Who can remember the original 8 Millennium Development Goals? We may be able to name them—but what about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals?

In a recent session on SDGs that I attended, one delegate said that we should just choose the ones we want to work on and know them by heart. It was seconded by another who suggested that we should choose those related to one another. I interjected and said that all of the SDGs are inter-related, and that remembering them can be made easier by coming up with a storyline.

MARY JANE C. ORTEGA

MDG #1 was to eradicate poverty and hunger. This is broken down into two sustainable development goals:
SDG #1 End Poverty; and SDG #2 End Hunger. When one is poor, one is usually hungry and thus, cannot achieve SDG #3 Well-Being. When the stomach is empty, nothing can enter the brain; but if the first three goals are achieved, one can make use of SDG #4 Quality Education and learn to respect others and internalize SDG #5 Gender Equality.

Living in a house, regardless of whether one owns it or not, makes it possible to work toward SDG #6 Water and Sanitation for all, and SDG #7 Affordable and Sustainable Energy.

For water supply and electric connections to flow, one will need SDG #8 Decent Work for All. With a decent job, one can also afford SDG #9 Technology for All, which includes renewable energy, desalination, waste water treatment, and solid waste management, among others.

Most adults and even children have cellphones. Computer literacy is on the rise and this could be a vehicle toward SDG#10 Reduce Inequality. This is not only among individuals but also among nations. The world is moving toward an urbanized society, with majority of the population living in cities. These are engines of growth and must therefore be safe, sustainable, and resilient. This is SDG#11. We find irresponsible consumerism and must work for a more responsible approach – SDG#12. This also feeds into SDG#13, which realizes global warming and the need to stop climate change; SDG#14 Protect the Ocean; and SDG#15 Take Care of the Earth.

When we address poverty, hunger, quality education, gender equality, basic needs of shelter that require water and sanitation, energy, and provide decent jobs to be able to afford basic needs and more such as technology, we can reduce inequality. If our cities are safe, sustainable, and resilient, with responsible consumers as citizens, who have a heart for preserving the environment, ocean, earth, and the air that we breathe, we can stop climate change.

We can then have Peace on Earth, which is SDG#16, and this can be attained only through partnerships and networking as mechanisms (SDG #17) to achieve every sustainable development goal.

There are 169 indicators and these are harder to remember; but slowly, as we work on the SDGs for the next 15 years (until 2030), we can refer to them so that we know if we are following the right path. I hope then that countries can say, “We have achieved our goals.”

The first five are the hardest to accomplish but with good governance—the governors and the governed working together—and following the principles of transparency, accountability, equity, and the participation of all sectors in society, we hope to have a better world to leave to the next generation.

At Citynet we say, “Together, we can do more.” At ISA we say, “We need good Filipinos to champion good governance, Filipinos who can say and show through their actions, Mahal ko ang Pilipinas.”

We do not have to remember numbers; but we must take to heart the basic principle of improving persons. We should work toward having healthy citizens who have overcome poverty and hunger; who are educated and know how to respect all people—young, old, male, female, or LGBT. We should improve basic shelter, and provide clean water, proper sanitation, LED lights, and if possible, wind or solar energy. We should aim to raise hardworking, technologically adept citizens, who also have a special sense of community—taking care of everyone and everything in the environment, and realizing their role as stewards of God’s creation.

If we have love for ourselves, for our neighbors, and for our country, we will radiate that peace and realize that it is not an abstract idea but something that we can personify.

Sustainable Development Goals, here we come!

Mary Jane C. Ortega is a Trustee and Fellow of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), a non-profit group that advocates governance reform and envisions a Dream Philippines, where every government institution delivers and every citizen participates and prospers. Learn more about their work on isacenter.org.

This story was originally published by The Manila Times, Philippines

Exit: Millennium Development Goals or MDGs as of 2015. Enter: Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs for 2016-2030.

When I was mayor of the city of San Fernando, La Union, from 1998-2007, we welcomed the new millennium by forming a Millennium Choir composed of 50 children and 50 employees of the province of La Union and the city. We also heard that UN Habitat and its member countries committed to eight MDGs from 2000-2015.

Following this call, the city borrowed money from a window of the World Bank through the Department of Finance to put up four lying-in clinics to serve clusters of barangay units (villages). This was inspired by our first lying-in clinic in Barangay Bangbangolan, which we put up with our own funds.

When I assumed office, I learned of pregnant women giving birth on the road or dying because there were no trained health workers to assist them, not to mention the lack of prenatal care. With our improved health center and our five lying-in clinics, we assigned midwives to round-the-clock duty shifts. This was to achieve MDGs#4 and #5 – to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.

We also encouraged breastfeeding and our barangay health workers followed up on the health of the mother and children, so much so that the infant mortality rate declined. We then achieved zero maternal mortality rate for three years, one on the fourth year, and again zero maternal mortality rate in the succeeding years. I asked the national government through my husband, Congressman Victor F. Ortega, to provide additional ambulances so that when there were cases that could not be addressed by the midwives, the patients could be brought to the hospital.

We became a Healthy City of the World Health Organization, leading the program to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. During my nine years as San Fernando mayor, I encountered only one case of HIV/AIDS. The problem that confronted us was dengue and we fought it. MDG#6.

We borrowed money to put up 34 classrooms because we could not wait for national government to bring down the classroom to students ratio. One classroom was provided with 20 computers per school site, so that grade school students were already introduced to the advantages of computers. This was in 2000, when high school students did not even have computers for their use, and we had them for grade school students. This answered MDG #2 – to achieve universal primary education. In San Fernando, we went the extra mile and improved basic education from kindergarten to Grade 6.

For MDG #3, to promote gender equality and empower women, our legal officer was assigned to act as the focal person for the program. We offered capacity building for our health workers and nutrition scholars and ran a Mothers Class in every barangay of 59. We campaigned against violence against women, taught victims to report to barangay officials and the police, set up a guidance counseling pool composed of pastors and ministers from different religious denominations. We encouraged our social welfare officers to come up with case studies and provide the victims with added support. This led us to open up a plantilla position for a psychologist.

At the start of my term, I promised to plant a million trees, and we were able to do this in nine years. To buy a million seedlings at P30 each would mean P30 million pesos. We had a 10-hectare botanical garden, and with additional nurseries we were able to achieve our goal. We initiated the organization of the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines (SWAPP); commissioned Joel Macanayato to compose the Basura jingle; set up an engineered landfill and waste water treatment facilities; phased out 1,412 two stroke engine tricycles; and set up a 30-hectare marine sanctuary. MDG#7.

In all these, the ultimate MDG is to reduce extreme poverty and hunger. We had feeding programs for the children; gave vegetable seedlings for backyards, if any, and potted seedlings for those by the coastline; formed cooperatives and gave them P50,000 seed capital; and for those with good performance, rolling capital was increased to P100,000, to be paid after one year.

All these could not be achieved if we did not have partnerships with non-government organizations and with media. Looking back, we did well on the MDGs, which ended in 2015. This year, the number has increased to 17 Sustainable Development Goals. How should San Fernando and other local governments then plot a course to achieve them, and eventually build our Dream Philippines?

Mary Jane C. Ortega is a Trustee and Fellow of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), a non-profit organization whose vision is to build Dream Philippines, where every government institution delivers and every citizen participates and prospers. Learn more about their work on isacenter.org.

MARY JANE C. ORTEGA