In Brief: UNICEF warns of MDG gaps in Philippines

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MANILA, 31 August 2010 ( IRIN) - The Philippines will likely fail in meeting its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) [ http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ ] by 2015 in conflict-affected Mindanao, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warns. "If the Philippines wants to achieve the MDGs without major disparities, then focus must be put on Mindanao where the indicators are far below many of the national averages," Vanessa Tobin, UNICEF country representative, told IRIN in Manila. In the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, only 40 percent of children complete primary school, against the national average of 75 percent, while younger-than-five mortality remains three times as high as the national rate. In August 2008 [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79969 ], renewed hostilities between government forces and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) broke out when a memorandum that would have given the MILF control over land they claimed as ancestral domain was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, resulting in more than 700,000 displaced [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89676 ]. According to the International Organization for Migration, close to 83,000 people remain displaced due to conflict or clan violence, also known as Rido [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90118 ]. ds/mw © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org