The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have changed the way we approach our development strategy, from development heavily oriented toward economic growth to development that promotes equality. Economic development that promotes equality will in turn improve the quality of life of most people.
Most, if not all, the eight MDG goals target lifting poor people out of poverty and improve their quality of life. The more people lifted from poverty, the more people there are to make a contribution to the economy and eventually boost economic growth. Therefore, to see if our economic development focuses more on growth or more on equity, we can look at our record in achieving our MDGs.
Looking into the official records on our MDGs so far, it seems that we are on the right track in most cases, except in the critical areas of maternal mortality rate, HIV/AIDS control, improving access to clean water and, to some extent, poverty eradication. Indonesia can still achieve its MDGs if concerted measures are taken speedily, especially in the areas where we lag behind.
In the area of improving maternal health, our target is to reduce by three quarters from 390 to 110 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2015. Out maternal death rate currently stands at 228 deaths. It needs a gigantic effort to achieve the target. The main problem lies with those mothers in rural areas who have limited knowledge about maternity health or have no access to public health services. To address this problem, the central government needs to work with local governments where the maternal death rate is still high.
We also need to work hard in controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS as the prevalence of people with HIV/AIDS currently stands at 5.6 per 100,000. What makes it more worrisome is that a huge proportion of young people, 33 percent, have limited knowledge on HIV/AIDS. Worse still, only 60 percent of people at high risk of contracting the disease use condoms during sex. Practical measures in this area will be most helpful, for example, the distribution of free condoms.
We are also falling short in preserving our environment, especially in providing our people with sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. In both urban and rural areas, most people exploit ground water to meet their daily needs. This over-exploitation of ground water is not good for the environment. Our local governments simply fail to provide piped water to the people. Currently, only 30 percent of people in urban areas and 9 percent of people in rural areas have access to tap water.
Facing statistics as dire as these, our targets of 67 percent and 53 percent respectively by 2015 seem impossible to achieve.
Most important of our MDGs is our pledge to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. If we look at data from the government, it seems that we are on track to achieve the target. But there are many definitions of poverty. If poverty is defined as those living on less than US$1 per day, as many government officials cite, then we have already achieved the target of 10 percent. But if we use the higher marker of those living on less than $2 a day, we are very far from achieving the target as half of our population still lives on less than $2 a day.
It’s up to us to decide which definition we use, but knowing that half of our population lives below $2 a day indicates that our development strategy does not really promote equality. We have recorded high economic growth; our gross domestic product is one of the largest in the world; and the world recognizes and includes us among the prestigious G20 group of nations. But these things do not mean a lot to us when half of our countrymen and women still live in poverty.
Poverty is the source of many problems we as a country face today. Therefore, let’s make poverty our common enemy in the next five years.
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