Achieving the MDGs

Commentary on achieving the millennium development goals: the role of African countries.   

The Millennium Development Goals Summit held last month in New York was undoubtedly a landmark forum in assessing global development especially in underdeveloped nations.  The summit also served as a timely reminder of the eighth MDG, which is global partnership.  

The United Nations had poorer nations in mind when it instituted the 15 year period plan to improve the conditions of the poor worldwide. So soon it’s just five years away from 2015, the target date when the global community hopes to see a giant leap from poverty to systematic and pragmatic prosperity.  

News reports so far have focused on some of the concerns raised by world leaders, ranging from family planning to healthcare.  Such concerns were among the arguments brought up in determining the priority given to the eight points in the Millennium Development Goals.  These goals are at the heart of development strategies in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa which is grappling with disease, hunger, war, illiteracy and displacement of people.  

However, present trends have shown improvement in the lives of many Africans since the inception of the Millennium Development Goals about a decade ago. Elsewhere in the developing world, it is not all doom and gloom.  

Re-iterating the commitment of the more developed countries to help see a better world, the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, at the summit said, “Our ability to end poverty and hunger and improve child and maternal health depends upon the long-term availability of fresh water, food, medicine and raw materials that nature provides”.  

This obvious assertion drawing the attention to the world’s poorest nations is also an eye opener to African countries especially where there are enough natural resources for international trade and improving life in general.  

However a canker that has and continues to undermine this effort appears to be the high level of impropriety and corruption in high levels of governance in Africa. This has been largely responsible for the downtrend in sub-Saharan Africa’s development.  

Poverty has indeed been fuelled also by bad governance, but democratic principles which are being replicated throughout the continent are leaving traits of the people’s determination to demand accountability for better life today and years ahead.  Noteworthy, in this regard, is the institution of the African Peer Review Mechanism that seeks to improve governance on the continent and the general well-being of its people.  

In this global community no nation can stand alone.  Dependence on each other for survival is a crucial factor. As the saying goes no man is an island.  Looking closely at the African continent, poverty should not have been its lot.  Neither can its inhabitants continue lamenting their fate as underdogs in the interplay of world politics.  The winner of a chess game is not only the one who can move his fingers fast but the one who makes careful and thoughtful moves.  

In Ghana, development analysts of international repute have indicated that reducing poverty by half by 2015 is on course.  This good news should spur on Ghana to continue the policies that have brought the country this far.  Good weather has improved agricultural output and aforestation. It has helped power generation from the Akosombo dam for industrial productivity.  What the country urgently needs now to sustain productivity is to motivate young Ghanaians to work, especially by availing themselves of opportunities in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.  

One of the reasons why prolonged conflicts in Africa contribute to poverty is that the young people are engaged in wars rather than ploughing the field to produce food.  

There is the need to stop the proliferation of small arms that are being used in robberies, violence and politically motivated conflicts. 

Also of great hope is the empowerment of women politically and economically as they demand more active participation in governance and leadership.  This is helping them to have greater say in their own affairs with regard to maternal health and child welfare.  

While the world recuperates from the economic recession, nations need to re-strategize and see which development goals in the various countries need improvement or strengthening.  

President Barrack Obama has advised leaders, especially from the developing world, that they should not only seek aid but more importantly, seek trade partnership and develop their nations with their numerous resources.  

Ten years have passed. We can measure our achievements. The target of 2015, only five years hence, will come like seconds ago, but its importance is that it serves as a finishing point to measure how serious we are as a continent or nation to be counted among development oriented and progressive nations.

BY JOHN KUMADO, A JOURNALIST