Financing the Millennium Development Goals: The Philippines

The improving fiscal situation in the Philippines presents an opportune time for the government to reassess the resource requirements of achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs) and to exercise greater vigilance in ensuring that the MDGs benefit from the fiscal space that has been created. In response, this study updated and expanded the earlier study on the financing of MDGs that was completed in 2002. In particular, it estimated the financial requirements needed to achieve Goals 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7; compared the resource requirements with the funding level that is likely to be made available to determine the funding gap for each of these goals under alternative macro and sectoral policy scenarios; arrived at a consolidated estimate of total general government resource requirement and resource gap in financing the said MDGs; and proposed how resources can optimally be managed, referring to both operational efficiencies and institutional arrangements, so as to maximize their effectiveness.