Tracking & Reporting the MDGs: StoriesThat Must be Told With Color & Impact

By Malou MangahasBy Malou Mangahas

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The MDGs as Governance Issues Mga Di-Nagawa ni Gloria? (What President

Gloria Failed to Do) Mga Dapat Gawin ng Bagong Pangulo? (Things

that the New President Must Do) Medyo Diskaril na Gawaing Gobyerno? (Off-Track Tasks of Government?) Mother, Dausdos Grade ni Gloria?(Mom, Failing Marks for President Gloria?) Mga Dinead-ma na Goals? (The Goals that

Government Ignored

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Good, sexy sources of stats…

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Also good sources…

National Economic and Development Authority Securities and Exchange Commission National Statistics Office Bureau of Internal Revenue Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Other number-crunching units of the

Departments of Budget and Management, Finance, Trade and Industry, Education, Health, and Labor and Employment, etc.

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A good partnership because…

Good stats inform good journalism

Good stats + good journalism = good governance

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Good journalism is…

Investigative reporting• Paper Trail• People Trail• Electronic Trail• Legal Trail• Follow the Money• Do the Math!

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Why talk stats?

Because Stats are Sexy…

“Statistics are like bikinis.  What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”

~Aaron Levenstein

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Why talk stats?

Their authors are men and women of wisdom and poetry…

While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty… Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant.  So says the statistician. 

~Arthur Conan Doyle

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Why talk stats?

Because if we don’t, the crooks would just massage and mangle stats, and fool us all…

Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything. 

~Gregg Easterbrook

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Why talk stats?

Because statisticians, especially those in the public service, have very important functions… Represent the real world Create knowledge Inform and guide policy

Fundamental Principles of Statistics and ISI Deontological Code

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Why talk stats?

Because history, The rise and fall of governments, The progress or poverty of nations, Peace, Freedom, and Democracy…

all good narratives - of faces, voices, words, and images - have backward and forward links in numbers and stats

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Good Stats=Good Governance

The equation is clear, true, simple, and correct but… Some politicians like only “vanity stats,” or

those that would earn them brownie points before voters and citizens.

Some politicians think stats should not drive policy and use of resources; instead, they think stats should follow policy and promote their political line.

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Good Stats=Good Journalism

The equation is clear, true, simple, and correct but... Between statisticians and journalists, the

gaps in practices and method of work are wide and varied.

You crunch numbers; we string up words and images.

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Statisticians and Journalists

Great divide? Linguistic News vs metainformation Deadline vs time-series data Competence Context Content format, platforms Concept of audience

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A bounty of good stats stories…

- * People, their life patterns and living, or hardly livable conditions

- *The context, pretext, subtext, impact of public policies and programs

- * Levels of income and expenditure patterns

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A bounty of good stats stories…

- Population, health, education, migration, and receding and emerging social ills

- * Industry, the environment, the towns and the cities

- * GDP, GNP, Gross National Happiness, etc.

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Stats as pivot of policy, news

Good stats stories must be clear, accessible, accurate

The Burden on Journalists: Demystify the jargon? Master the concepts? Do the Math? Sources who make sense?

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The MDGs as news?

News Values:- Timeliness- Consequence- Conflict- Proximity- Prominence- Oddity 18

News frames/themes Crime -“The best in the business,” a

treasure trove of great stories; the dramatis personae include protagonists & antagonists, heroes & scoundrels. Edna Buchanan, legendary Miami Herald crime reporter:“(The crime beat) has it all: greed, sex, violence, comedy and tragedy.”

Conflict - Collateral damage, winners & losers, victims & victor

Corruption - “Criminals and crooks in public office”, not a victimless crime 19

False dichotomies? ‘Soft’ news, ‘hard’ news: ‘Loud’ & ‘quiet’ emergencies ‘Politics’ & ‘economics’ ‘Spot news’ & ‘special reports’ Beat Reporting &

Investigative Reporting News that sell and don’t What people want & need

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The MDGs are stories?Soft news? Quiet emergency?At core, economic stories?Stuff for investigative

reporting?News that won’t sell?News readers may want and

need? 21

The MDGs as story hooks:

Stories of crime, conflict, corruption?

Tracking progress, or lack of progress, in promises the President/political leaders have promised to fulfill

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The MDGs as story hooks:

Stories people need, and may actually want

A template for auditing results, or lack of results, in delivery of basic services and performance of public agencies

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The MDGs: Off Target, On Target? Goal 1: Eradicate poverty Goal 2: Achieve Universal Education Goal 3: Promote Gender Equity Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health Goal 6:Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, other

diseases Goal 7: Ensure Environmental

Sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for

Development

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PHL compliance: Goal 1:

34% of 82 M Filipinos live below poverty line, 13% ‘core poor’ ; MTDP target: reduce poverty by half, OFF TRACK?

