US Features

No breakthrough in achieving development goals

By JT Nguyen Sep 23, 2010, 13:47 GMT

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivers his annual report during the opening day of the general debate of the 65th session General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, New York, USA, on 23 September 2010. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT

New York - Ten years of arduous work to implement an ambitious programme fighting poverty and other social ills have resulted in mixed successes and uneven progress between and within countries.

With five years remaining to achieve the concrete results called the Millennium Development Goals, the realization that no breakthrough has been made prompted government leaders to scramble for solutions as the UN General Assembly's three-day special session ended Wednesday.

The 192-nation General Assembly said in an outcome document that governments are resolved 'to work together for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples' to lift by 2015 the more than 1 billion people living in extreme poverty.

Eliminating extreme poverty and hunger tops the eight Millennium Development Goals, and along with reducing infant and maternal deaths has been among the most difficult to achieve of the MDGs.

While millions of people escaped poverty each year, millions more fell into deprivation in recent years because of rising food prices and the global economic crisis.

The other Millennium Development Goals are combating diseases, improving shelter, resolving gender inequality and environmental degradation and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Half of the 800 million inhabitants in the 49 least developed countries, with Africans in the majority, still live below the extreme poverty line, defined by the World Bank as less than 1.25 dollars a day per person.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, reviewing conditions in that bloc of countries, said: 'Hunger and malnutrition are widespread. Progress in improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality has been slow.'

He said that the least developed countries have inadequate transport infrastructure. Uneven distribution of power lines has hampered economic development and competitiveness.

   Progress made in some developing countries has been wiped out by natural disasters, as seen this year in Pakistan's unprecedented floods and Haiti's devastating earthquake.

A study by the British charity Save the Children said the number of malnourished children doubled in Nigeria from 1990-2008 and grew by a third in India in 2006 despite economic growth there. The two countries already have half of the world's malnourished children.

Save the Children warned that the UN target of halving the world's hungry children by 2015 would be difficult to reach because of the global recession and spiraling food prices. The impact of malnutrition rates is exacerbated by the lack of access to effective health services, clean water and sanitation.

'We need political leadership at the highest levels,' said Rajiv Tandon of Save the Children India. He said the Indian government has committed to bring down the number of malnourished children by 2015.

Amnesty International attributed the lack of MDG progress to discrimination, which kept people out of basic services.

'With only five years to go, it is completely unacceptable that world leaders have still not agreed to take concrete action to address discrimination and other human rights violations, which prevent the MDGs from benefiting those who need them most,' said Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty.

While admitting that there have been failures in reaching mid-term results on the way to target year 2015, UN officials remain confident that the MDGs can be achieved.

The UN said 35 billion dollars are needed annually until 2015 in order to successfully fight poverty, provide primary education for all children and improve women's reproductive health. But there was a shortfall of 20 billion dollars in 2010, with no guarantees that the financial resources will be there for the next five years.

At a summit in 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland, the world's eight leading industrialized countries (G8) pledged 50 billion dollars by 2010 in incremental contributions to their official development assistance to developing countries. The continued global economic crisis has dented that pledge, which was devised to financially back the MDGs.

Nonetheless, the UN said progress can be made even in the poorest countries with renewed commitment and effective implementation of national policies.

'There is no one-size-fits-all,' the UN outcome document said. 'We reiterate that each country has primary responsibility for its own economic and social development and that the role of national policies, domestic resources and development strategies cannot be overemphasized.'

The UN Development Programme (UNDP), which has a leading financial and advisory role in assisting development countries, said governments ought to have the right policies to carry out the MDGs. It said many challenges remain, however, in particular maternal health, sanitation and clean water.

'The evidence is there,' UNDP administrator Helen Clark said. 'When the right policies are in place, scores can be lifted out of poverty rapidly, which means quite simply better lives for millions of Africans.'

UNDP cited success stories in Burkina Faso, which doubled the number of children in primary schools, provided daily meals for all children and take-home rations for girls. Ghana reduced the proportion of under-nourished, increased agricultural productivity through fertilizer subsidies and provided nutritional supplements and school feeding programmes.