by Noel Baguio
Governor Rodolfo del Rosario assured Davao del Norte’s all-out support and commitment to the millennium development goals (MDGs), even as he urged all sectors to help the president attain the country’s pledge in meeting the requirement of the MDGs.
The MDGs are a set of eight timetabled, concrete and specific targets aimed at significantly reducing, if not eradicating, poverty and the worst forms of human deprivation by 2015.
Del Rosario noted the Aquino government’s commitment to intensify its efforts on specific MDG-related targets, such as alleviation of poverty, improved nutrition, satisfied dietary energy requirement, access to safe drinking water, improved participation, cohort survival and completion rates in elementary education, decreased maternal mortality access to reproductive health services and a decrease in prevalence of HIV and AIDS.
The governor said as a support to the president, the government of Davao del Norte has aligned its strategic plan with the national agenda by refocusing on human development plus housing, people empowerment, and public-private partnership in the next three years.
Pursuant to the governor’s “human-centered” development strategy, the proposed provincial budget for 2011 is putting premium on health programs, education programs, and in agriculture as the people’s main income generator.
Since the goals are holistic and interrelated, Del Rosario noted the process of working together in partnership at the national, regional and local levels is very important.
He said meeting the requirements for the MDGs will entail collaborative efforts of the national and local government units, as well as the engagement of the private sector in mainstreaming the goals in the local development agenda.
“Let us help the president attain our MDG commitment by 2015 by adopting these goals and tailor them to our own organizational objectives,” he urged all stakeholders, during the induction of officers of the Palm City Toastmasters Club in Tagum City.
“I am encouraging the NGOs and the private sector to join in the crusade for people empowerment and public-private partnerships as ‘innovative financing’ approaches,” he said.
In presenting the Philippines Fourth Progress Report on the MDGs before the United Nations last September, President Aquino said the Philippines is “faring well in the reduction of the mortality rate among children age five and below, the decrease in the death rate associated with malaria and our leaps in the treatment of tuberculosis.”
He also noted the country has been successful in expanding access to safe water and sanitation, “achieving significant inroads to improve the health and hygiene of our children.”
Gov. del Rosario rallied all stakeholders to do their local share and help P-Noy achieve for our country what Ghana has achieved,
The governor cited the African country for outperforming all other countries in reducing hunger from 34 percent in 1990 to nine percent in 2004.
