..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 7 September 2005
Press Release No: G/20/2005

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
IN REACH IN ASIA, SAYS UN/ADB REPORT

Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) -- Asia and the Pacific is one of the world’s most dynamic regions and many of its countries are making progress toward achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But none of the region’s developing countries is on track to achieve all the goals, according to a new report from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Development Programme, and the Asian Development Bank.

“This region has made rapid progress towards many of the MDGs. But not all the developing countries in Asia and the Pacific are making sufficient progress; indeed none are currently on track to meet all the goals by 2015,” according to the report, , which was released today in Manila.A Future Within Reach: Reshaping Institutions in a Region of Disparities to Meet the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific

The report argues that many countries should be able to achieve many of the goals if they invest sufficient resources and make appropriate institutional changes – in particular reforming the way they deliver public services to reach their poorest and most marginalized citizens.

“To achieve the MDGs, the key challenge is to tackle the region's growing disparities by extending the benefits of the region's economic success and prosperity to its 680 million poor. This is the real battle we will have to fight in Asia-Pacific,” said Mr. Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of UNESCAP.

Asian developing countries will need to invest more resources to win this battle, according to the report. But financial resources alone will not be sufficient. The report argues that countries need to strengthen national and local institutions in many areas to support efforts to achieve the goals.

The MDGs were established in 2000, following the Millennium Summit in New York, when the world’s governments committed themselves to a series of development targets to be reached by 2015.

There are eight MDGs—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.

On 14-16 September 2005, world leaders will reconvene in New York to assess progress toward the goals and future actions required to ensure they are achieved. A Future Within Reach will be a key input to this meeting.

“Money is important, but money alone is not enough,” said Mr. Hafiz A. Pasha, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for the Bureau of Asia and the Pacific. “Appropriate institutions must be in place to ensure the MDGs are achieved; however, institutional bottlenecks exist in many countries, particularly in terms of costs, laws and regulations. This creates significant barriers to providing access to the poor for services such as education, health, and water supply and sanitation, which are crucial to the attainment of the Goals.”

The report notes that one of the most direct ways Governments can address poverty—and meet the MDGs—is by ensuring adequate basic services, either providing them directly or sustaining a framework for provision through the private sector or civil society.

While most institutional changes to promote the MDGs will need to take place at the national level, the report highlights opportunities, particularly in the Asia-Pacific context, for concerted international action on the pursuit of “international public goods” such as open trading systems and clean air.

The report identifies the potential for successful regional cooperation in areas including resource mobilization, monetary cooperation, regularizing labor migration, improving food security, tackling HIV/AIDS and other diseases, supporting green growth, improving governance, and strengthening interaction among regional institutions.

“Our region’s accomplishments in reducing income poverty are now well recognized, but an immense task lies ahead of us,” ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told a conference today to discuss the report’s findings and recommendations.

“Not all parts of the region, and certainly far from all the region’s poor, are feeling the benefits of this progress. And, on the non-income MDGs, the region’s performance has not been good,” he said.

“Given Asia's growing prosperity, there is considerable scope for regional cooperation in many critical areas. The Peoples' Republic of China, India and others are already spending significant amounts on assistance to less developed Asian economies, and there are major opportunities to jointly tackle common threats,” said Geert van der Linden, ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development.

“A number of Asian nations have had great success reducing income poverty and improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people. This experience must be shared throughout the region to help the hundreds of millions more who still face dire situations daily,” he said.

For further information, please contact:

In Bangkok:
Ms. Margaret Hanley
United Nations Information Services (UNIS)
Tel: +(66-2) 288-1861-66
Fax: +(66-2) 288-1052
E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org

In Manila, Philippines:
Mr. David Lazarus, Chief, UNIS
c/o EDSA Shangri-La Hotel
1 Garden Way, Ortigas Centre, Mandaluyong City, 1650 Manila, Philippines
Tel. (63 2) 6338888; Fax: (63 2) 6311067

The Millennium Development Goals: Asia-Pacific Status Report, September 2005

This brief consists of edited excerpts from A Future Within Reach: Reshaping Institutions in a Region of Disparities to Meet the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific, published by the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in September 2005.

