MANILA — The United Nations (UN) is crafting an assistance plan for the Philippines that is focused on food security, the peace process, and environmental protection for the next five years.
“We’re working with the Philippine government in designing our next five-year plan on how our assistance is going to be. I’m hoping to launch that in 2019 across the UN system,” Ola Almgren, UN Philippines resident and humanitarian coordinator, said during the reception of UN Day in Taguig City on Wednesday night.
Almgren said the Philippines is facing challenges on food security and is “bringing together (a) policy” in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related to prosperity.
On the latter, he noted that there is a way of “sharing the wealth” and “generating the wealth of the country” without exhausting its natural resources.
While there are challenges, Almgren said the Philippines is “doing quite well” in pursuing the SDGs compared to other countries.
“The Philippines, if you look back and look at the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Philippines didn’t achieve them all fully, but it made good progress, and I believe compared to the global benchmark now, the Philippines is advancing quite well towards 2030,” he added.
The SDGs are a set of 17 aspirational goals that seek to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
These build on the MDGs and seek to address the economic, social and environmental aspects of development.
The Philippines is a strong advocate for its achievement and has embedded it in its national plans and programs through the Philippine Development Plan.
During the reception, Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo highlighted the Philippines’ major contributions to the work of the UN in areas of migration, SDGs, climate change, human rights, and peacekeeping. (Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/PNA)
