Tonga Millennium Development Goals, Final Report September 2015.

This report is the third and final Report for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for Tonga. It outlines Tonga’s progress over the last 15 years in meeting the targets set in 2000 for the eight goals stated in the UN MDG Declaration. The first report, tabled in 2005, defined the status of the progress towards the set targets for the MDGs and also some of the baselines for the targets. The second report, tabled in 2010, assessed the progress towards the targets over the period 2000-2010. This report was broader in its analysis in accordance with the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) Guidance for reporting progress. It also reported on trends, challenges and enabling factors, both at the technical level and at the policy level.
With regard to Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger the data show that the proportion of households and proportion of people living under the Food Poverty Line, has not been substantially reduced. However, households and people in the general population would still be able to feed themselves from subsistence farming and fishing. There was no evidence or data attributed to any person dying of hunger or living in destitution. The social system in villages and communities act as safety nets. The targets have not been achieved in the sense that there has been no real change to the situation between 2009 and 2015. Tonga is ‘below target’ with all the indicators under target A1: the proportion of people whose income is less than 1 dollar a day. The indicators for Target 1B “Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people” have implied that the effort to create full and productive employment and decent work for all has not been achieved. The data shows that labour productivity has been on a fluctuating and declining trend and the proportion of those in productive employment has not increased over the years. The ability of the economy to generate decent work for all is low. The progress towards Target 1C: “Halve, between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger” has been ‘very good’ and is on target. The prevalence of under-five year olds who are underweight has been kept very low and is contained at this level of prevalence, while still meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard.
With regard to Target 3A: ‘Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015’ Tonga has been able to maintain a high ratio in the enrolment of girls at all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary. Tonga has also been relatively been successful in removing all barriers to girls’ rights to education. The legislative and policy frameworks that guarantee their full participation in education and ensuring access to quality education are in place. The wider provision of education and training has enabled women to have choice on the training they prefer and the career they want to pursue in the future in the open employment markets. Therefore, Tonga has done well in minimizing the gender disparity at all levels in education. However, more needs to be done, through policy development to ensure that women have a fair share of the employment opportunities available in the economy. Mainstreaming gender into all levels of the economy, society and politics and promoting public awareness and civic education, should be accelerated.
Goal 7 has to do with ensuring environmental sustainability. With regard to ‘Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs to reverse the loss of environmental resources’ the State of Progress towards the Target has been satisfactory and the degree of achievement has been near target. The figures have shown improvement in the forest cover in Tonga due to regeneration and banning the harvesting of specific species and the reduction in the large scale commercial farming. Tonga’s CO2 emission is not significant by international standards but it has been kept at a low level since 2010, and is a net sink country. The consumption of HCFC-22 is now being phased out, under law. The emission level has been declining because of the effective surveillance and monitoring in the importation of goods containing ODS. Regarding Target 7B: Reduce bio-diversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss, The State of Progress Towards the Target has been satisfactory and the degree of achievement has been near target Tonga’s total water resources used has been stable over time, with groundwater mainly used except ‘Eua district which uses surface water. As such, there is sufficient ground water available for consumption.