Goal 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger — On the poverty target, the Asian and Pacific region has made dramatic progress. Between 1990 and 2001 in the 23 countries offering sufficient data (out of a total of 55) the proportion of people living on less than $1 per day fell from 31 to 20 per cent. Despite population growth, the absolute number of poor people also fell – from 931 to 679 million. Asia and the Pacific’s overall poverty reduction will inevitably be swayed by the achievements of China and India – and both are well on track, as are 17 other countries.
The second target under this goal is to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. For 27 countries, the proportion of people consuming less than the minimum dietary energy requirement fell between the early 1990s and 2001, but only slightly – from 18.7 to 15.1 per cent. Another important indicator is child malnutrition which is disturbingly high in a number of countries: 48 per cent of children are undernourished in Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, for example, and 47 per cent in India.
Goal 2 – Achieve universal primary education — Here progress has been good. Most countries in the region have primary enrolment ratios above 80 per cent, and many above 90 per cent. Of the 33 countries with sufficient data available to estimate a trend, 8 have already achieved the target, and 11 others are on track to do so. Another measure of success is the primary completion rate, which for the region as a whole between 1998 and 2001 rose from 89 to 93 per cent – though this gives an over-optimistic picture since the number of graduates is swollen by over-age children.
Goal 3 – Promote gender equality and empower women — Progress on eliminating gender disparity in education has been good, but progress in participation and empowerment needs to be accelerated. The target under this goal focuses on eliminating gender disparity at all levels of education. At the primary level, of the 38 countries or territories with data available, 26 have already achieved the target and 5 are on track to do so. Bangladesh and China have made particularly rapid progress.
At the secondary level the situation also seems positive. Across the region, between 1990 and 2001 the ratio of girls to boys at the secondary level increased from 0.73 to 0.87. For tertiary education there has also been considerable progress. Of the 27 countries with the necessary data, 15 have already achieved the target, while 5 others are on track; indeed in tertiary education a number of countries have more females than males.
Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality — Here the picture is mixed. The first target is to reduce the under-5 mortality rate by two thirds. For this indicator the 47 countries with data available divide into two halves. Half have already achieved their targets – and all have child mortality rates below 45 per 1,000 live births. The other half, however, are in a very different position: only 4 are on track to meet the target, 14 are off track, making progress too slowly, while 3 are regressing.
In 2003, the largest number of child deaths was in India, 2.3 million, followed by China, 650,000, and Pakistan, 481,000. Of these countries only China has been making sufficient progress; both India and Pakistan are moving too slowly. The most shocking rate, however, is in Afghanistan with 257 deaths per 1,000 live births: one child in four dies before reaching the age of 5.
Goal 5 – Improve maternal health — Here too progress has been far too slow. The target is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters between 1990 and 2015, but the ratio in the average Asian developing country has only declined from 395 to 342. Even more alarming, of the 42 countries for which data are available, maternal mortality has gone up in 22. Around two thirds of Asian maternal deaths, 164,000, take place in India and Pakistan, both among the regressing countries. The highest maternal mortality rates per 100,000 live births are, however, in Afghanistan (1,900), Nepal (740) and Timor-Leste (660).
Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases — HIV/AIDS is an area of great concern. The target is to have halted and begun to reverse the spread of the epidemic by 2015. Overall, however, the region is off track: between 2001 and 2003 the prevalence among those aged 15-49 in the average Asian country rose from 0.39 to 0.45 per cent. As of 2004, the Asia-Pacific region has over 9 million people living with HIV/AIDS and each year half a million people die.
The highest prevalences among adults aged 15-49 are all in South-East Asia: Cambodia, 2.6 per cent; Thailand, 1.5 per cent; and Myanmar, 1.2 per cent – though the first two of these have already achieved their MDG targets, since they have reduced the prevalence. The highest numbers of infected people, however, are to be found in India and the Russian Federation, where the prevalence is rising. China has kept the prevalence fairly stable, so can be considered “on track”.
There are also worries about malaria. Although there are insufficient data to calculate trends, in some countries the disease seems to be making a comeback. The highest prevalences are in the Pacific, notably Solomon Islands, where the disease affects 15 per cent of the population. The largest number of people sick are in Indonesia, with 1.9 million people infected. The largest number of deaths are in India – more than 30,000 each year. The highest death rate, however, is in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
Tuberculosis remains a major concern, though in this case the region is making progress: between 1990 and 2003 the number of people infected declined from 12.8 million to 10.3 million and the number of people dying each year fell from 1.1 million to 1.0 million. The largest number of people infected in 2003 were in the most populous countries: China, 3.2 million; India, 3.1 million; and Indonesia, 1.5 million. All three are, however, making progress.
Goal 7 – Ensure environmental sustainability — The first target is to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs. Based on their progress in preparing national sustainable development strategies, of the 55 Asia-Pacific developing countries only 5 are early achievers and 10 are on track. This goal also aims to reverse the loss of environmental resources. Here the picture is also mixed: over the period 1990-2000, in the 48 countries reporting data the proportion of land forested increased in 13, remained unchanged in 17 and decreased in 18. The most rapid rates of deforestation have been in Micronesia, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Another environmental indicator is carbon dioxide emissions. Between 1990 and 2002, average per capita emissions increased across the region from 2.2 tons to 2.5 tons. Of the 50 countries for which data are available, 30 are regressing, while 20 have become early achievers.
A further important target is to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation. For urban water supplies, of the 40 countries offering data, 31 are early achievers or on track and even those that are regressing, nevertheless, had achieved quite high values. The situation in the rural areas is quite different, with coverage typically 10 to 20 percentage points lower.

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