Donations only cannot help us achieve the MDGs
Oct 04, 2010
THE heads of the 192 UN member states recently met in New York to review the progress they are making in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which they set in 2000.
Frederick Womakuyu
THE heads of the 192 UN member states recently met in New York to review the progress they are making in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which they set in 2000.
Achieving the eight goals, which are meant to bring about sustainable development, was set for 2015.
As the member states reviewed the progress, it was noted that some members have made tremendous progress but the majority of the countries are unlikely to achieve the MDGs.
In East Africa, it was noted that Kenya and Uganda were doing well in education with over nine million children in school for Kenya and seven million for Uganda. However, it was noted that few pupils complete the full course of primary schooling.
The MDG target on primary education is that by 2015, all children should go to school and complete primary education. However, in Uganda, only 51% of the pupils complete primary school.
President Yoweri Museveni also admitted that Uganda was unlikely to achieve all the MDGs due to financial and logistical constraints.
Developing countries blamed the developed countries for failing to meet the pledges in billions of dollars they made towards achieving the MDGs. The Global Campaign for Education accused developed nations for taking the global economic crisis as an excuse for not fulfilling the promises they made to poor nations. According to the World Bank, donor aid globally has been cut due to the economic crisis.
They noted that as a result, about $4.6b promised to poor nations to finance education will be lost annually in unfulfilled promises and pledges to poor nations. This poses a serious question. How long will poor nations depend on the rich nations? What will happen if the rich nations stop funding them?
It is clear that the majority of the development projects in Africa are donor funded.
In Uganda, the Universal Primary Education and Universal Secondary Education programmes depend on donor aid — Uganda has made little steps to finance it by itself.
Whenever the donors do not send money, little teaching is done because the schools cannot maintain the students in the crisis. In 2009, money from the donors was delayed which affected the operations in many schools.
The Government complained to the donors and they released the funds. However, funding to each pupil in primary schools was reduced from sh3,000 to sh500, according to the headteacher of North Road Primary School in Mbale.
Even in the HIV/AIDS sector, over 93% of the funds are coming from donors. However, this money has also been slashed because donors are shifting their focus to fighting other diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.
Consequently, some people living with HIV/AIDS cannot get anti-retroviral therapy because there is no money.
So, developing nations should know that donors will not always be around to give us money. Developing countries need to find ways of funding their projects.
Many of the developing countries are endowed with natural resources, but the resources are poorly managed and swindled.
Developing countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan and Nigeria are endowed with gold, oil, diamond and aluminium, but they only benefit few corrupt officials. Ugandans should stop misappropriating funds, such as the Global Fund and money meant for CHOGM.
There is a lot of laxity and impunity when it comes to using public funds. People given the public roles of being trustees of the funds are not honest and we are not holding them accountable.
We need to be accountable and hold each other accountable for any penny if we are to fund our development projects.
We need to arrest those who misuse public funds, sell their property, recover the money and sink it into education, maternal health improvement and poverty. Only then shall we be able to reduce dependency on donors.
In Uganda, we lose about half a billion dollars to corruption. If we become more accountable, this money will go to the important sectors of the economy, such as building hospitals and schools.
We should also prioritise certain programmes like fighting poverty so that people have money to send their children to school, access medical care and also improve the environment.
Poverty hinders everything that we do. For example, even with the free education in poor areas, children will stay at home because they do not have food or uniforms.
The author is a journalist
THE heads of the 192 UN member states recently met in New York to review the progress they are making in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which they set in 2000.
Achieving the eight goals, which are meant to bring about sustainable development, was set for 2015.
As the member states reviewed the progress, it was noted that some members have made tremendous progress but the majority of the countries are unlikely to achieve the MDGs.
In East Africa, it was noted that Kenya and Uganda were doing well in education with over nine million children in school for Kenya and seven million for Uganda. However, it was noted that few pupils complete the full course of primary schooling.
The MDG target on primary education is that by 2015, all children should go to school and complete primary education. However, in Uganda, only 51% of the pupils complete primary school.
President Yoweri Museveni also admitted that Uganda was unlikely to achieve all the MDGs due to financial and logistical constraints.
Developing countries blamed the developed countries for failing to meet the pledges in billions of dollars they made towards achieving the MDGs. The Global Campaign for Education accused developed nations for taking the global economic crisis as an excuse for not fulfilling the promises they made to poor nations. According to the World Bank, donor aid globally has been cut due to the economic crisis.
They noted that as a result, about $4.6b promised to poor nations to finance education will be lost annually in unfulfilled promises and pledges to poor nations. This poses a serious question. How long will poor nations depend on the rich nations? What will happen if the rich nations stop funding them?
It is clear that the majority of the development projects in Africa are donor funded.
In Uganda, the Universal Primary Education and Universal Secondary Education programmes depend on donor aid — Uganda has made little steps to finance it by itself.
Whenever the donors do not send money, little teaching is done because the schools cannot maintain the students in the crisis. In 2009, money from the donors was delayed which affected the operations in many schools.
The Government complained to the donors and they released the funds. However, funding to each pupil in primary schools was reduced from sh3,000 to sh500, according to the headteacher of North Road Primary School in Mbale.
Even in the HIV/AIDS sector, over 93% of the funds are coming from donors. However, this money has also been slashed because donors are shifting their focus to fighting other diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.
Consequently, some people living with HIV/AIDS cannot get anti-retroviral therapy because there is no money.
So, developing nations should know that donors will not always be around to give us money. Developing countries need to find ways of funding their projects.
Many of the developing countries are endowed with natural resources, but the resources are poorly managed and swindled.
Developing countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan and Nigeria are endowed with gold, oil, diamond and aluminium, but they only benefit few corrupt officials. Ugandans should stop misappropriating funds, such as the Global Fund and money meant for CHOGM.
There is a lot of laxity and impunity when it comes to using public funds. People given the public roles of being trustees of the funds are not honest and we are not holding them accountable.
We need to be accountable and hold each other accountable for any penny if we are to fund our development projects.
We need to arrest those who misuse public funds, sell their property, recover the money and sink it into education, maternal health improvement and poverty. Only then shall we be able to reduce dependency on donors.
In Uganda, we lose about half a billion dollars to corruption. If we become more accountable, this money will go to the important sectors of the economy, such as building hospitals and schools.
We should also prioritise certain programmes like fighting poverty so that people have money to send their children to school, access medical care and also improve the environment.
Poverty hinders everything that we do. For example, even with the free education in poor areas, children will stay at home because they do not have food or uniforms.
The author is a journalist