New report provides basis for Government negotiations on action plan to 2015 deadline
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, 16 March: With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for the adoption of a global action agenda for accelerating progress towards the Goals, when world leaders meet at a UN Summit in New York in September.
– We must not fail the billions who look to the international community to fulfil the promise of theMillennium Declaration for a better world. Let us meet in September to keep the promise, Ban says in his report, Keeping the Promise, issued Tuesday.
The report – which will serve as a basis for Government deliberations on an action-oriented outcome document for the 20-22 September Summit on the MDGs – identifies success factors and lessons learnt, highlights gaps, emerging challenges and opportunities, and lays out specific recommendations for action to boost progress towards the Goals over the remaining five years. Additional reports are expected, including the Statistical Appendix to the Secretary-General’s report, in April; the latest official statistics on progress towards meeting the Goals, in late June; and a more in-depth assessment of gaps in international cooperation, by early September.
– Our world possesses the knowledge and the resources to achieve the MDGs, Mr. Ban says in the report, referring to the targets based on the 2000 Millennium Declaration, aimed at greatly reducing poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other ills by 2015.
Falling short of the Goals “would be an unacceptable failure, moral and practical, the Secretary-General says: – If we fail, the dangers in the world – instability, violence, epidemic diseases, environmental degradation, runaway population growth – will all be multiplied.
A mixed picture
A number of countries have achieved major successes in combating extreme poverty and hunger, improving school enrolment and child health, expanding access to clean water, strengthening control of malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases, and providing increased access to hiv treatment, the report points out. (See fact sheet Millennium Development Goals: At a Glance.)
These successes have taken place in some of the poorest countries, demonstrating that the MDGs are indeed achievable with the right policies, adequate levels of investment, and international support.
Yet progress has been uneven and – without additional efforts – several Goals are likely to be missed in many countries, according to the report. The challenges are most severe in the least developed countries, land-locked developing countries, some small island developing states, those vulnerable to natural hazards, and countries in or emerging from conflict.
The shortfalls in progress towards the MDGs are not because they are unreachable, or because the time is too short, the report states, but rather because of unmet commitments, inadequate resources and lack of focus and accountability. This has resulted in failure to deliver on the finance, services, technical support and partnerships needed. As a consequence of these shortfalls, improvements in the lives of the poor have been unacceptably slow, while some hard-won gains are being eroded by the food and economic crises.
Lessons learnt
Nearly ten years into the global effort to achieve the MDGs, the report identifies a number of key lessons learnt. Among them, the most important is the national ownership of development strategies. Successful countries pursued pragmatic policy mixes, with enhanced domestic capacities. International cooperation should more strongly support such national development strategies and domestic capacity-building efforts.
While economic growth is necessary, it is not sufficient for progress. The growth process must be inclusive and equitable to maximize poverty reduction and progress on other MDGs.
Hard-earned gains can be reversed due to economic and other shocks. Hence, countries need forwardlooking macroeconomic policies to support broad-based stable growth, e.g. by sustaining public investment strategies and universal social protection, for achievement of the MDGs.
Adequate, consistent and predictable financial support, as well as a coherent and predictable policy environment, both at national and international levels, are crucial for achievement of the MDGs. Lack of adequate and predictable international financing has been an important constraint. There is an urgent need to broaden and strengthen partnerships to ensure supportive international frameworks for debt relief, trade, taxation, technology and climate change mitigation and adaptation to sustain long-term human progress.
Commitments need to be kept
While financing the MDGs needs to start at home, with developing countries raising and allocating domestic revenues, according to the report, the donor community must deliver on its long-standing promises of greatly expanded official development assistance (ODA). Although ODA reached its highest level ever in 2008, large gaps in meeting commitments remain.
The ODA commitment at the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit is approximately 154 billion US dollar in current value; additional flows of 35 billion dollar a year will need to be delivered by 2010 to achieve this target. Africa will need an extra 20 billion of the increase in ODA in 2010 to reach its Gleneagles target of$63 billion by 2010. “If these promises are not met, the poor will suffer and, indeed, die in large numbers,” the report states.
