Where we work: Philippines
Introduction
In the past years since the signing of the Millennium Declaration in the year 2000, the Philippines had made considerable progress in some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly Goals 4, 6 and 7.
Government data reveal that the country’s infant and under-five mortality rates (Goal 4) as well as malaria mortality and morbidity rates (Goal 6) have been steadily decreasing. The country is an early achiever on the Goal 7 target of access to safe drinking water, and is close to reaching the 2015 target of access sanitary toilet facilities.
Despite these remarkable achievements, however, the country is facing challenges in addressing the Goal on poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing maternal deaths, and combating HIV and AIDS.
The UN Millennium Campaign in the country is focused on the Goals where the Philippines is lagging behind. The Campaign is continually pushing for an MDG Breakthrough Plan that not only sustains policies and programs that have worked for the achievement of the Goals, but also addresses roadblocks that have derailed achievements in some areas. There is widespread belief that these are rapid population growth, corruption and bad governance.
The Philippines has the fertile ground to achieve the MDGs. To help the country fulfill this potential, the Campaign is strongly pushing for MDG-supportive policies and advocating for localization and accountability to ensure that the MDGs will not only serve a few, but every single Filipino. Moreover, the Campaign continues to encourage Filipino citizens to perform their roles as guardians of public interest, making sure that governments will respond to the needs of the poor and most vulnerable by investing in good quality education, health, nutrition and infrastructure to support the delivery of basic social services and employment that will engender sustainable growth.
The Campaign works closely with the United Nations Country Team, civil society partners, parliamentarians, local authorities, youth, media and the private sector through various campaigning and advocacy projects to achieve the MDGs.
Milestones of the Campaign
2010
The country intensified its I Vote for MDG campaign in light of the country’s first fully-automated elections held on May 10, 2010 by encouraging voters to choose their leaders based on the strength of their MDG programs and enjoining government officials to make the MDG their platform and to seriously commit to their achievement by 2015.
With the elections over, the Campaign is now pushing newly elected President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III into coming up with an MDG Breakthrough Plan and ensure that the MDGs are mainstreamed into the 2010-2016 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), which will serve as the country’s development framework for the duration of the President’s term, which coincides with the last phase of the MDG campaign.
The Campaign’s CSO partners are putting together an alternative roadmap for the accelerated achievement of the MDGs, which will be presented to, and lobbied with, the new administration for adoption. It is the Campaign’s hope that the roadmap will be adopted and included in the MTPDP.
This year, being the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Declaration, the Campaign is also putting together a Citizens’ MDG Report, which will provide disaggregated and sectoral analyses of the MDG status in the country. In line with the Campaign’s push for localization, an easy-to-replicate Citizens’ Monitoring Tool is being prepared, which will be lobbied for adoption by the local government units. Side by side with it, an online MDG monitoring portal is also in the works.
2009
For the second year in a row, the Philippines sent the loudest voice worldwide in calling for an end to extreme poverty. With the theme “Stand United, Fight Poverty,” 36.1 million Filipinos participated during the three-day global Stand Up and Take Action campaign on October 16 to 18.
Alongside the Stand Up Campaign, the I Vote for MDG advocacy was launched, which aimed to demonstrate that people had the power to influence the authorities in policy, budget and implementation matters, with a view to accelerating the achievement of the MDGs. The advocacy kicked off with partners and individuals around the country filling up forms that identified the MDG issues they believed should be prioritized by the candidates running for office in the May 2010 elections. This became their unified action during the three-day Stand Up campaign. Survey results revealed that the creation of more jobs and improving education were the top two issues that the next government officials were called upon to address.
The preliminary results of the survey were presented to five major presidential candidates on October 20, 2009 during the MDG Leaders’ Forum organized by the UN Millennium Campaign-Philippines in partnership with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), a non-profit organization of more than 50 international news agencies, and Political Arena, which promotes youth voter education with MDGs as the framework.
Filipino celebrities also lent their popularity in the I Vote for MDG advocacy videos. Seven celebrities spoke about the importance of fulfilling the Philippines’ commitment to the MDGs to improve the lives of Filipinos and of choosing candidates in the May 10 elections on the basis of the strength of the candidates’ commitment to the MDGs.
Another turning point in the 2009 campaign was the discovery of billions of impounded funds in the national budget, which were originally intended for MDGs in health, education, agriculture and environment. This is one avenue that is now being lobbied for release by the new administration.
- Garbed in their colorful attires, the people of Bacolod City, known as the “City of Smiles” in the Philippines, called for the end of extreme poverty during their MassKara Festival, in support of the Stand Up and Take Action Campaign in October 2009. A fusion of the English word “mass” or many, and the Spanish word “kara” or face, MassKara translates to “mask” in the local dialect, or “a mass of faces.” The annual event is seen as one of the most iconic street celebrations in the country.
The Campaign’s early years
The country has achieved many firsts in MDG campaigning.
The country first set a Guinness World Record with the largest number of people (35.2 million Filipinos or more than a third of the population) participating in the Stand Up and Take Action global campaign against poverty, in 2008.
It is the first country to come up with an MDG album, a collaboration among the countries top celebrities and musicians, which produced the award-winning song, Tayo Tayo Rin. It is one of the first in Asia to create a parliamentary committee on MDGs through the House of Representatives Special Committee on the MDGs.
The Philippines was among the countries in the South that supported the Campaign in its earliest years of building coalitions and partnerships. The country participated in the national consultation meetings in 2004, where it was concluded that the MDGs represented political commitment at the highest levels and offered an opportunity to get poor people their rightful entitlement to basic services and livelihoods.
YouthVote 2010
Elections 2010
The Philippines elections are on 10 May 2010 and election strategies are quickly unfolding. This matrix displays what each presidential candidate has to say about the MDGs, in terms of goal progress and individual stance based on their official platforms.
SUTA 2009
For the second year in a row, the Philippines sent the loudest voice worldwide in calling for an end to extreme poverty, with 36.1 million Filipinos participating in various events during the three-day global Stand Up Take Action against poverty campaign of the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) from October 16 to 18, 2009.
