Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 24, 2003
Preeyanat Phanayanggoor
The think tank is collaborating with the UN Development Programme to adapt the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into the Thai context to combat poverty.
The UNDP has set eight targets for all 189 UN member states to be achieved by 2015 _ eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, empowering women, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, combating HIV/Aids, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.
Priyanut Piboolsravut, the NESDB's director of international economic unit, said Mae Hong Son was selected because it was one of the poorest provinces, with its limited basic infrastructure and various ethnic minority groups.
The NESDB would collect information on this northern border province relating to the UNDP goals, and assess the data obtained so as to produce the most suitable development strategy for it.
Ms Priyanut said the goals for Mae Hong Son had been greatly modified from the original targets. ``When we found out that HIV/Aids is not a major problem in Mae Hong Son when compared to elephantiasis, we had to drop the HIV/Aids target and combat elephantiasis instead,'' she gave an example.
She said complete data on all indicators would be very helpful to forthcoming CEO governors in mapping out strategies and plans for their provinces.
If the Mae Hong Son project was successful, it would lead to more provinces producing similar indicators to help combat poverty.
The NESDB has also worked with the UNDP to create Thailand's own millennium goals for human development, which have been increased from the original eight goals.
She said the NESDB had already finished redefining three targets on poverty reduction, universal primary education and gender equality. The remaining goals would be modified later this year.
In the case of Thailand, its education would include a focus on functional literacy, defined as people's ability to understand rather than having just the basic skills in reading and writing, as well the aim to achieve universal secondary education.
The targets on poverty reduction would aim at cutting by half the number of poor people in the Northeast, the country's poorest region.
The new target for gender equality would focus on the ratio of estimated female-to-male earned income, rather than the original goal of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education.
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