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| Sunday, 24 October 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Achieving millennium development goals : The challenge at sub-national level V. Sivagnanasothy, Deputy Director, (Monitoring and Progress Review Division Presidential Secretariat)
The Millennium Development Goals are a set of time-bound and measurable goals for reducing poverty and improving the human development the world leaders formulated at the United Nations Millennium Summit held in New York in September 2000. President Chandrika Kumaratunga attended the summit and signed the Millennium Declaration with the other 189 countries and thereby committed to reduce poverty by 2015 in many dimensions: low income, hunger, illiteracy, discrimination against women, prevention of diseases, environmental degradation, insecurity of shelter and lack of access to safe water and sanitation. There are eight goals translated into 18 targets to be achieved by 2015 and monitorable through 48 comprehensive indicators, using 1990 as a base year (Table 1). The first seven goals indicate the targets that poor countries need to achieve by way of adopting pro-poor policies. The eighth goal is the commitment from rich countries with more aid, debt relief, fair trade, access to market and transfer of technology to achieve the seven goals. To be meaningful, the globally agreed MDG targets must be customised and tailored to the national circumstances. Achievements in social development Despite poor economic growth, Sri Lanka has achieved considerable progress in many indicators identified in the Millennium Development Goals. According to the UNDP Human Development Report 2003, Sri Lanka is said to have performed well within the South Asian region (Table 2). Sri Lanka appears to have faired well when compared to the South Asian neighbours with regard to eradication of extreme poverty (1), access to primary education (2), gender equality in education (3a), child survival (4), maternal health (5) and environmental sustainability measured by forest cover. With regard to combatting malaria and other major diseases (6), and empowerment of women measured by seats held by women in Parliament (3b), Sri Lanka appears to have not performed well. Sri Lanka's achievements have been attributed to the welfare programs undertaken by successive governments since independence in 1948. Until the late 1970, free health care (preventive and curative), free education, (including tertiary level) and free food were made available to all citizens. Much more remains to be done on aspects related to MDGs especially with regard to large regional disparities in income and human poverty, disease control, reducing the high malnutrition among children and high anaemia among pregnant women, gender empowerment (women mostly in low-skill and low-paid jobs and under represented at professional and managerial levels), relevance, quality and responsiveness of education, addressing issues related to aging population and implementation of environmental regulations. Regional disparities Despite an average annual growth rate of 5 per cent and a per-capita income of US$ 950, it is noted that income in Sri Lanka is highly concentrated among the top 20 per cent of the population (with a share of income of over 50 per cent) whereas the income has stagnated for the lowest 40 per cent (with a share of income of 13.9 per cent). This is further confirmed by the provincial analysis of Gross Domestic Production (GDP). The share of GDP from the Western Province alone is 46 per cent whereas Northern, Eastern, Uva and North Central Provinces each contribute to less than 5 per cent of the GDP. There is a significant disparity of GDP among regions. Similarly the GINI-coefficient i.e. a measure of income inequality has increased from 0.43 in 1990/91 to 0.48 in 2002 indicating the widening of income disparity. Although Sri Lanka has been quite impressive in achieving most national MDG targets at aggregate level, critical issues arise from the sub-national level. Progress bypasses the poor as there are poverty pockets or hotspots where intervention is needed. National averages are not revealing, as such it is necessary to disaggregate data by regions, gender, income group, and ethnicity to get more insights. Although based on the internationally agreed poverty line of dollar-a-day, only 6.6 per cent of the Sri Lanka population is in poverty. When one takes account of the National Poverty Line about 22 per cent of the people in Sri Lanka are poor. This implies that one out of five persons fall below the poverty line. Table provides the percentage of population below poverty line at national and sub-national levels. Sri Lanka was able to reduce poverty only by 3 per cent during the last decade despite an average annual GDP growth rate of 4 to 5 per cent. The incidence of poverty is high (30 per cent to 37 per cent) with possibly increasing trends from 1990s in districts such as Badulla, Moneragala, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Hambantota, Puttalam and Matale. The HIES survey has not covered the North-East Districts. The incidence of poverty is estimated to be severe in the North East districts due to the two decades old conflict. War related displacements, inability to normal life due to land mines, minimum access to services for people living in welfare centres, prevalence of diseases are some of the concerns. Levels of poverty vary widely and there are many pockets where conditions are at unacceptable levels. Economic isolation Although about 82 per cent of the country's population has access to safe drinking water, the proportion of population without access to safe drinking water