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Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Ukraine
President of Ukraine, Victor YUSCHENKO, speech at the 60th session of the UN General Assembly Ukraine – Millennium Development Goals 2000+5 "... We have recommitted ourselves to the Millennium Development Goals and we will work to ensure their full achievement."
Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Volodymyr LYTVYN, 23 September 2003 “One of the most important issues before the government of Ukraine today is to convert the achievement of stable economic growth into a growth in income and a higher standard of living for the average citizen. The Millennium Development Goals, signed by Ukraine along with 189 other countries in 2000, are today key directions in the country’s national policy. The Verkhovna Rada is in the process of reviewing legislation to support the realization of these goals as one of its highest priorities.”
ACSF statement on the MDGs, 25 November 2004 “Civil society organizations should insist that governments generate and monitor desegregated data on all goals, targets and indicators of MDGs in order to reflect the reality of excluded and discriminated groups. Such processes will ensure more specific sector-targeted policy frameworks towards the eradication of poverty, illiteracy, and ill health.”
Luhansk Regional Development Agency Director, Vyacheslav KOZAK, 12 March 2005 “Achieving the goals requires the concerted effort of many partners. In these partnerships, clearly, governments must take the lead: they bear the primary responsibility for fostering the attainment of goals. As to NGOs, their first responsibility is social mobilization, creating awareness of what people can expect from the MDG campaign and ensuring that all groups, including vulnerable ones, have an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process. Governments and NGOs partner in implementing the national MDG-based action plans and monitor their activities in achieving the goals.”
ADAPTING MDGs TO THE UKRAINIAN CONTEXT
Ukraine is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), suitably adapted to the Ukrainian reality and developing monitoring indicators relevant to Ukraine’s situation. The country’s main concern is to preserve its achievements and safeguard against the risk of further social and environmental degradation under the pressures of economic and social transition.
The Ministry of Economy is the principal institution to ensure a single economic and social development policy in Ukraine, responsible for MDG implementation, an integral part of which is resource accumulation and acceleration of human development through motivation of society’s main stakeholders (governmental institutions, business circles, civil society).
UKRAINIAN MDGs
(Goal 1) Poverty reduction
The original contents of Goal 1 relate to eradication of extreme poverty and hunger but are incommensurate with the situation in Ukraine, where hunger is not a case for concern. Although poverty is a major problem, it has not assumed extreme dimensions using the absolute poverty line of $1 per person per day. An absolute poverty line of $4.3 and national relative poverty line were used to capture the serious poverty problem in Ukraine. Given the weight of the problem, an ambitious target has been proposed, namely to halve the number of population living below the poverty line of $4.3 by 2015.
(Goal 2) Quality life-long education
In Ukraine, access to primary and to general secondary education is virtually universal. Consequently the ultimate goal is to raise the quality of education as a whole, which will be measured through a national assessment system to be introduced.
(Goal 3) Sustainable environmental development
There is a recognized urgent need to integrate environmental considerations in industrial, energy, and agricultural sectors, especially to improve energy efficiency. Quality (safety) and quantity (access/availability) of drinking water, deterioration of municipal infrastructure, and lack of sanitation facilities are burning issues in many regions of the country, especially in rural areas.
Furthermore, institutional capacity to ensure proper integration of environmental sustainability into mainstream decision-making needs substantial strengthening. The goal also requires improvements in the quality of the urban environment and addressing key concerns relating to forestry and biodiversity conservation.
The Government is developing a National Environmental Strategy, a key objective of which is to determine priorities in the context of the environmental and other MDGs, addressing those environmental issues that impact negatively on human health and the living conditions of the poor (e.g., quality of drinking water, industrial pollution); energy efficiency; improved natural resource management; and in meeting the key international environmental obligations of Ukraine.
Our objective is to create awareness of thematic environment issues in all economic sectors
Human pressures on biological resources in Ukraine remain very high. The list of environmental issues requiring immediate attention includes preservation and improvement of land and water resources and the atmosphere, biodiversity, improving industrial energy efficiency, and the additional challenge of dealing with the consequences of the Chernobyl tragedy.
With regard to international obligations, the Government will continue to work with neighbouring countries in the preservation and protection of common ecosystems. Attention will be given to the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, and benefiting Ukraine of the opportunities that international agreements provide. With these policies, the Government expects to reverse the process of environmental deterioration, reduce the energy intensity of the country, control 'hot spots', and improve the availability of safe drinking water.
Human pressures on biological resources in Ukraine remain very high. The list of environmental issues requiring immediate attention includes preservation and improvement of land and water resources and the atmosphere, biodiversity, improving industrial energy efficiency, and the additional challenge of dealing with the consequences of the Chernobyl tragedy.
Key Targets and Indicators of Sustainable Environmental Development in Ukraine
Target 1: Increase the proportion of people with access to clean drinking water by 12% from 2001 to 2015; the percentage of drinking water that meets national standards in urban areas and the percentage of drinking water that meets national standards in rural areas. For natural bodies of water, currently 25-30% fail to meet sanitary standards ( in 2004, 3.0 billion cubic meters of sewage and wastes were dumped).
The biggest hindrance to achieving MDG clean water targets is inadequate financing. According to the Ministry of Health, in 2004 one-sixth of drinking water samples did not meet sanitary norms; the proportion of the rural population with access to clean water was 23% lower than of the urban population. The main reasons for drinking water pollution are problems with water distribution systems, obsolete equipment in water utility and distribution systems in rural areas, a lack of facilities to remove ferric substances, the unsatisfactory condition of many water pipelines and a shortage of skilled personnel.
Target 2: Stabilize air pollution from stationary sources; reduce the volume of harmful emissions; develop air pollution norms in agreement with EU requirements; issue guidelines for the determination and approval of tolerable pollution levels from industrial sites, the development of ecological requirements for gas stations and continued localization of pollution monitoring.
High air pollution remains a big issue in Ukraine. Annual concentrations of dust, nitric oxides, sulphur dioxide, and carbon monoxide frequently exceed Ukrainian air quality standards by 10% or more (although CO and SOx do meet less stringent WHO norms). Excessive levels of nitric dioxide are registered in almost all large cities. Concerning toxic pollutants, WHO standards are not met in most large Ukrainian cities. Acid rains and ozone depletion present additional problems.Target 3: Expand the network of natural and biosphere reserves and national parks to 10.4% of the overall territory of Ukraine.
Financing for the expansion of natural and biosphere reserves, national parks and protection of endangered wildlife species in 2004 was over 50% short, preventing Ukraine from achieving its 2004 Programme goals.
A significant slowdown in the expansion of protected lands in Ukraine and a continued decline in the number of endangered wildlife species in recent years are alarming. To reverse these trends, the following problems require immediate attention: severe lack of financing for new and existing protected territory sites; inadequate national parks and reserve management systems; outdated systems of ecological monitoring. Monitoring institutions equipped with obsolete instruments and methodologies are unable to receive real-time information and make timely administrative.
(Goal 4) Improved maternal health and reduced child mortality
Ukraine has experienced a slight decline in child and maternal mortality. A 17% reduction in both under-five mortality and maternal mortality is targeted for the 2001-2015 period. In addition to internationally accepted MDG goals, Ukraine also needs to address high death rates among working age population, in particular males. This would have the highest impact on improving overall life expectancy.
Goal 5) Reducing and slowing down the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB
Ukraine faces a rapid explosion of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and the national target is to decrease prevalence rates.
(Goal 6) Gender equality
Although the problem of gender inequality exists in Ukraine, it has little influence on access to education. However, gender inequalities in Ukraine are found in the labour market, especially in industry, and in representation in Parliament and among senior civil servants.