New York, June 12 (IPS): In September 2000, world leaders gathered at the UN for the Millennium Assembly promised to halve extreme hunger and poverty, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide universal primary education, all by 2015.
The series of targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs – 2015 Målene)), also include promoting gender equality (lighed mellem kønnene), reducing child and maternal mortality, ensuring environmental sustainability and building a global partnership for development.
Salil Shetty, who will address hundreds of civil society leaders in Glasgow, Scotland later this month, is the director of the UN Millennium Campaign to help achieve these goals.
With less than a decade to go before the deadline, he spoke to IPS about the current status of the MDGs.
IPS: Has progress been made toward achieving the MDGs since they were agreed upon by world governments in 2000?
SS: There is no question that there has been quite spectacular progress in the last decade or so in relation to almost every one of the goals at the global level. Whether we are satisfied with the progress or not is based on whether we individually belong to the “glass half full” or “glass half empty” schools.
The Millennium Campaign has always been interested in looking at the goals beyond the aggregates. So, for example, it is great that at the global level we are on track to meeting the first goal on halving poverty by 2015. But the goals are quite minimalistic and we should look for nothing less than every goal being met in every country by 2015.
We cannot hide behind the aggregate numbers looking good simply because of significant changes in China and India on this goal. Even within large countries like India, China, Nigeria and Brazil, it is not enough if the national averages look good, we have to judge performance in the poorest parts of the country and for the most excluded social groups.
The good news is that we now have evidence that even some of the poorest countries in the world like Bangladesh and Mozambique have been able to make very good progress on some of the most difficult health indicators – which tells us that we are running out of excuses in the other countries for the lack of adequate progress.
The bottom line is that any country where the leaders are serious about realising the goals in the next 10 years can in fact make it happen. If you look at it this way, then we have to be appalled that South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the worlds poor people live, are not moving more quickly enough towards achieving these goals.
In Latin America and increasingly in many other parts of the world, the real challenge is growing inequality. Again, there are many countries which are systematically working towards dealing with this but others who are just hand-wringing.
IPS: What strategies is the Millennium Campaign employing to accomplish the goals on time?
SS: The Millennium Campaigns mandate is to take the goals to the people. These goals cannot be met in the corridors of the UN in New York or indeed even by governments acting on their own.
The first thing to deal with is the lack of information and awareness. Most people in developing countries do not know that their governments have made these commitments and that in fact they have a right to demand for these goals to be met.
Similarly in the rich countries, citizens are not aware that their governments have committed themselves to Goal 8 – more and better aid, debt cancellation and trade justice. So we are working with the media and through partners at the grassroots to spread the word about these promises and the need for governments to keep their promises.
More importantly, citizens and peoples groups at the local and national level are the ones who can and should hold their governments accountable.
We work in close partnership with a wide range of mass-based organisations including womens organisations, youth groups, faith-based organisations, trade unions, social movements, NGOs etc. towards this end. Some of the most powerful partnerships we have are with local governments and parliamentarians.
Our partners have now established national campaigns in over 60 countries in the North and South demanding that the MDGs are met and poverty is eradicated.
IPS: Have the MDGs been translated into national action plans? How do you suggest that this process be accelerated?
SS: All countries were meant to adapt the global goals into national ones and develop plans for the achievement of their national goals, right from the outset. This requirement was reaffirmed at the World Summit of the UN General Assembly in September 2005 and governments have committed themselves to do this by December 2006.
In reality, some countries like Vietnam have already developed Vietnam development goals and already focus their national planning process around their national goals. But in most countries, this is yet to happen and the UN system has this as a high priority in the coming months, i.e. to work in partnership with national governments and civil society to get strong nationally and locally defined strategies, plans and budgets in place for the achievement of these goals by 2015.
IPS: Though many rich countries give huge amounts of aid to developing countries, the effect of some rich nations policies on development has been criticised. The G7 nations engage in more trade, more aid, more peacekeeping and more pollution than any other group of nations. Yet, among them, only Germany ranks in the top half of Foreign Policy magazines “Commitment to Development Index”.
What kinds of changes can rich nations like Japan and the United States – which provide the most money to the developing world – make so that their aid does not hurt those it is aiming to help?
SS: It is absolutely true that most rich countries have not met their commitments on aid volume and debt cancellation. The quality of a lot of the aid is atrocious. But thanks to some forward-thinking leadership, at least in part pushed by the strong public campaigns in 2005, the clock has turned on aid volumes and debt cancellation. Slowly, but surely. This is particularly true in Europe.
On aid quality and trade, not much has moved though and we have to keep the pressure on. At the same time, it is very fashionable and politically correct to always externalise the problems faced by developing countries by blaming rich countries. I am not sure for how much longer we can sustain this argument and let our own leaders and elite off the hook.
IPS: Is civil society actively integrated into the UNs Millennium Campaign or have they been sidelined as they are during many government initiatives?
SS: I think this question has already been answered. Our premise is that governments will only listen to their voters and that all politics is local. The MDGs have to become vote-getting political capital. So organisations that work with citizens and people at the local and national level are the ones that can hold their governments to account.
These organisations are indeed at the forefront of the MDG campaigns across the world today. The Millennium Campaign only works with these groups to support them.
IPS: In Glasgow, will you be proposing any methods by which civil society can work with governments and contribute to achieving the MDGs faster?
SS: In 2006-8 our focus is very much on national and local level accountability. This year, we have tied up with the Guinness Book of World Records to set a world record on the number of people who will “Stand Up Against Poverty” and “Stand Up for the MDGs” on October 15.
This will be a massive mobilisation across the world in conjunction with a whole lot of activities that are being planned by many of our partners from September 15 onwards culminating on October 17 which will be the global White Band Day in 2006.
IPS: The Global Call to Action Against Poverty has mobilised millions of people across the world. Are governments listening?
SS: The Global Call to Action Against Poverty is primarily the coming together of national civil society-led campaigns on the MDGs and poverty eradication. The Millennium Campaign has played a vital supportive role in making this happen.
I do believe that the efforts of the national campaigns have started yielding fruit from the UK and the US to Zambia and Japan. But we still have a long way to go before we can have sustained peoples campaigns on the MDGs and poverty eradication across the world, to which governments will have no choice but listen.
IPS: Do you think the MDGs are broad enough to address the multitude of problems faced on the ground by the world’s poorest people?
SS: The MDGs themselves have deliberately been made very specific and focused on the essential needs of the poorest people in the world. If you talk to poor people across the world, you can be sure that livelihood, food, health, education, water and sanitation and a natural environment that supports their life, are indeed their top priorities.
But in order to deal with the causes of deprivation, inequality and injustice, the Goals have to be interpreted within the broader framework of human rights and the broader UN development agenda as spelled out in the Millennium Declaration.
Kilder: Inter Press Service og The Push Journal
