Tonga’s millennium goals remain a challenge

Nuku‘alofa – A Tonga government review reveals that Tonga has fallen behind in three Millennium Development Goals – poverty eradication, gender equality and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The overview titled, ‘Government Overview of Social and Economic Developments to Date’ was released on February 17 by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.

It stated that incidents of NCDs are at a crisis level, while gender inequality still exists as indicated by no women representatives in parliament – and “data is lacking to measure changes in equality”.

Poverty was also reported as a problem. According to the government, “the percentage of the population living below the poverty line increased from 16 per cent back in 2001 to 22.5 per cent in 2009.”

However, the other eight Millennium Development Goals were reported as being “on track”.

The overview stated that the government budget was operating within fiscal constraints because staffing takes a high proportion of available funds, and they needed a robust budget support programme to balance the budget.

The budget support from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank is now provided as 50-50 soft loan and grants, but “coupled with indications that budget support may be declining is concerning,” the Ministry stated.

It noted the trend for population and activity becoming increasingly centralised on Tongatapu with high dependency on external sources of income and earnings, including permanent emigration.

According to the overview, remittances were recovering since a decline after the Global Financial Crisis.

Recent overseas working schemes had also generated millions. “Overseas working schemes have increased from 1762 in 2010 to 2772 in 2013, generating at least $60 million in income.”

Tonga’s populaton was estimated at 103,219 in 2012, with average annual growth of only 0.2 per cent between the 2006 and 2011 census, due to emigation.

The overview noted that Tonga’s real GDP growth for the last decade since 2002-03 averaged about one per cent a year.

GDP fluctuated between (minus) -4.5 and +3.2 per cent, while middle income levels for 2013-14 remained around $7636 (US$3800) per year.

Tonga’s Human Development Index (HDI) has fallen from 54 out of 177 in 2005 to 100 out of 187 in 2013.