Efficiency of Local Government Units in Nnorthwestern

Philippines as to the Attainment of the Millenium

Development Goals

Milagros R. Baldemor

Professor, Mathematics and Allied Disciplines Departmentand Campus Head of External Affairs

Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State UniversityPhilippines

Keywords: Millennium Development Goals, efficiency, local government units

Abstract: This study entitled “Efficiency of Local Government Units in Northwestern Philippines as to the Attainment

of the Millennium Development Goals” determined the performance of the four provinces and eight cities in

Region I, Philippines, vis-à-vis their efficiency along the eight goals and 21 targets of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) for 2012-2015. Furthermore, it determined the peer groups and weights of the

DMUs (Decision Making Units – the different provinces and cities), the virtual inputs/outputs or potential

improvements of the DMUs to be in the efficient frontier, the input and output slacks (input excesses and

output shortfalls)needed in the different indicators and the best practices to be considered by the inefficient

and weak efficient DMUs.The “best practice” in the frontier is the basis to calculate the adjustments necessary

for the DMUs. Different indicators showed varied performance levels in the different years but there are best

practices from the “efficient” DMUs which could be adapted by the “weak efficient” and “inefficient” ones

1 INTRODUCTION

Building on the United Nations global conferences of

the 1990s, the Millennium Declaration of 2000

marked a strong commitment to the right to

development, peace and security, gender equality,

eradication of the many dimensions of poverty and to

sustainable human development. Embedded in that

Declaration, which was adopted by 147 heads of state

and 189 countries, were what have become known as

Millennium Development Goals, including the 18

time-bound targets.

To monitor progress towards these goals and

targets, the United Nation system, including the

World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as

well as the Development Assistance Committee of the

Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development, came together under the Office of the

Secretary General and agreed on 48 quantitative

indicators. The indicators built upon an inter-

governmental process to identify relevant indicators

in response to global conferences. The UN Secretary

General presented the goals, targets and indicators to

the General Assembly in September 2001 in the

“Road Map towards the Implementation of the United

Nations Millennium Declaration”. (Brown, 2003)

The goals and targets are interrelated and

represent a partnership between the developed and

developing countries as the Declaration states, “to

create an environment – at the national and global

levels alike – which is conducive to development and

the elimination of poverty”. The member nations

represented by the heads of the states committed to

help achieve the following Millennium Development

Goals by 2015. The eight goals are: (1) to eradicate

extreme poverty and hunger; (2) to achieve universal

primary education; (3) to promote gender equality

and empower women; (4) to reduce child mortality;

(5) to improve maternal health; (6) to combat

HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; (7) to ensure

environmental sustainability; and (8) to develop a

global partnership for development.

264

Baldemor, M.

Efﬁciency of Local Government Units in Northwestern Philippines as to the Attainment of the Millenium Development Goals.

DOI: 10.5220/0010041502640269

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Computer, Environment, Agriculture, Social Science, Health Science, Engineering and Technology (ICEST 2018), pages 264-269

ISBN: 978-989-758-496-1

Figure 1: Formulation of MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals consist of

eight (8) goals, 21 targets, whose general focus and

scope is on social aspect. It targeted the developing

countries particularly the poorest ones. Furthermore,

it was formulated by a group of experts.

MDG monitoring is taking place globally through

annual reports of the UN Secretary General and

through periodic country reporting. For global

reporting, use is made of indicators compiled by

international organizations. Internationally compiled

indicators, based on standard concepts, definitions

and methodologies more readily facilitate cross-

country comparisons. For country reporting, use is

generally made of indicators compiled from national

sources, generally by national statistical system.

Table 1. Status of MDG indicators as of September

2015(Source: PSA)

h Medium Low

Poverty Gap

Ratio

Income poverty Proportion of

household with

per capita<100%

ade

uac

Food Poverty Underweight

children

Cohort survival

rate

Ratio of literate

females to

males 15-24 y/o

Proportion of 1

y/o children

immunized

ainst measles

Primary

completion rate

Infant and

under-5

mortalit

Proportion of

births attended

Literacy rate

(15-24 y/o)

by skilled

health

ersonnel

Ratio of girls to

boys in

elementary

articipation

Ratio of girls to

boys in primary

education

Ratio of girls to

boys in

secondary

education and

participation

rates

Share of women

in wage

employment in

non-agriculture

Ratio of girls to

boys in tertiary

education

Proportion of

seats held by

women in

national

government

Prevalence and

death rate

associated with

malaria

Prevalence and

death rate

associated with

tuberculosis

Proportion of

tuberculosis

Cases detected

and cured under

DOTS

Contraceptive

prevalence rate

Access to safe

wate

Maternal

mortalit

ratio

Access to

sanitary toilet

facilit

Adolescent birth

rate

Table 1 reflects the MDG indicators categorized

as high, medium and low where indicators under high

category need to be addressed immediately, followed

by those in the medium and low category.

