O v e r v i e w

In September 2000, the United Nations General Assembly concluded the Millennium Summit with the adoption of a Millennium Declaration renewing the global commitment to peace and human rights and setting specific goals and targets towards reducing poverty and the worst forms of human deprivation.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), set within 2015, affirm and reinforce the agreements on the goals and targets toward eliminating extreme poverty worldwide. Its eight objectives have measurable outcomes, timelines for achievements, and clear indicators for monitoring progress.

The Philippines, as UN-member, is a signatory to the Millennium Declaration and has committed to craft its 2005-2010 Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) around the MDGs. By committing to this declaration, it does not mean that the country is simply keeping pace with the rest of the developing world, but ensuring that we are able to maximize all available resources in providing the right policy framework and the right environment for helping our people gain access to the best quality of life possible.

As the goals are holistic and interrelated, the process of working together in partnership at the national, regional and local levels is very important. Meeting the requirements for MDGs will entail collaborative efforts of major, stakeholders – the national and local government units (LGUs) as well as the private sector for interventions geared toward mainstreaming the MDGs in the local development agenda.

The Millennium Development Goals and Targets

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Targets:

• Reduce by 50% the number of people living in extreme poverty between 1990-2015

• Reduce by 50% the number of population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption and reduce by 50% the number of underweight children (under five years old)

• Reduce by 50% the number of people with no access to safe drinking water or those who cannot afford it by 2015

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Target:

• Achieve universal access to primary education by 2015

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality

Target:

• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and all levels of education not later than 2015

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Target:

• Reduce children under-five mortality rate by 67% by 2015

The Millennium Development Goals and Targets …

Goal 5: Improved Women’s Reproductive Health

Targets:

• Reduce maternal mortality rate by 75% by 2015
• Increase access to reproductive health services to 60% by 2005, 80% by 2010 and 100% by 2015

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDs, Malaria and Other Diseases

Targets:

• Prevent the spread and halt HIV/AIDs by 2015
• Reduce the incidence of malaria and other major infectious diseases and halt HIV/AIDs by 2015

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Targets:

• Implement national strategies for sustainable development by 2005 and recover loss of environmental resources by 2015
• Achieve a significant improvement in the lives of 1.3 million informal settler families

Goal 8: Develop global partnership for development

Target:

• Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, nondiscriminatory trading and financial system; include commitment to good governance, development and of poverty reduction-both nationally and internationally
• Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long-term

LGU Roles in Achieving the MDGs

Local Government Units as frontline responsible institutions in responding to the increasing service delivery requirements of their constituents have the primary responsibility of providing basic services for improvement of quality of life.

Under Sections 16 and 17 of the Local Government Code of 1991 (LGC), promotion of public health and safety, enhancement of people’s right to a balanced ecology, enhancement of economic prosperity and social justice, promotion of full employment among the residents, maintenance of peace and order and preservation of the comfort and convenience of the inhabitants, among others, are the mandates of LGUs. Therefore, LGUs pay a major role in achieving the MDGs.

The Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act of 1997 gives the LGUs the frontline role in the fight against poverty. The law mandates the LGUs to be responsible in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Anti-Poverty Reduction Agenda within their area of jurisdiction. Along with this functions, are the following:

1.) identification of poor-based or area-based indicators,

2.) identification of funding source for poverty alleviation projects,

3.) coordination and monitoring of poverty alleviation efforts.

Localizing the MDGs

The fight against poverty requires the full involvement of the LGUs in poverty reduction efforts in the country. LGUs play the critical role in poverty reduction. To assist the LGUs, support mechanisms were provided for them to become active partners of the national government in poverty reduction efforts:

1.) Technical assistance to LGUs in formulating their Local Poverty Reduction Action Plans/Agenda and prioritize local budget for focused interventions for the poor and vulnerable sectors. A set of LGU options to address the MDGs have been identified, and LGUs could their limited resources to these menu of services.

2.) Documentation of LGU best practices for improved delivery of basic services by replicating award-winning innovations of other LGUs in providing effective and efficient services to their constituents.

3.) Assistance in pursuing institutional reforms at the local levels such as Barangay Governance Reforms, designation of Local poverty reduction action officer/team (LPRAOs/LPRATs). DILG already issued related policies encouraging participation of basic sectors, and assistance of people’s organizations (POs) in barangay-based activities.

4.) Technical support for the institutionalization of a local monitoring system for poverty diagnosis and planning and tracking down resources for poverty projects.

CLPIMs as MDG Benchmarking and Poverty Monitoring Tool

To establish benchmarks on each MDG target, local government units may use existing information that can be generated from the following poverty diagnostic instruments:

1. Minimum Basic Needs-Community Based Poverty Indicator System (MBN-CBIS),

2. Minimum-Based Needs-Community Based Poverty Indicator and Monitoring System (MBN-CBPIMS),

3. Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning (IRAP) and

4. Community-Based Monitoring System. (CBMS)

Other instruments that maybe utilized to generate poverty-related data are the Local Government Performance Management System (LGPMS) of DILG and the Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI) initiated by the Philippine Urban Forum (PUF).

If there are data gaps, the Core Local Poverty Indicator Monitoring System

The Core Local Poverty Indicators (CLPIs) are the minimum set of fourteen (14) carefully selected human development and income-based indicators for poverty diagnosis and planning. It took-off from the gains of the different local poverty monitoring systems existing at the local level (e.g. MBN-CBIS, MBN-CBPIMS, IRAP, MIMAP-CBMS). A maternal mortality indicator was added to harmonize the CLPIs with MDGs.

The CLPIs were adopted through the NAPC En Banc Resolution 7 on 19 March 2003 (7th NAPC En Banc Meeting) and was localized through DILG MC 2003-92 providing for adoption of the CLPI in local planning.

The following are the 14 core local poverty indicators that maybe used to assess LGUs baseline information towards MDGs:

MDG	Core Local Poverty Indicators (CLPIs)
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger	· Proportion of households with income less than the poverty threshold
	· Proportion of households with income less than the food threshold
	· Proportion of persons aged 15 years old and above who are not working but are actively seeking work
	· Proportion of children 0-5 years old who are moderately and severely underweight (below normal-low and below normal-very low)
	· Proportion of households who eat less than three full meals a day
	· Proportion of household members victimized by crime
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education	· Proportion of 6-12 year-old children who are not in elementary school
	·      &