is high in districts such as Ratnapura (41 per cent), Moneragala (36 per cent), Badulla (32 per cent) and Nuwara-Eliya (32 per cent), indicating wide regional disparities (Census, 2001). Although 92 per cent of the Sri Lankan population is said to have access to adequate sanitation, the proportion of population without basic sanitation is alarming in districts such as Ampara (25 per cent), Nuwara Eliya (20 per cent), Puttalam (19 per cent) and Anuradhapura (17 per cent). The national average for underweight children (under 5 years) is said to be 29 per cent in Sri Lanka, whereas in districts such as Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Hambantota and Puttalam it was around 40 per cent. Although the national maternal mortality rate reported by FHB in 2001 is 47 per 100,000 live births, it is very high in districts such as Nuwara Eliya (168), Batticaloa 116), Killinochchi (94), Jaffna (94) and Mullaitivu (94). Although at aggregate level Sri Lanka appears to be on-track in meeting the MDGs, the challenge lies at sub-national level where certain pockets are off-track. The country may not be able to achieve MDGs at sub-national level, if we continue to take a business-as-usual path. It is necessary to identify poverty pockets and target policy, programme and project interventions to eliminate the regional disparities. Although in the past, many programmes and projects were implemented by the successive governments to uplift the quality of life and living conditions of the rural poor, the effectiveness of the programmes have not been up to the expectation. Hence, the need to institutionalise a results-oriented development planning, management, monitoring and evaluation system is fundamental. Government policy supported by prioritised investment plan is fundamental for the achievement of MDGs. Pro-poor growth strategy, scaling-up of investment in human development, (health, education, nutrition, vocational training, population policies, social safety nets), investment in basic infrastructure (roads, power, port, telecommunication, technology), health systems (clinics, hospitals, access to essential drugs, immunisation and vaccination, health personnel), education systems (schools, teachers, curriculum, encouragement for female enrolment), promotion of small medium enterprises through micro-credit, good governance, peace, improved public sector management, empowerment of women, environmental safe-guards and other related policy measures, need to be strengthened to ensure achievement of MDGs. National ownership President Kumaratunga Sri Lanka in her speech to the UN General Assembly in September stated that the government has made necessary changes to align its plans more closely with the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The government has established an apex body known as National Council for Economic Development (NCED) to coordinate the formulation of national policies and its implementation. Under the NCED an MDG Cluster has been formed with senior policy makers to drive the national MDG initiatives. To mainstream the millennium development goals a nationally owned long-term MDG framework translated into a medium term MDG-based poverty reduction strategy (PRS) should become the basis for accelerated country actions through policy reforms, budget restructuring and international support. Such PRS needs to be closely linked to the public investments through Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) or national budgets. The Monitoring and Progress Review Division (MPRD), of the Presidential Secretariat is the agency responsible for monitoring the MDGs. The National Operations Room (NOR), which is the Development Management Information arm of the MPRD, liaises with the line ministries, sub-national agencies, Department of Census and Statistics and Central Bank to maintain data and information system on MDGs. The establishment of the MDG Cluster to drive the process under the NCED is a major policy initiative to institutionalize MDGs into the national development framework of the government. Also the government has recently established a Strategic Enterprises Management Agency (SEMA) to revitalise the strategically important service delivery areas. Contextualising and localising In order to mobilise resources and trigger action the relevant ministries are developing ambitious and challenging localised targets for intermediate years as well as for 2015 through a process of inclusive dialogue, involving academia and civil society organizations. Such localisation initiatives are already in progress in the Ministry of Health, Education, Women's Empowerment, Environment and Samurdhi and Poverty. All key ministries have established ministry level working committees to localise the MDGs. UNDP supported MDG project The government is implementing a project on "Achieving Millennium Development Goals" with the support of the UNDP to strengthen the MDG monitoring capacity of the government. The project activities include launching campaigns and awareness; strengthening the national monitoring and statistical capacity; baseline studies; linking MDG monitoring to planning, budgeting and policy; and localizing the MDGs. The government has initiated action to prepare an MDG Country Report to provide current status of MDGs, its trends and to identify the challenges. Sri Lanka is well placed to achieve the MDGs by 2015. The government has made necessary changes to align the development policies and plans to eradicate poverty and improve human development. Although Sri Lanka's performance at aggregate level is on-track, much more remains to be done at sub-national level. |
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