Since findings presented were at the national

level, the researcher needs to look into the problems

in the regional level in relation to the efficiency of

local government units.

Figure 2: Paradigm of the Study

Efﬁciency of Local Government Units in Northwestern Philippines as to the Attainment of the Millenium Development Goals

265

2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to determine the

efficiency of the local government units of the four

provinces and eight cities of Northwestern

Philippines along the Millennium Development

Goals.

Specifically, based on the different indicators, this

study sought answers to the following questions:

1. What is the efficiency of the local government

units based on the DEA analysis?

2. What are the peer groups and weights of the

DMUs?

3. What are the virtual inputs/outputs or

improvements of the provinces/cities to be in the

efficient frontier?

4. What are the input and output slacks needed in the

different indicators?

5. Based on the findings, what are the best practices

to be considered by the efficient DMUs?

3 METHODOLOGY

This study utilized the descriptive evaluative research

design. It is also a documentary analysis as it

analyzed the efficiency of the four (4) provinces and

eight (8) cities of Northwestern Philippines in terms

of the different MDG indicators.

The researcher considered several entities for

evaluation using a non-parametric approach called

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Decision

Making Units (DMUs) to evaluate and compare the

efficiency of the local government units.

It employed the Input Oriented Multi - Stage Data

Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Constant Returns-to-

Scale (CRS) Model to find out the most favorable

weight and the efficiency of a DMU equivalent to

improving the efficiency of this DMU by minimizing

its inputs while producing at least the observed output

levels.

Furthermore, this study also utilized Time Series

Analysis in terms of their efficiency scores for the

calendar years 2012-2015.

4 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

The following are the findings of the study:

1. The efficiency of the provinces/cities is as

follows:

a. As to the eradication of extreme poverty and

hunger, only Ilocos Sur was found to be

inefficient.

b. Under achieving universal primary education,

only San Fernando City was found to be fully

efficient.

c. As to the promotion of gender equality and

empowerment of women, only five (5) cities

namely Alaminos City, Laoag City, San

Fernando City, Urdaneta City and Vigan City

were found to be fully efficient.

d. In terms of reduction of child mortality, only

Ilocos Sur was inefficient.

e. As to the improvement of maternal health,

only the province of Ilocos Sur was found to

be fully efficient.

f. Under the goal - to combat HIV/AIDS,

malaria, and other diseases, all the DMUs are

fully efficient.

g. In terms of ensuring environmental

sustainability, only two (2) provinces were

found to be fully efficient: Ilocos Sur and

Pangasinan.

h. As to global partnership for development,

Ilocos Norte and La Union, Ilocos Sur and

Pangasinan, were fully efficient and weak

efficient respectively.

2. The efficient peers and weights of the inefficient

DMUs are:

a. As to Goal #1- To eradicate extreme poverty

and hunger: Ilocos Norte, La Union and

Pangasinan.

b. Under Goal #2 - To achieve universal primary

education: only San Fernando City was found

to be fully is the efficient peer and weight.

c. As to Goal #3 – To promote gender equality

and empower women: five (5) cities namely

Alaminos City, Laoag City, San Fernando

City, Urdaneta City and Vigan City are the

efficient peers and weights.

d. In terms of Goal #4 – To reduce child

mortality: Ilocos Norte, La Union and

Pangasinan are the efficient peers and weights

of Ilocos Sur.

e. As to Goal #5 – To improve maternal health:

only the province of Ilocos Sur is the efficient

peer and weight of the other three (3)

provinces.

f. Under Goal #6 – To combat HIV/AIDS,

malaria and other diseases: all the DMUs are

fully efficient so they don’t need an efficient

peer and weight.

g. In terms of Goal #7 – To ensure environmental

sustainability: Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan

ICEST 2018 - 3rd International Conference of Computer, Environment, Agriculture, Social Science, Health Science, Engineering and

Technology

266

serve as efficient peers and weights of the

other two (2) provinces.

h. As to Goal #8 – To develop global partnership

for development: Ilocos Norte and La Union

serve as efficient peers and weights of Ilocos

Sur and Pangasinan.

