Civil Society, business can help Guyana achieve MDGs
Written by Kwesi Isles
Thursday, 08 September 2011 13:40
Source
Guyana is “likely” to meet some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while it can “potentially” achieve others with the helping hands of civil society and the private sector, according to Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh who on Thursday presented the country’s third progress report towards the 2015 deadline.
The report was launched at the Guyana International Conference Centre with the minister highlighting some of the achievements and challenges.
UN member countries in 2000 agreed that more needed to be done to help impoverished nations and a global response was fashioned with eight international ideals crafted which the nations pledged to pursue and meet by 2015.
The eight MDGs are to: eradicate extreme 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.
According to Dr. Singh, Guyana is on track to achieving the goals that cover “nutrition, food security, primary education, gender equality, child health and environmental sustainability.”
“If the MDGs are to be achieved by 2015 we will need to step up a collective effort; more precisely, civil society groups will need to focus their attention on supporting the achievements of the MDGs with regard to targeted interventions to complement existing policies and programmes that would best serve to maximise the impact of civil society efforts,” the minister said.
He added that the private sector was also another important actor in the development arena as was the faith-based groups and he called on them to exercise their influence to promote “positive and development-oriented messages.
The targets that could be “potentially” met under the goals are those that relate to: halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty; reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters; providing universal access to reproductive health; and reversing the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
According to the report, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty declined from 28.7 percent in 1993 to 18.6 percent in 2006. The government has highlighted as its priority reducing the extreme poverty rate by another 4 percent by 2015. It also outlined that overall unemployment fell from 11.7 percent in 1992 to 10.7 percent in 2006.
‘The main priorities for the government in its effort to boost employment for vulnerable individuals are to improve the system of matching jobs to available workers, reinforce linkages between education, training and the labour market and to more effectively measure progress in the job market,” the report states.
As it relates to maternal health, the report said maternal mortality has been on a “decreasing trend” in recent years from an adjusted ratio of 320 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1991 to 86 per 100,000 in 2008. “The key priority in maternal health is the improvement of the quality of care offered by the maternal health care team, including nurses and obstetricians,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, it added that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the population has decreased from 7.1 percent in 1995 to 1.1 percent in 2009 and that the government will continue to intensify its activities to raise awareness, to increase prevention, improve treatment and focus on high risk groups.
The report also noted a drop in malaria and tuberculosis while stating that the priorities would include overcoming the difficulties associated with detection, treatment and improving data collection and analysis.
In his presentation Dr. Singh noted that Guyana’s development partners in the international community also had a role to play in the achievement of the MDGs.
“Our best national efforts must be matched by adequate, predictable and consistent support from our development partners in helping us to respond to our dynamic development needs,” he told the gathering which included members of the donor community.
Among the challenges Dr. Singh highlighted were the country’s geography as it relates to the land mass and far flung communities; its multiculturalism; monitoring and evaluation capacity; human resources; financial gaps; and the need for continued innovation in policy design and implementation.
MDG 8 - developing a global partnership - was not assessed since this is largely dependent on developments in the international community.
Guyana presented its first progress report in 2003 and the second in 2007.
Written by Kwesi Isles
Thursday, 08 September 2011 13:40
Source
Guyana is “likely” to meet some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while it can “potentially” achieve others with the helping hands of civil society and the private sector, according to Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh who on Thursday presented the country’s third progress report towards the 2015 deadline.The report was launched at the Guyana International Conference Centre with the minister highlighting some of the achievements and challenges.
UN member countries in 2000 agreed that more needed to be done to help impoverished nations and a global response was fashioned with eight international ideals crafted which the nations pledged to pursue and meet by 2015.
The eight MDGs are to: eradicate extreme 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.
According to Dr. Singh, Guyana is on track to achieving the goals that cover “nutrition, food security, primary education, gender equality, child health and environmental sustainability.”
“If the MDGs are to be achieved by 2015 we will need to step up a collective effort; more precisely, civil society groups will need to focus their attention on supporting the achievements of the MDGs with regard to targeted interventions to complement existing policies and programmes that would best serve to maximise the impact of civil society efforts,” the minister said.
He added that the private sector was also another important actor in the development arena as was the faith-based groups and he called on them to exercise their influence to promote “positive and development-oriented messages.
The targets that could be “potentially” met under the goals are those that relate to: halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty; reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters; providing universal access to reproductive health; and reversing the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
According to the report, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty declined from 28.7 percent in 1993 to 18.6 percent in 2006. The government has highlighted as its priority reducing the extreme poverty rate by another 4 percent by 2015. It also outlined that overall unemployment fell from 11.7 percent in 1992 to 10.7 percent in 2006.
‘The main priorities for the government in its effort to boost employment for vulnerable individuals are to improve the system of matching jobs to available workers, reinforce linkages between education, training and the labour market and to more effectively measure progress in the job market,” the report states.
As it relates to maternal health, the report said maternal mortality has been on a “decreasing trend” in recent years from an adjusted ratio of 320 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1991 to 86 per 100,000 in 2008. “The key priority in maternal health is the improvement of the quality of care offered by the maternal health care team, including nurses and obstetricians,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, it added that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the population has decreased from 7.1 percent in 1995 to 1.1 percent in 2009 and that the government will continue to intensify its activities to raise awareness, to increase prevention, improve treatment and focus on high risk groups.
The report also noted a drop in malaria and tuberculosis while stating that the priorities would include overcoming the difficulties associated with detection, treatment and improving data collection and analysis.
In his presentation Dr. Singh noted that Guyana’s development partners in the international community also had a role to play in the achievement of the MDGs.
“Our best national efforts must be matched by adequate, predictable and consistent support from our development partners in helping us to respond to our dynamic development needs,” he told the gathering which included members of the donor community.
Among the challenges Dr. Singh highlighted were the country’s geography as it relates to the land mass and far flung communities; its multiculturalism; monitoring and evaluation capacity; human resources; financial gaps; and the need for continued innovation in policy design and implementation.
MDG 8 - developing a global partnership - was not assessed since this is largely dependent on developments in the international community.
Guyana presented its first progress report in 2003 and the second in 2007.