MDG report highlights poverty alleviation

From The Sunday Observer, written by Ranga Jayasuriya.

Sri Lanka's plans to uplift over five million of country's poor will be the highlight of the Millennium Development Goals Report to be released this week at the donor forum in Kandy.

The report, first of its kind to be drafted by the government with the collaboration of the National Council for Economic Development will be the yardstick by which the country can measure the success of its long and short-term strategies.

The report assesses the United Nations' target of halving poverty in Sri Lanka by 2015.

The persistent problems dogging the plantation sector, North-East and rural areas are set against a backdrop of steady progress in lowering infant and maternal mortality and achieving significant education goals for children, according to the report. "There are about five million people living in poverty in Sri Lanka, perhaps more," says the report, noting that if statistics from districts affected by the ethnic conflict had been available, poverty figures would be much higher.

It also spotlights the disparity in development and the growing poverty in inland rural areas and the coastal belt affected by the December 26 tsunami. It identifies that despite slow pace of development on some fronts, the island boasts of high literacy rates with some 85 per cent of children between 6 to 10 years attending school and a high number of children having access to free primary and secondary education.

Eight targets envisaged to achieve through the Millennium Development Goals Project are halving the global poverty by 2015, achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2015, gender equality at education, reduce infant mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, ensure environmental sustainability and develop global partnership for development.

The plans due to be unveiled at the donor meet this week is formulated based on a survey which covers the eight co-areas of development goals and is a reference point for data on the state of the economy, aid flows, health and education indicators, water, sanitation and the environment and infrastructure growth.