Smart objectives redux

By Uriel Quilinguing

GOAL-SETTING theory pioneer and psychologist Edwin Locke posited that individuals who set specific, difficult goals performed better than those who set general, easy goals. What Filipino athletes did, the medalists in particular, in the just-concluded 30th Southeast Asian Games must have exemplified Locke’s assertion.   

But goals must be viewed differently from objectives; these should not be used interchangeably. If this is unclear from the very start, those with this mindset may not reach his destination since they do not know how. Most likely, they see the forest but not the trees. 

Those in the Department of Health appears to be in this situation, in addressing the recent outbreaks of virus-borne infectious diseases, the latest of which is poliomyelitis. This even as the health agency has set aside the challenges which measles and dengue epidemics posed earlier this year.

With eight confirmed polio cases, the health agency is in the thick of polio outbreak immunization response with the goal set at 95 percent of all eligible children, 59 months and below. Since seven of the eight polio patients are in Mindanao, oral polio vaccines are being administered simultaneously to the targeted population across regions in the country’s second-largest island.

Medical doctor Ian Gonzales, who heads DOH-10’s infectious diseases cluster, during a Talakayan forum Tuesday last week at SM Downtown Premier, finally found a plausible explanation why there are areas in Northern Mindanao where 95 percent polio immunization outcomes could not be achieved. The targeted eligible populations, which were supposed to be based on official demographic estimates from the Philippine Statistics Authority, were simply too high. 

This is understandable since the PSA does not regularly conduct census counts, that latest of which was four years ago and all figures from 2016 to the present are based on population projections. Gonzales, since he is relatively new to his post, may not know whether the DOH-10’s targets are based on high, medium, and low projections. 

Often the medium, which we may also label as the median of the two other projections, is used but others would prefer conservative estimates in places with comparatively low population growth rates. Case in point is Camiguin, which has been an outmigration island province, and Oroquieta which is the capital city of Misamis Occidental with a relatively high aging population. These two areas posted just over 80 percent out of the targeted population for polio immunization simply because the annual population has been growing below two percent, way below PSA projections. 

Clearly, the DOH-10 performance in immunization depends on the reliability of PSA demographic information. While the health agency knows the goal but may be uncertain in the objectives, or the steps that must be taken to achieve the target. The objectives may be specific and time-bounded, yet these are not measurable because the figures were not realistic, hence unattainable.

Objectives, which most of those involved in development planning know by heart, must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based or SMART! 

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Three Mediakonek followers who I serendipitously met in a coffee shop Friday afternoon noticed an error in the first paragraph of that day’s column, “Poverty Challenge,” particularly on BJMP’s persons deprived of liberty which was inadvertently published as persons deprived of poverty.    

(Uriel C. Quilinguing is a former president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club who, for more than three decades, had been editor in chief of Cagayan de Oro-based newspapers, including this paper. For reactions, email them to uriel.quilinguing@yahoo.com.)