In a bid to rally support for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a high UN ranking official identified yesterday to city mayors critical areas where action is needed for them and other local government units (LGUs) to achieve the MDGs and as an end result, improve better living conditions to their electorate. These are: governance, poverty-environment linkages, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, crisis prevention and recovery and HIV/AIDS.
Renaud Meyer, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director for the Philippines, reported challenges and improvements made in achieving the MDGs. He is referring to the 8 Millennium Development goals agreed by 189 government leaders of UN member countries to achieve by 2015. These are: to halve extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development. “These are the challenges the new administration faces which have to be addressed to the MDG Summit in September,” Meyer said in his briefing at the 56th General Assembly of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) in the Asian Institute of Management Conference Center, Makati City yesterday. He advised city mayors to contribute their share in achieving the goals based on local baselines, needs and resources.
Governance
With the influx of people in urban areas, city mayors and LGUs should be able to deliver public services that address the MDGs in a way that is transparent and shows accountability. He cited local procurement for public services and goods to be one efficient tool city mayors can use. “Through this, we can assure the public that we are not only transparent in our procurement transactions eliminating the common perception that elected officials are corrupt officials but also pushing to attain the MDGs for the common good of the citizenry,” Meyer said. A clear example is the UNDP supported project with LCP, “Promoting Transparency and Accountability n Procurement in the MDGs,” which aims to promote transparency and efficiency in the delivery of MDG-related goods and services by establishing and strengthening a participatory procurement system at the LGU level. Launched in 2009, the project is now implemented in 10 cities namely: Butuan, Kabankalan, Valenzuela, Vigan, Iriga, Roxas, Oroquieta, Surigao, Masbate, and Tacurong. 200 LGU staff were trained in ensuring citizenship engagement in participatory procurement processes. Another achievement was the production of guidelines to strengthen the engagement of civil society, especially local women’s groups, in the local procurement process.
Poverty-Environment Linkages
Meyer presented a direct relationship between cities and the poverty-environment initiative (PEI), a global UN programme that helps countries integrate poverty-environment linkages into national and sub-national development planning.
When there are more people becoming poorer in cities, its impact to the environment is also greater. To address the issue, “LGUs need to strengthen the link between communities and the environment and reflect it in their local development plans, land use plans, and allocation of resources,” said Meyer. City mayors and LGUs should also act as catalysts forging partnerships with local businesses because alone, they cannot create an impact to the community they are both serving. Suggested action steps include capacity development of selected LGUs to increase the awareness, action and investments in environment and use of revenues from natural resources for poverty reduction and enabling conditions established at national level to promote public investment in environment and use of revenues from natural resources for poverty reduction.
Environment and Sustainable Development
As earlier established, cities are agents of change towards environmental quality improvement and natural resources enhancement. “This poses a risk for cities because as many are aware, they are prone to disasters by virtue of exposure to natural hazards and it is getting worse because of the impact of climate change,” Meyer said. What city mayors can do then, is to manage their inherent vulnerabilities and local environment and natural business base for increased socioeconomic productivity towards sustainable development. Examples of accomplished projects include the “Hazard Mapping, Contingency Planning and strengthening capacities for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management” implemented in 17 provinces using large scale exercises involving communities on disaster planning and response. Another is the “Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Local Development Planning and Budgeting” project that included a production of guidelines and training of LGU officials.
Crisis Prevention and Recovery
Typhoons Ondoy, Pepeng and Santi and its devastating impact have highlighted the critical role LGUs play in the area of disaster recovery. “It begins in ensuring humanitarian assistance to victims and seek sustainable development opportunities to help them build their lives and livelihood,” Meyer said. A clear example is the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) programme in partnership with the cities of Marikina and Pasig, and the Municipality of Cainta, with the LCP as overall partner, which seeks to strengthen local capacities of LGU staff and communities to better address natural disasters.
HIV/AIDS Response
Sexual diseases or anything that is related to sex may be a taboo in the Philippines but Meyer warned city mayors to look at HIV/AIDS “not as a health issue but as a development one.” From 1984 to 2009, there are already 5,000 cases of HIV/AIDS in the country and it continues to escalate this year with a rate of 1 new case in every 5 hours. “Action that should be taken include enacting ordinances that will enable local governments and stakeholders to formulate and implement related policies and programmes, establishing local coordinating mechanisms such as local AIDS council, working with civil society groups and the community to raise public awareness, and allocating or mobilizing resources as required for the response,” Meyer said. He mentioned an initiative by the local government of Tabaco City in Albay on May 26, 2010 called the AIDS Candlelight Memorial, a global event promoting both global solidarity and the need for collective action around HIV and human rights. A separate candlelight memorial was held two days later in Malate, Manila with support from the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), Department of Health (DOH) and TLF Share Collective, Inc., an NGO involved in HIV and AIDS advocacy and UNDP. UNDP have other contributions to local AIDS response including the landmark establishment of the Regional AIDS Assistance Team in a joint memorandum circular with DOH, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Other activities are training of 150 local officials and champions to strengthen capacities to respond to HIV epidemic, guidance on establishment of local coordinating mechanisms with local government agencies, capacity assessment of selected LGUs to respond to AIDS, mapping of on-going initiatives conducted by LGUs, orientation of newly elected officials on HIV/AIDS and creation of a sisterhood agreement between LGUs.
Call to Action
Outgoing Secretary General Mel Sarmiento of LCP couldn’t be more in praise with the partnership of LCP and UNDP in support of projects addressing the MDGs he personally rooted for in his career as mayor of Calbayog City. “I was personally invited to attend the Bombay Declaration in 2004 where I learned a lot about MDGs although it is been done in the past, we just don’t know the targets,” Sarmiento said. He presented his success in localizing the MDGs in New York in 2008 as the Philippine representative during the Side Event on Local Poverty Reduction and MDG Localization, part of United Nations High-Level Event on the MDGs. Now a congressman-elect of the First District of Samar, Sarmiento reiterated the need for LGUs to continue or even improve their initiatives to address the MDGs. “What needs to be done now is for the national government and the local government to replicate the successes of pilot projects supported by UNDP,” said Sarmiento.
See also UNDP Philippines
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