"Maternal mortality figures in 2012 are still relatively big at 102 per 100 thousand live births..."
Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia still needs to take more efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, although progress has been made, Indonesian President`s special envoy for MDGs Nila Djuwita F. Moeloek said here Monday

"Although Indonesia has made a significant progress in various aspects of the way to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), hard works are still needed to achieve the targets by 2015," she said.

Nila said that the initiatives of various stakeholders still need to be maximized to achieve the 2015 MDGs targets, even though the Indonesian Human Development Index (HDI) at the international level in 2013 had risen to place the country at the 121st out of 124 rankings in 2011.

According to Nila, focus was still required to achieve the MDGS including reducing maternal mortality rate, HIV/AIDS cases, and access to drinking water and sanitation.

"Maternal mortality figures in 2012 are still relatively big at 102 per 100 thousand live births, despite a decrease from 2011`s at 228 per 100 thousand live births," he said.

Two other issues needing more attention are HIV /AIDS which mostly affect population at a productive age of between 15-24 years, third of them women.

"Of course it is a threat to the country, because being under a childbearing age they are assets of the nation and the case continues to increase to make the state to potentially lose momentum in human development in the future, she said.

Meanwhile as for the goals of reducing poverty, by the year 2000, she said the poverty level has been reduced to 12.49 percent in 2012 where it reached 15.10 percent in 2011.

However based on the progress, efforts are still needed to reach the reduction by half the percentage of the population living below the national poverty.

Besides a change in the society`s mindset is also needed with regard to achieving a healthy life.

"Massive education to create a healthy and independent living paradigm is also needed. MDG`s cannot be separated from the norm," Nila Moeloek said. ***4***

(H-YH)



(T.SYS/A/A050/A/H-YH) 01-04-2013 18:57:23

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