The Sunday Times Economic Analysis

The Sunday Times Economic Analysis By the Economist

Millennium Goals thru’ rural development
There are several reasons why Sri Lanka could get complacent about the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). First of these reasons is the fact that Sri Lanka has surpassed most of the MDGs. Second is the distraction from such programmes owing to the preoccupation with electoral politics.

Although the election campaigns would talk of achieving even higher and impossible goals, the implementation of concrete programmes would be delayed. And third, the general incapacity to implement policies will result in tardiness in implementing them especially in the remote areas where such implementation is needed. At the national level Sri Lanka has achieved the millennium goals in literacy and school enrolment, gender equality, life expectancy and other health indicators. Poverty, however, remains a serious problem with about one fourth of the population being below the poverty line.

The real problems in the country are in the remote regions and in several provinces. There are vast differences in the achievements at the national level and at regional and provincial levels.

Therefore there is a need to focus on regional disparities. This concern should be the guiding principle in the selection of projects and the areas in the country where these would be located. The last budget had a thrust on developing infrastructure in the less developed provinces. Has this policy been effectively implemented?

Are we on the road to developing the less developed provinces or are these mere promises that are not implemented? Sub-national goals are indeed essential to make the MDGs meaningful to the people left behind. We must not allow the reasonably good national achievements to hide the problems in these provinces. While the urban areas have high social development indicators they must not be allowed to conceal the pockets of poverty and social underdevelopment. Further progress at a national level should be achieved by regional disparities being reduced. If there was little progress in the poorer provinces, national achievements would be tardy. Therefore such sub national goals should be set and progress monitored.

Infrastructure improvement in the five least developed provinces should be a priority. For instance the goal must be to have schools in nearby locations so that no child is deprived of primary education owing to the lack of easy access.

Similarly, there is a need to establish health centres and hospitals in close proximity. Goals must be specified in terms of a doctor: population ratio that ensures at least basic adequacy of medical services, especially maternal and postnatal care. This would be an extension of the idea of sub-national goals that should be advocated. Specific goals for improvement of infrastructure by 2010 and then 2015 must be set and monitored. Otherwise the thrust in regional development would be mere talk without accomplishment.

Economic growth alone will not achieve the MDGs, especially at regional level. The East Asian experience illustrates how rapid growth with re-distributive policies reduced poverty and helped improve social development.

The South Asian experience, on the other hand, is illustrative of both inadequate growth to reduce poverty and a lack of appropriate policies to pass on the growth to the poor. The economic growth strategy should focus on rural infrastructure development and adopt pro-poor policies such as agrarian reforms, support for rural industry and rural infrastructure development if the MDG's are to be achieved in rural areas.

With respect to achieving the goals of literacy and education two issues should be noted. First the goals should attempt to go beyond literacy and primary education and schooling. This is especially so as Sri Lanka no longer has employment opportunities for those with literacy and primary education.

Therefore for the poor to increase their income, educational opportunities such as in learning foreign languages, vocational skills and information technology are needed. The lack of such facilities in remote areas is a reason for continued high unemployment, low incomes and poverty that defy the achievement of the range of MDGs.

The second issue in education relates to the quality of education. Having schools of low quality would not achieve the MDGs. Qualitative goals should be set so that quantitative goal realization is not misleading. The attainment of the MDG goals at the national level should not lead to complacency. Further attainments in these goals must be a national commitment.

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