Like countries around the world, Costa
Rica has a goal to reach by 2015 – eight, in
fact – the U.N. Millennium Development
Goals that list objectives for the country to
reduce poverty and hunger, curb environmental
damage, improve health and education
and promote gender equality, among
other goals.
Reaching them appears to be on Costa
Rican legislators’ minds. In collaboration
with the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
and the nonprofits Inter-American
Parliamentary Group for Population and
Development (GPI) and Family Care
International (FCI), legislators and legislators-
elect discussed how Costa Rica fares in
achieving its Millennium Goals at a conference
held at the Legislative Assembly earlier
this month.
Overall, Costa Rica is making good
progress toward reaching the Millennium
Goals, established in 2000, and in some areas,
has already far surpassed them, explained
U.N. Costa Rica Coordinator José Manuel
Hermida. His assessment is based on a
progress report published in 2004 by the Costa
Rican government in collaboration with the
United Nations, which gauged how Costa Rica
advanced toward its Millennium Goals during
the first four years of this century.
Because the country has already exceeded
its objectives in some areas, Costa Rica’s
branch of the United Nations must “be more
demanding in its aspirations” and set its
own, higher goals, Hermida said.
In primary education, for example,
Costa Rica has already met the goals established
for all children to have access to primary
education, leading the country to set
its own goal for making preschool and secondary
education also universally available.
Another “self-imposed” goal Costa Rica
has set is for all geographic areas of the
country, not just a national average, to reach
certain Millennium Goals, Hermida said.
National Unity Party legislator-elect and
former Ombudsman José Manuel Echandi
echoed this concern over geographic variations
in development, remarking that “there
are groups that are not being attended to, that
don’t have adequate access to health care.”
For example, the number of infant and
maternal deaths is higher in remote and
indigenous areas than in the rest of the country,
Echandi said, and though most of Costa
Rica meets the goal for infant and maternal
death rates, some of these areas fall below it.
Improving health care in rural and
indigenous areas must be a priority in Costa
Rica’s development, said Echandi, who proposed
creating a legislative commission to
address human rights and develop a more
specific agenda for focusing on Millennium
Goals. He said he would wait until new legislators
assume office May 1 to work on
forming the commission.
Promoting gender equality is another
Millennium Goal; Social Christian Unity
Party (PUSC) legislator-elect Ana Helena
Chacón pointed out that 60% of those living
in poverty are women. Additionally,
birthrates are much higher in low-income
areas – where women often lack opportunities
– than in areas where women have more
resources and education. This discrepancy is
evidence, she said, that more work is needed
in the areas of women’s rights and reproductive
health.
“There are many women and children in
this country living in conditions of misery,”
Chacón said. “They have the right to an education
and to an honorable job.”
Chacón also expressed concern over
Costa Rica’s poverty rates, which have not
decreased and only shown small variations
since 1994, when 21.7% of homes were considered
to be in poverty, and 5.6% of the
population lived in “extreme poverty,” meaning
they suffered from hunger, according to
Hermida.
The Millennium Goals are to reduce by
half, between 1990 and 2015, the number of
people who suffer from hunger.
“As new legislators, we’ve got a big agenda
before us, and a large part of it is working
to eliminate poverty,” Chacón said.
A study recently released by the National
Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) showed
the gap between the poor and the wealthy has
increased since 1988 (TT, April 7).
Hermida agreed that though the country
“has the chance to reach its Millennium
Development Goals if it makes sufficient
efforts,” reducing poverty is one of the areas
that requires an extra “sustained effort.”
“If Costa Rica wants to reach its goal for
poverty, it should find a way to overcome its
stagnation … achieve economic growth
while reducing inequality and generating
quality jobs,” Hermida said.
The Millennium Goals
GOAL 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day Target: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
GOAL 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
GOAL 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015
GOAL 4: Reduce child mortality Target: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
GOAL 5: Improve maternal health
Target: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
GOAL 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Target: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS
Target: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
GOAL 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Target: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources
Target: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
Target: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers
GOAL 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Target: Address the special needs of the least developed countries, landlocked countries and small island developing States
Target: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system
Target: Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt
Target: In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
Target: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
Target: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication Source: United Nations Department of Public Information
