RI progress to development goals

RI progress to development goals

Romeo A. Reyes, Jakarta

The national development planning agency, BAPPENAS, has just
launched Indonesia's Progress Report on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). It was symbolically handed over by the
Chairman of BAPPENAS and State Minister for Development Planning,
Kwik Kian Gie, to the Special UN Ambassador for the MDGs, Erna
Witoelar, and to the UN Resident Coordinator, Bo Asplund.

The MDGs came out of the Millennium Declaration relating to
peace, security and development, and adopted by 191 nations, 147
of which were represented at their September 2000 Summit in New
York. They incorporate the international development goals
(IDGs) earlier adopted by the series of world summits and global
conferences supported by the United Nations in the 1990s.

They set forth a comprehensive rights-based global development
agenda, translated into quantitative and time-bound targets that
are objectively verifiable and monitorable. The eight goals are:
Eradicate poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary
education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce
child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability;
and develop a global partnership for development.

The report takes stock of the situation with respect to the
status and progress made by Indonesia and its provinces since
1990 and up to the present (when latest data is available)
towards realizing the MDG targets.

With respect Goal 1, Indonesia appears to have done well and
on track towards realizing the target of reducing poverty
incidence by one half from 1990 to 2015, based on a nationally
calculated poverty line. For many years, national poverty head
count ratio had exhibited a downward trend from over 30 percent
in the 1970s to only 15 percent in 1990 mainly as a result of
sustained economic growth.

This trend, however, was reversed when the economic crisis
struck in 1997-1998 and impoverished many people, thereby raising
the ratio back to 23.4 percent in 1999. Since then, poverty
incidence has again shown a declining trend as the economy
recovered, recording a head count ratio of 18.2 percent in 2002
and 17.4 percent in 2003.

Indonesia has also done quite well towards providing universal
access to primary education. Net enrollment ratio in primary
education has increased from 89 percent in 1992 to 93 percent in
2003. The survival rate, i.e. the proportion of students who
graduate from primary school, has also increased from 65.4
percent during school years 1983-1991 to 73.3 percent during
1994-2002. The latter percentage, however, is still far from the
target of universal completion of a full course of primary
schooling.

Another significant progress made by Indonesia is in reducing
child (under-five years) mortality rate. From as high as 216 per
thousand live birth in 1960, it had declined to 58 in 1997 and 46
in 2002. Clearly, Indonesia has made good progress and is on
track towards realizing the target of reducing under-five
mortality rate by two thirds. However, progress made towards
realizing the target of reducing maternal mortality rate by three
quarters is not so encouraging. While there was some reduction in
mortality from 390 per thousand live births in 1990 to 307 in
2000, the report concluded that achieving the target by 2015 is
unlikely.

Maternal mortality in Indonesia is still considerably higher
relative to other ASEAN countries with the same level of
development, e.g. Thailand.

The prospect of ensuring environmental sustainability by
reversing the loss of environmental resources is not so bright
either based on the proportion of land area covered by forest.
The proportion continued to decline from 68 to 64 percent from
1993 to 2001, and was believed to be exacerbated by the economic
crisis as people turned to forest resources for livelihood in an
unsustainable way.

In general, the report conveys a positive message with respect
to the progress made thus far by Indonesia at the national level.
However, the report also revealed very serious disparities across
provinces with respect to the progress made and the prospects for
realizing the MDG targets.

Given those disparities, the real challenge for Indonesia is
whether, how, and to what extent the MDGs could be realized in an
equitable and inclusive way, in line with the principle that
development is a fundamental human right.

Take Goal 1 as an example. Given that poverty incidence in
Indonesia (measured through the national poverty line) was 15
percent in 1990 and that the global target is to reduce poverty
by one half, the nationally translated target in terms of poverty
head count ratio by 2015 would be 7.5 percent.

The report concluded that Indonesia is on track towards
achieving that target at the national level, which is great and
encouraging. However, the prospects across provinces for
realizing the target are very different.
Consider the following. Two provinces already registered a rate
below 7.5 percent in 2002 (DKI Jakarta -- 3.4 and Bali -- 6.9 ),
implying that the target had already been reached that year.
However, many other provinces recorded a rate of well over 20
percent in 2002, e.g. Maluku at 34.8 percent and Papua at 41.8
percent, which is the highest rate.

In accordance with the rights-based approach to development,
the people of Maluku and Papua has the same and equal right as
the people of Jakarta and Bali not to be poor and to have access
to basic social services.

If the MDGs are to be realized in an equitable and inclusive
way, consistent with the rights-based approach to development, an
internally consistent set of MDG targets across provinces and
even districts must be worked out.

Given the wide disparity of progress across provinces revealed
by the first progress report, a national consensus must be forged
on the extent to which targets are to be adjusted and existing
trends to be altered through deliberate policies, programs and
budgetary allocation across provinces and districts.

As a logical culmination of the MDG process, target setting
and the accompanying activities of strategy formulation and
public investment (along with technical cooperation) programming
should be mainstreamed into normal development management
functions at national, provincial and district levels.

Mainstreaming of the MDGs and human development strategies,
including for poverty reduction, into national and regional
development planning could be initiated when the interim plans
for 2005-2006 are prepared, as the country undergoes a transition
into a new system of governance in 2004.

The written is UNDP Programme Development Advisor. The views
expressed herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect
those of UNDP