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Missing Targets: An alternative MDG midterm report
DEVELOPMENT IRONY:
Worsening poverty and
hunger at a time of growth
By Ma. Victoria R. Raquiza
Introduction
A
midterm review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) was on
the global agenda in 2007 to assess how far governments have come to
fulfilling the commitments forged during the United Nations Millennium
Summit of 2000. It was a moment of reality check as many observed that
the balance sheet showed more governments, for a variety of reasons, were not
on track to meeting their targets. In the Philippines, the inability to meet even
that most basic of needs—eating adequately to reduce hunger—was dramatically
underscored in light of self-rated surveys showing the trend that hunger had generally
climbed the charts in the last few years, in spite of fluctuations.
* Ma. Victoria R. Raquiza is a convenor of Social Watch Philippines.
S O C I A L W A T C H P H I L I P P I N E S 13