The Millennium Development Goals Deadline is at hand...

by: Marianne Audrey C. Mahusay-Bonjoc

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are targeted to be fulfilled on 2015. They are eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, empowering women and promoting equality between women and men, reducing under-five mortality by two thirds, reducing maternal mortality by three quarters, reversing the spread of diseases especially HIV/AIDS and Malaria, ensuring environmental sustainability, and creating a global partnership for development, with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.

How close are we to fulfilling them? The United Nations secretary-General said that "We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals – worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries – but only if we break with business as usual. We cannot win overnight. Success will require sustained action across the entire decade between now and the deadline. It takes time to train the teachers, nurses and engineers; to build the roads, schools and hospitals; to grow the small and large businesses able to create the jobs and income needed. So we must start now. And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help to achieve
the Goals."

The only solution in attaining these goals is cooperation among every individual in the society by starting with the Local Government Unit specifically the Barangay. As presented in the report of MDG that these commitments should be moved from global to the local levels. There are so many things a barangay can do for the promotion and development of its locality. A small start can lead to big leaps, and one unit may influence the whole country.

Poverty sits at the door of countries with a low income economy which would mean having a Gross National Product per capita of $765 dollars or less. UN listed 50 countries belonging to such category. They are: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, East Timor, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia.

Now the question would be of time limitation. Will the fifty countries be freed from poverty before the cock crows on the first hour of the first day of 2015? Noting the fact that poverty is just one of the eight goals UN is trying to fulfill.

I always believed that faith moves mountain and faith without works is dead. Now this can also be applied to achieving MDG. If everyone in the whole world believes that there is a solution to global problems, coupled with a hand in hand effort to attain such goal, hence, 2015 is far enough for the completion of the MDG!

All we need are dedicated and highly-energized leaders who have the heart to motivate their people and to encourage each of them to rise up, work and aim for a brighter future. Improvement and development are products of hard work, cooperation and resourcefulness of the members of a community. Such efforts would sprout into a colorful bud ready to bloom at the right time.

Who says the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved in 2015? I say it can, if we all do our part!