Goal 2: 96.6 % participation rate in schools in 2000 BUT

disparities worsening across urban-rural areas, more boys dropping out of school

Goal 3: Near-gender parity? Females have equal status, especially

in education outcomes BUT what about the males? Goal 4:

Under-5 mortality rate down from 80 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 48 in 1998, ON TRACK?

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PHL compliance: Goal 5:

Maternal deaths down from 209 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 52 in 2015.

Increase access to reproductive health care for 80 per cent of women

Goal 6: More cases reported among OFWs; 75 Filipinos die everyday from

TB; Malaria remains a scourge, one of 10 leading cases of illness Goal 7:

Progress in reforestation, biodiversity protection, renewable energy initiatives and efforts to curb CO2 emission BUT increasing number of slumdwellers in the cities – 1.3 M informal settlers, including 57% in Metro Manila

Goal 8: A third of national budget (31.4%) goes to debt service, and MTDP

goal of wiping out deficit by 2010 remains a pipedream?

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Goal 2: Universal Primary Education

Access to primary education appeared to remain high at 84.4% in SY 2005-2006 (elementary education participation rate).

However, this represented a decline from the 2000-2001 level of 96.8%

Target for children everywhere, boys and girls alike, to complete a full course of primary schooling is not likely to be achieved.

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Goal 5: Maternal Health

The decline in number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births has slowed down, from 209 deaths in 1993 to 162 deaths in 2006.

But the target maternal mortality rate by 2015 is 52 (per 100,000 live births).

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Goal 5: Maternal Health

Access to reproductive health care improved slightly, from 49 percent in 2001 to 50.6 percent in 2006.

(contraceptive prevalence rate - percentage of currently married women ages 15-49 years using contraceptives)

But the target increase by 2015 is 80 percent.

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For the Philippines, MDGs 2 and 5 are the least likely

to be achieved by the deadline in 2015

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What stories to tell?

No dichotomies in the MDGs ‘Soft’ and ‘hard’ news at same time ‘Loud’ and ‘quiet’ emergencies ‘Politics’ and ‘economics’ in a bind Stuff for both ‘spot news’ and

‘special reports’ News that could rock and grab News that people want and need

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What stories to tell?

On-target, off-target goals? Why? How? The costs, requirements, benefits of

fulfilling the MDGs? Why should people care about MDGs? Assessing roles: NGOs, business, civil

society, churches

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MDGs as Election Issues, 2010

The Legacy of Gloria: Ten years of the Arroyo Presidency? Unfinished Business?

Results of the 2004-10 MTPDP The Burdens of the Next President The Candidates: Beyond Spin and Slogans: Who

gets it? Who doesn’t? Promises vs Concrete Plans Rhetoric vs Studied Solutions Why Should Voters Care about the MDGs?

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The journalist’s call:

‘Make the important… interesting

… and the interesting… relevant’

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The Eight Goals

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Workshop: The MDGs as Election Issues

1.Sa aming bayan/probinsiya, ang sitwasyon ng MDG 2 (Unversal Primary Education) at MDG 5 (Maternal Health) ay…

Bakit kaya? Paano pwedeng mapabuti?

2 Tungkol sa MDG 2 at 5, ang pangako ng mga kandidato ay…

Bakit daw? Paano tutuparin?

3. Batay sa sagot ko sa No. 1 at 2, ang gusto kong gawing stories ay…

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MDG stories with color, impact

On-target, off-target goals? Why? How? The costs, & benefits of fulfilling the MDGs? Why should people care about MDGs? Assessing roles: NGOs, business, civil society,

churches The MDGs as Election Issues The Legacy of President Gloria: Ten years of the

Arroyo Presidency? Unfinished Business? ?

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MDG stories with color, impact

Results of the 2004-10 Medium term Philippine Development Plan?

The MDG Burdens of the Next President The Candidates: Beyond Spin and Slogans:

Who gets the MDGs? Who doesn’t? Promises vs Concrete Plans to Fulfill the MDGs Rhetoric vs Studied Solutions

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Will PHL get bad grades?

But perhaps you might want to replicate… our story of how journalists and statisticians continue to work together to produce…

good stats good journalism good governance!

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MARAMING SALAMAT PO!

www.pcij.org www.i-site.ph Tel: (632) 410-4763 to 64, 410-4769 Fax (632) 410-4768 Email: pcij@pcij.org, editorial@pcij.org

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