The National Economic and Development Authority has assured the United Nations (UN) that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be incorporated in the next Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2010 to 2016.

“NEDA has started the next planning cycle and we will include the MDGs as we try to coordinate the planning for the next six years,” said Socio-economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. during a recent courtesy visit by the UN country team.

Paderanga said that NEDA will ensure the disaggregation of plans and targets at the regional level, to determine which regions are lagging behind in terms of achieving the MDGs.

“We will be reviewing the targets as well as reminding the other agencies that the MDGs are good milestones to consider relative to the MTPDP,” he said.

The MDGs are a set of specific and time-bound development targets committed by the UN-member states to be achieved by 2015.

The eight goals were formulated to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop global partnership for development.

Earlier, Paderanga directed NEDA to fully engage the different government agencies and other stakeholders in fleshing out the contents of the MTPDP. He stressed that NEDA’s main responsibility is to set the parameters on how the plans can be made consistent.

“The NEDA will not solely write the MTPDP. We want to strengthen the sense of ownership of the government agencies to the Plan,” Paderanga said.

Paderanga welcomed the UN’s commitment to align with the MTPDP the new UNDAF for the Philippines, which will be renewed in 2011.

The UNDAF is a strategic framework that outlines the collective response of a UN country team to the development priorities of their host country.

Paderanga reiterated to the UN Country Team that one of the features of the new MTPDP is the focus on regional development.

“In the drafting of the MTPDP, the government will focus on the regional aspects of development and how regional plans will interface with the national plan. It makes sense to explore regional dimensions in order to facilitate inclusive growth and address problems in inequity,” Paderanga added.