3. The virtual inputs/outputs or improvements of the

provinces/cities to be in the efficient frontier

(Potential Improvement of the DMUs) are the

following:

a. Under Goal #1, Ilocos Sur needs potential

improvements in the proportion of population

below poverty and food thresholdto have a

corresponding improvement in the poverty

gap ratio.

b. In Goal #2, except San Fernando City, all the

DMUs need potential improvements under net

enrolment ratio in elementary education and

proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach

grade 6 to have a corresponding improvement

in the primary completion rate.

c. As to Goal #3, except for the five (5) cities

namely Alaminos City, Laoag City, San

Fernando City, Urdaneta City and Vigan City,

all the other DMUs need potential

improvements

d. In terms of Goal #4, Ilocos Sur needs potential

improvements in proportion of 1-year old

children immunized against measles and

proportion of fully immunized children (9-11

months) to have a reduction in the under-five

and infant mortality rates.

e. Under Goal #5, Ilocos Norte, La Union and

Pangasinan need to increase the proportion of

births attended by skilled health personnel to

have a decrease in maternal mortality.

f. As to Goal #6, all the DMUs are fully

sufficient so there is no need to have potential

improvements in the different input indicators.

g. In terms of Goal #7, Ilocos Norte and La

Union need to have potential improvements in

ratio of area protected to maintain biological

diversity to surface area and proportion of

households using solid fuels for cooking to

have improvements in the corresponding

outputs.

h. In Goal #8, Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan are

weak efficient DMUs so they still need

potential improvements in the number of

botikasa barangay to have corresponding

improvements in the outputs.

4. The input/output slacks are the input excesses and

output shortfalls.

a. No slacks are needed in Goal #1.

b. Input slacks are needed under Goal #2 except

for San Fernando City.

c. Input slacks are needed by Candon, Dagupan

and San Carlos Cities while output slacks are

needed by Ilocos Sur and La Union as to Goal

#3.

d. In terms of Goal #4, only Ilocos Sur needs to

decrease its input slacks.

e. As to Goal #5, there is no need to have

input/output slacks.

f. There is no need to have input/output slacks in

Goal #6.

g. In terms of Goal #7, La Union needs to have

input slacks while Ilocos Norte needs

input/output slacks.

As to Goal #8, Ilocos Sur needs output slacks

while Pangasinan needs input and output

slacks.

5. Based on the findings, all the best practices of

fully efficient DMUs should be adopted by weak

efficient and inefficient DMUs for them to be in

the efficient frontier and have an efficiency score

of 1.00.

6. Best Practices

Goal #1 - Eradicate Extreme Poverty and hunger

LGU Best Practices

DMU1-

Ilocos Norte

Has reduced the proportion of

population below food threshold

and poverty gap ratio. It achieved

target on reducing by 50% the

prevalence of underweight

children.

Has provided decent work for the

people

DMU3-La

Union

The province achieved target on

reducing by 50% the prevalence

of underweight children. Has

provided decent work for the

people

DMU4-

Pangasinan

Has reduced the proportion of

population below food threshold

and poverty gap. The province

achieved target on reducing by

50% the prevalence of

underweight children. Has

provided decent work for the

people

Efﬁciency of Local Government Units in Northwestern Philippines as to the Attainment of the Millenium Development Goals

267

Goal #2 – Achieve universal primary education

LGU Best Practice

DMU9-San

Fernando City

Has increased the proportion

of pupils starting grade 1

who reach grade 6.

Most children have

completed full course of

primary schooling.

Goal #3 – Promote gender equality and empower women

LGU Best Practices

DMU9 -San

Fernando City

DMU11-Alaminos

City

DMU1-Laoag City

DMU13-Urdaneta

City

DMU6-Vigan City

 Highly promote gender

equality and women

empowerment by

involving them in the

different programs and

projects

 Has decreased gender

disparity in primary and

secondary education

 Share of women in wage

employment in the non-

agricultural sector

 Proportion of seats held

by women in the

government

Goal #4 – Reduce child mortality rates

LGU Best Practices

All LGUs

except

DMU2-Ilocos

Sur

 Achieved target on the

infant mortality rate and

under five mortality rate

 Higher proportion of

one-year old children

immunized against

measles

Goal #5 – Improve maternal health

LGU Best Practice

DMU2-

Ilocos Sur

 Achieved target on the

proportion of births attended by

skilled health personnel and

improvement of maternal health

 Has decreased maternal

mortalit

rate

Goal #6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

LGU Best Practices

All DMUs Have achieved higher

proportion of cured TB

cases under DOTS;

achieved targets on

prevalence rate with

malaria, proportion of TB

cases detected under DOTS,

death rate associated with

rabies, incidence rate and

death rate with cholera

Goal #7 – Ensure environmental sustainability

LGU Best Practices

DMU2-

Ilocos Sur

DMU4-

Pangasinan

 Achieved proportion of

households with level I, II,

II water works and sanitary

toilet.

 Increasing ratio on area

protected to maintain

biological diversity

 Decreased proportion of

households using solid fuels

for cooking.

Goal #8 – Develop global partnership for development

LGU Best Practices

DMU1-

Ilocos Norte

DMU3-La

Union

 Increased proportion of

barangays with boticasa

barangay

 Increased use of

telecommunications

through telephone

density in

communications

 Increased linkages with

internal and external

encies

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