| Mongolia slow in achieving MDG targets |
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| By D. Binderiya | |
| Tuesday, 17 October 2006 | |
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Mongolia was making slow progress in its Millennium
Development Goals and was not performing satisfactorily on some key targets,
according to a new report by three development organizations.
The joint report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the UNDP and Asian Development Bank (ADB), released on October 16, said that while the Asia/Pacific region was on track to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals, Mongolia had the lowest score on the MDG progress index, and also had a negative score on the MDG status index. Only 23 percent of Mongolia’s exports entered developed countries’ markets free of duties in 2003, down from 71% in 1996. Mongolia had also regressed in its results on the MDG indicators of proportion of population below US$1 per day, prevalence of underweight children under five years of age and net enrolment ratio in primary education. It also had recorded an ongoing downward trend since the 1990s in one of the MDG main indicators: the proportion of population with access to improved water resources in urban and rural areas. Falling further behind – and causing the greatest concern because they scored negatively on both progress and latest status indexes – are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. “Much remains to be done if governments in the region are serious about delivering MDG promises to their poor and to achieve sustainable development,” the report said. “It is true that developing country governments have the primary responsibility to prioritize national development, and to commit themselves to pursuing institutions and policies that promote the sustainable economic growth required to achieve the MDGs.” |
