WAKE UP CALL FOR MEETING MDGs By Fardah

      Jakarta, Sept 17, 2010 (ANTARA) - The deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) is only four years away but some countries seem to be on the brink of failure as the number of poor people globally has not decreased significantly.
       The latest warning on a possible failure came from Amnesty International which said in its press statement on Sept. 16, that the MDGs are failing the world`s poorest people because governments are ignoring and abusing their human rights.

       More than a billion people living in slums are not even included in MDG efforts because the MDG target on slums only commits to improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers.
       "Unless world leaders agree to take urgent steps to uphold the human rights of people living in poverty, the poorest and most disadvantaged people around the world will continue to be left out of the MDGs," said Amnesty International`s Secretary General Salil Shetty, who will be leading the organization`s delegation to an MDGs Summit to be held at a United Nations (UN) summit in New York on 20-22 September.
       Many states are carrying out mass forced evictions that drive slum dwellers even deeper into poverty and violate their right to housing.
       An estimated 70 per cent of those living in poverty are women. Yet MDG efforts in many countries fail to address the wide-spread discrimination women face in accessing food, water, sanitation and housing, the Amnesty International said.
       Responding to the wake-up call made by Amnesty International, the House of Representatives (DPR) leadership has declared an MDG achievement acceleration in a discussion dubbed "Parliament Stands Up for MDGs".

Based on the data issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) in August 2010, Indonesia has around 31.01 million poor people, or 13.3 percent of the country`s total population.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie in the discussion declared the parliament`s commitment to the acceleration of the MDGs achievement by 2015 in order to improve the quality of Indonesian human resources.

He said poverty is the common enemy of the world, including Indonesia. The Parliament (DPR) has paid a lot of attention to the efforts to achieve MDGs sooner than scheduled.

"The Indonesian government has worked hard to lower poverty rate and has produced positive results, although not significantly," he said.

The government has improved the health and education services in order to lower the poverty rate, he said, however admitting that the social gap between the poor and the rich is still big.

He called on all parties to help lower the poverty rate in Indonesia during remaining time before the MDGs` dateline of 2015.

Lowering the poverty rate is the main priority of the eight-point Millennium Development Goals which have to be achieved by 2015, Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, chairperson of the DPR`s MDGs Working Committee, said on the occasion.

The MDGs focus on eight areas for which there are specific goals and targets, mainly to be met by 2015, namely extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; gender equality and empowering women; child mortality; maternal health; HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.

Some 189 heads of state/government , including from Indonesia, expressed their commitment to achieving MDGs in 1999. Since then, the Indonesian government has stepped up efforts to implement pro-people programs.

The House of Representatives (DPR)`s MDGs Working Committee is committed to supporting the government`s programs which are pro-people and pro-MDGs, Nurhayati said.

Another female legislator, Angelina Sondakh, shared the concern expressed by Amnesty International on the possible failure of some countries, including Indonesia, to achieve MDGs.

Sondakh, a legislator of the Democrat Party faction and former Miss Indonesia, said the government must step up its efforts to improve education, health, women`s welfare, religious affairs, and manpower.

Indonesia needs to make breakthroughs in those areas so that the country would not be categorized as a country that failed in implementing the MDG programs, she said.

"We have to make some breakthroughs in order to help the poor have access to proper health, education, and sanitation services, and improve their welfare," she said.

The main target of MDGs was to help lower the poverty rate, Sondakh, a special ambassador for orangutan preservation, said.

She agreed with a statement of Amnesty International`s Secretary General Salil Shetty that talking alone was not enough to achieve the MDGs.

Salil Shetty said: "But language alone is not enough, people must be able to hold governments accountable when they fail to uphold human rights. They should be able to challenge corruption or neglect through courts and regulatory bodies to ensure governments actually fulfill their obligations."

"But that is what is happening - and will continue to happen - unless world leaders commit to take the action necessary to achieve real change, and to uphold the human rights of the poor. This Summit is the last chance; failure here and now all but guarantees failure in 2015," Shetty warned.

As for Indonesia, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has frequently reiterated that the government will step up efforts to reduce poverty and boost the national economy.

"We want it to be faster," the president said Wednesday (Sept. 15) during a presidential lecture at the State Palace, Jakarta.

The head of state said that the creation of job opportunities would help reduce the poverty rate and at the same time improve the people`s economic conditions.

Therefore, the government was determined to pursue a four-tract policy in the economic sector, namely growth, job opportunities, reduction of the poverty rate, and preservation of the environment.

Yudhoyono was optimistic that Indonesia would be able to grow and become prosperous by doing optimally.

The government has set its economic growth target at six percent at the end of 2010, an increase from 4.5 percent in the previous year.

The government has set itself the target of creating 10.7 million new jobs and slashing poverty rate to 8-10 percent at the end of 2014.

In the 2011 Draft State Budget, the government allocates Rp61.5 trillion in funds for social allowance expenditures for the poor.

The government was striving for a growth with equity, he said.

The poverty rate was expected to decline to between 11.5 percent and 12.5 percent next year.

Indonesia`s poverty rate in 2009 was 14.15 percent or 32.53 million people, down from 15.42 percent in 2008. The government has planned to reduce the national poverty rate from the present 13.33 percent or 31.01 million people, to 8-10 percent by 2014. ***3***

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