The MDGs: Election issues, too

by Che de los Reyes

ELECTIONS, according to the United Nations, are “one of the most important opportunities when the poor can exercise the power of their large numbers as voters and extract some commitments from the political class.”

But more than just extracting promises from the candidates, Filipino voters may also look at elections as an occasion to pass judgment on the performance of those who wish to govern them. Sadly, according to Dr. Romulo A. Virola, director-general of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Filipino voters in some areas had tended to keep in power politicians who performed the least in terms of political, economic and social governance, even as they vote out of power those who had performed better.

Virola revealed this odd situation at a recent seminar on “The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as Election Issues,” that the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism conducted in Legazpi City, Albay for 36 journalists from eight provinces in the Bicol and Southern Tagalog regions.

According to Virola, data from the Good Governance Index that NSCB is currently monitoring highlight the inextricable link between the MDGs and good governance — and could explain in large measure why the Philippines is lagging behind some of the performance targets of the MDGs.

The seminar is the first of four “knowledge-sharing” seminars on the MDGs that the PCIJ will conduct for journalists across the regions to encourage reporting, discussion, and debate on the MDGs, particularly Goal 2 (universal access to primary education) and Goal 5 (maternal health).

A decade has already passed since the Philippine government signed the Millennium Declaration that enrolls the MDGs (eight goals, 18 targets, 48 indicators), but public awareness remains low not only among journalists, but also among local government officials. The PCIJ seminar affirmed this. While the government has achieved gains in certain areas, it has acknowledged that the goals of universal access to primary education and improving maternal health are the least likely to be achieved before the 2015 deadline.

The seminar emphasized the crucial role that journalists play in revving up government action on the MDGs, and in encouraging voters to critically assess the performance of local officials in terms of the specific and interrelated development targets set under the MDG framework.

And amid the muddle of partisan and self-serving messages from candidates, the challenge that journalists face is how to generate unique news pegs meaningful to voters, resist “the daily slide to sameness” and make the MDGs as issues that must rise above the din. The PCIJ seminar series aims to encourage full and vigorous advocacy of the MDGs as critical and strategic policy issues for candidates and voters in the May 2010 elections.

In encouraging journalists to report on the MDGs, particularly on education and maternal health, resource persons clarified that the MDGs are not just a nebulous package of state commitments. After all, education, maternal health, and environmental sustainability are intrinsically core economic, governance, and political issues, as much as poverty, jobs, and housing are. Malou Mangahas, PCIJ executive director, said reporting on the MDGs could inform daily reportage with a little more effort by journalists to make “the important interesting, and the interesting relevant.”

Armed with statistics and tips from the seminar, as well as command of their local situation, the seminar participants set out to pitch story ideas built around the MDGs as lens and reference. Quite a big number said they plan to pursue these stories beyond the seminar, with editorial and resources support from the PCIJ.

At the close of the seminar, one participant said: “I realized that my support is very important in disseminating information on the MDGs.” This spirit of optimism and the will to tell stories that must be told —issues that really matter to voters in the May 2010 elections—is what PCIJ precisely hopes to build during the election campaign period and beyond. – PCIJ, January 2010