MDGs: Progress & Challenges in Bhutan Kunzang Norbu Planning Commission

1. MDGs: Progress & Challenges in BhutanKunzang NorbuPlanning Commission

2. Millennium Development Goals • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • Achieve universal primary education • Promote gender equality and empower women • Reduce child mortality • Improve maternal health • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases • Ensure environmental sustainability • Develop a global partnership for development

3. Goal 1 (a): Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger/Malnutrition

4. Goal 1 (a): Challenges • Pro-poor growth • sectors like agriculture need to grow more rapidly and gain increased productivity • Balanced regional development • equitable access to social services, infrastructure and market opportunities • Weakness in poverty data collection, monitoring and evaluation

5. Goal 1(b): Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

6. Goal 1 (b): Challenges • Achieving Food Security in the light of significant agriculture constraints • Factors of low productivity, limited arable land and small land holdings • Nutrition of women and children – pregnant women and anemia. Poor nutritional practices

7. Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

8. Goal 2: Challenges • Enhancing outreach of primary education to children in rural and remote communities • Disparities in educational enrollments and attainment between urban and rural areas • Retention of children and reducing early school drop outs

9. Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

10. Goal 3: Challenges • Ensuring higher levels of female enrollment in tertiary education levels including vocational training • Raising the Low levels of female adult literacy which have been assessed at half of men • Promoting women’s fuller engagement in the economic and political life

11. Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

12. Goal 4: Challenges • Improving access, utilization and quality of child health care services in rural communities

13. Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

14. Goal 5: Challenges • Shortage of human resources and lack of obstetric equipment & facilities • Dispersed & isolated nature of settlements • Cultural and awareness barriers that inhibit utilization of maternal health services

15. Goal 6(a): Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

16. Goal 6 (a): Challenges • Lacking a national policy framework on HIV/AIDS • Low condom usage • Shortage of trained and qualified personnel in the treatment and care of HIV/AIDS

17. Goal 6(b): Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

18. Goal 6 (b): Challenges Malaria- • Control of border malaria • Dengue and JE outbreak risks • Inaccessibility of large tracts of mosquito breeding grounds due to dense vegetation and forests

19. Goal 6 (b): Challenges Tuberculosis- • To reduce TB related diseases • Low case detection rate • Lack and shortage of human other resources

20. Goal 7 (a): Ensure Environmental Sustainability

21. Goal 7 (a): Challenges • Land degradation • Biodiversity Loss • Urban environmental degradation

22. Goal 7(b): Ensure Environmental Sustainability

23. Goal 7(b):Challenges • Coverage and quality levels for water and sanitation in rural areas • Distance from water source • To adapt alternative

24. Goal 8 (a): Develop a Global Partnership for Development

25. Goal 8 (b): Develop a Global Partnership for Development

26. Goal 8 (b): Challenges • Financial sustainability of Rural Telecom services • Appropriate technology that is cost effective • Shortage of skilled human resources in ICT

27. Concluding Remarks • Meeting the MDGs will be challenging but potentially achievable. • In 2006/2007, Planning Commission coordinated MDG Needs Assessment exercise involving all stakeholders with UNDP and RCC’s technical guidance and support • The Needs Assessment Report is being finalized • There is opportunity to mainstream the MDG concerns into the 10th Plan • Thank You.