SOUNDING BOARD is an outlet for opinions on good and crazy things going on at home (wherever I may be). All are welcome. You are not expected to bring anything except your common sense & sense of humor.
'If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.'
-Robert X. Cringely (from geek wisdom)
SOUNDING BOARD
Monday, April 21, 2003
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Tone down the rhetoric
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is currently holding a Strategy Workshop on Mainstreaming the MDGs at Dusit Hotel Nikko, Makati City. Basically, the aim of the workshop is to find ways on how to do two things: (1) integrate the MDGs into the country's goals at the national and subnational levels; and (2) speed up the achievement of the MDGs to meet the goals by 2015. This is an opportunity for concerned stakeholders from government, private sector, donor organizations, and civil society to get together and strategize on how best to attain the MDGs and integrate it in national development processes. The MDGs represent our desire to move forward with a renewed commitment and undying resolve to bring people several steps closer to the specified goals and targets. It is, in essence, upholding people's right to development.
Before I turn SOUNDING BOARD into an MDG advertisement, I would like to say that we have seen all these goals before. In fact, NEDA probably can mouth the issues surrounding the MDGs anytime even without coming up with a text-heavy progress report. If you've been exposed to government reports, go ahead and pick up a report or two and compare it with the MDG report. Most probably you'll see the same banana - only this one discussing MDGs, that one discussing the President's socio-economic report, etc etc.. Technology has a way of nicely describing this process - cut and paste. Mention one goal and NEDA may already have a few paragraphs in mind to go with it.
Everything boils down to goal 8 (Develop a global partnership for development). But the way goal 8 was written, and the way it was discussed in the Philippines' progress report, I doubt if anything new will come out of this exercise.
Goal 8, like most of the goals, was vaguely written. One would expect that since this is the most critical, the targets should be very specific and will leave no room for *misinterpretation*. Well, look again.
The target on official development assistance (ODA) says: 'Address the special needs of the least developed countries (includes tarrif- and quota-free access for exports, enhanced debt-relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt, and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction)'. Now, let's separate the shit from the bull. Donor countries and organizations can waste the whole century by merely 'addressing' the special needs of LDCs in a manner that is favorable to them. Of course there is a line enclosed in parenthesis that mentions some strategies which *may* be explored. Maybe we should be critical and ask: What does 'enhanced debt relief' means? 'More generous' ODA for countries 'committed' to poverty reduction? If donor countries and organizations are sincere in helping poor and developing countries, then it makes no economic sense to let poor and developing countries spend a great deal on debt-servicing. Debt-relief acts as a budget support by freeing funds for basic social services. It makes no economic sense, and it makes no ethical sense either.
There have been fund-related targets in the past --- 20/20 initiative, 0.7% of development countries' national income for ODA, etc etc. Every single target starts strong, attempting to bind actors to certain tasks. Quite expectedly, all of them end being written as mere 'initiatives' between consenting countries or worse, they are labeled as a toothless UN target. The MDGs are no exception.
So will the MDGs make a difference in the Philippines? I don't think so. Note that the country report says the Philippines is generally on track with respect to goals 1 to 7. The country's efforts along those lines will move on even without the MDGs. The critical goal in the MDGs is the most vague one - goal 8. The issues surrounding the achievement of this goal will not be resolved at the country level. This requires bargaining and negotiation with the donor countries and organizations. As we have seen often, the result is a 'non-binding and compromised agreement' - a phrase which implies another decade of empty promises.
