Districts Are Success Parameters for Accomplishment of MDGs

By Rofiqy Hasan from TempoInteractive, Jakarta

Emil Salim, a member of the President’s Consideration Board (Wantimpres), has said that the accomplishment of Millenium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015 is extremely dependent on initiatives from districts and cities that have regional autonomy rights. “The central government cannot follow Suharto's stye anymore and regional governments cannot only wait,” he said in a High Level Dialog on Population and MDG forum in Kuta, Bali, on Monday (5/5).

Some regions have succeeded in increasing their human development index as their leaders are able to use their regional potential for global and national needs. These are Bontang in East Kalimantan, Sragen in Central Java, and Jembrana in Bali. Because of this, Emil has rejected the proposal that all MDG policies be at the central government level.He said that the central government should empower regional leaders' capabilities in order to understand national interests.

Sugiri Syarief, Head of the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN), said he agreed with this statement. He went on to say that although regional autonomy has been running for almost ten years, officials at the central and regional level are still working in a centralization style. Therefore, program accomplishment is delayed. “Population control is the key for successful MDGs,” said Sugiri.