Development efforts should come from us
Sep 15, 2005
WHILE reflecting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) September 2005 review meeting currently underway at the UN in New York, I kept wondering how close we were to realising these MDGs commitments made by over 190 governments in 2000.
BY Julius Kapwepwe
WHILE reflecting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) September 2005 review meeting currently underway at the UN in New York, I kept wondering how close we were to realising these MDGs commitments made by over 190 governments in 2000.
Aimed at eradication of extreme poverty from the face of planet earth (in the period 2000-2005), the eight MDGs were to be realised through revisiting the ‘slave-master’ relationship which remains apparent between the developed and developing nations. The MDGs are:
Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger
Achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2005,
Promoting gender equality, Reducing child mortality (by two thirds),
Improving maternal health
Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other preventable diseases
Environmental sustainability
Developing a global partnership for development.
The Human Development Report launched by UNDP in Kampala this week, clearly attests to the fact that the social development indicators remain pathetic for the developing nations, especially sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda.
Average life expectancy in Africa is 46 years and falling and the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased by more than 140 million in the last 20 years (UN Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, http://www.un.org/esa/).
There are, nonetheless, indicators of improvement to a somewhat level, for example, for Uganda. Even then, Uganda has missed on getting an equal number of girls into school as boys, an MDG that should have been realised as late as 2005.
Certainly, the fact that children do not attend school regularly on market days and during the planting and harvesting seasons, for example, in Muterere and Nabukalu sub-counties(Bugiri)and Kiyanga sub-county (Bushenyi)contributes to Uganda’s failure to meet this goal. We need to look for plausible solutions to this.
The meagre financial resources to enable the local governments put up worthwhile teachers’ houses and separate latrine stances for boys and girls, too, disable us from achieving this particular MDG on equal UPE enrolment of the boys and girls in Uganda.
So, as we in sub-Saharan Africa endeavour to put our houses in order again, especially in the area of governance (popular citizen participation and critical involvement in influencing public policies, programmes and activities, holding leaders to account for their actions and funds, no extra-judicial killing of people, respect for the media, fighting misuse of public offices, etc), the MDGs have a chance of being realised if the rich nations of the world delivered on their pledges to extend up to 0.7% of their Gross National Income(GNI) to international development assistance, made 35 years ago.
The G8 re-affirmed their ‘commitment’ in 2002, two years into the journey of the MDGs. Even then, aid can only make a small contribution to our promised land in development.
Most of the development effort must originate from within our own resources and deliberate consciousness (mineral, human, fiscal discipline, sanity, peace, among others).
Looking at the July 2005, G8 meeting at Gleneagles, the G8 will only deliver an average of 0.36% of GNI and not until 2010, five years to realising the full targets of the MDGs. In other words, to register 0.7% of GNI in 2010, donors must increase their aid not by the $48b pledged at Gleneagles, but by $170b, beginning now. This would be a positive step from the review of the MDGs in New York this month.
The writer is a programme officer, Uganda Debt Network
WHILE reflecting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) September 2005 review meeting currently underway at the UN in New York, I kept wondering how close we were to realising these MDGs commitments made by over 190 governments in 2000.
Aimed at eradication of extreme poverty from the face of planet earth (in the period 2000-2005), the eight MDGs were to be realised through revisiting the ‘slave-master’ relationship which remains apparent between the developed and developing nations. The MDGs are:
The Human Development Report launched by UNDP in Kampala this week, clearly attests to the fact that the social development indicators remain pathetic for the developing nations, especially sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda.
Average life expectancy in Africa is 46 years and falling and the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased by more than 140 million in the last 20 years (UN Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, http://www.un.org/esa/).
There are, nonetheless, indicators of improvement to a somewhat level, for example, for Uganda. Even then, Uganda has missed on getting an equal number of girls into school as boys, an MDG that should have been realised as late as 2005.
Certainly, the fact that children do not attend school regularly on market days and during the planting and harvesting seasons, for example, in Muterere and Nabukalu sub-counties(Bugiri)and Kiyanga sub-county (Bushenyi)contributes to Uganda’s failure to meet this goal. We need to look for plausible solutions to this.
The meagre financial resources to enable the local governments put up worthwhile teachers’ houses and separate latrine stances for boys and girls, too, disable us from achieving this particular MDG on equal UPE enrolment of the boys and girls in Uganda.
So, as we in sub-Saharan Africa endeavour to put our houses in order again, especially in the area of governance (popular citizen participation and critical involvement in influencing public policies, programmes and activities, holding leaders to account for their actions and funds, no extra-judicial killing of people, respect for the media, fighting misuse of public offices, etc), the MDGs have a chance of being realised if the rich nations of the world delivered on their pledges to extend up to 0.7% of their Gross National Income(GNI) to international development assistance, made 35 years ago.
The G8 re-affirmed their ‘commitment’ in 2002, two years into the journey of the MDGs. Even then, aid can only make a small contribution to our promised land in development.
Most of the development effort must originate from within our own resources and deliberate consciousness (mineral, human, fiscal discipline, sanity, peace, among others).
Looking at the July 2005, G8 meeting at Gleneagles, the G8 will only deliver an average of 0.36% of GNI and not until 2010, five years to realising the full targets of the MDGs. In other words, to register 0.7% of GNI in 2010, donors must increase their aid not by the $48b pledged at Gleneagles, but by $170b, beginning now. This would be a positive step from the review of the MDGs in New York this month.
The writer is a programme officer, Uganda Debt Network