developing and developed nations for achieving the MDGs increases the likelihood of their success, which is reinforced by their 189 country support (the MDGs are the most broadly supported poverty reduction targets ever set by the world). She highlighted that the issue of monitoring MDGs in this region is that reliable data is not available on most of these indicators on a regular basis. Sources of data are census/survey/administrative records. It is not possible to have census or surveys for every information on an annual basis as it is very costly. Administrative data has its own problems particularly in social sector. The reporting agencies tend to report biased results. There is an urgent need for strengthening of overall data collection system by establishing a comprehensive data collection system. She discussed in length requirements and availability of data on the MDGs by the region. She said that the countries publish periodic reports assessing the progress of MDGs. UNDP also assesses periodically the progress and has recently released a report. Ms. Sharafiyya Jameel presented the country report of Maldives. It was informed that Maldives has achieved five out of the eight MDGs ahead of the 2015 deadline, making it South Asia’s only “MDG-plus” country. Progress has been substantial in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (MDG1), achieving universal primary education (MDG2), reducing child mortality (MDG4), improving maternal health (MDG5), and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG6). Progress has been relatively slower toward achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment (MDG3), ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG7) and developing a global partnership for development (MDG8). Main challenges in achieving all MDG’s are: limited skilled human resources; geographical isolation of its islands; provision of facilities to islands with very small population; and inequality between Male’ and other islands. Social norms and newly established democracy can also hinder progress and socio-economic and structural changes. The report also informed that achieving the environment goals is especially critical to the country, considering the vulnerability of the country to environmental changes and the heavy reliance of the Maldivian economy on its environmental resources. Biodiversity accounts for 71% of national employment, 49% of public revenues, 62% of foreign exchange, and 96% of GDP. Tsunami (2004) costed 62% of the national GDP, compared to less than 3% in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. It is equally important to ensure that human rights principles, non-discrimination, inclusion and participation are factored into achieving the MDGs with equity. Maldives has been moved from LDC status in January 2011. Overall, external debt stock of the public sector has nearly tripled in recent years, growing from US$ 331.8 million in 2004 to US$ 969.2 million in 2009. Mobile teledensity increased more than 140% in 2008 and provided opportunities for e-business, e-service, and e-governance. The number of mobile subscribers grew from 8,000 in 2000 to more than 450,000 by 2009. Broadband service expanded especially to the atolls. Mr. Hazrat Bilal and Mr. Mohammad Amin jointly presented the country report of Afghanistan. It was stated that Afghanistan endorsed the Millennium Declaration as well as the MDGs only in March 2004. Afghanistan, however, having lost over two decades to war, has had to modify the global timetable and benchmarks to fit local realities. Afghanistan has defined its MDGs’ contribution as targets for 2020 from baselines of 2002 to 2005. Despite extreme poverty, ill health, and hunger, Afghans define lack of security as their greatest problem. Hence, the government of Afghanistan has added this new goal to the eight global MDGs recognizing the critical role of peace and security in achieving the other MDGs. The UN Development Assistance Framework of UN Agencies in Afghanistan is designed to support the national priorities through the ANDS. In Afghanistan the MDGs will be the basis for the Afghanistan National Development Strategy. Poverty measurement in Afghanistan is severely constrained by lack of data. It is difficult to reliably estimate and track the Global MDG indicators for income or asset poverty, but available data suggests that about 20% 6
Page 1 and 2: Training Course on Millennium Devel
Page 3 and 4: Contents Contents Foreword Executiv
Page 5 and 6: Executive Summary Executive Summary
Page 7 and 8: Introduction policy initiatives as
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Page 13 and 14: Working Sessions India’s trend of
Page 15 and 16: Working Sessions secondary educatio
Page 17 and 18: Working Sessions Dr. Aurang Zeb, Gr
Page 19 and 20: Working Sessions Dr. Baikunta Aryal
Page 21 and 22: Working Sessions Goal 2 ‘Achieve
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Page 25 and 26: Recommendations of Working Groups R
Page 27 and 28: Recommendations of Working Groups D
Page 29 and 30: List of Participants 6. Mr. Muhamma
Page 31 and 32: List of Participants 27. Mr. Muhamm
Page 33 and 34: Working Programme Day 3: Wednesday,
Page 35 and 36: Annex-III Power Point Presentations
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Page 43 and 44: Power Point Presentations PROGRAMME
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Power Point Presentations Millenniu
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Power Point Presentations Did you k
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Power Point Presentations Goal # 7
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Country Reports Country Report Mald
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Country Reports Government efforts:
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Country Reports Poverty profile HCR
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Country Reports Achievement: MGD Go
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Country Reports Goal 7: Ensure Envi
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Training Report: Millennium Development Goals in the SAARC Region

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