By Gareth Rannamets
Accra MailFebruary 27, 2002
At a conference hosted by the United Nations in Accra yesterday, grave doubt was thrown over Africa's ability to achieve the UN millennium goals set for 2015. The conference was organised as a preparatory meeting prior to the major "Financing for Development" conference in Mexico next month, and it successfully illustrated exactly how steep the mountain is that sub-Saharan Africa has to climb.
Speaking at the opening of the event, Peter Harrold, the World Bank's Country Director for Ghana, presented graphs which showed that whilst much of the rest of the world stands a good chance of achieving the universal goals, Africa - notwithstanding any future radical turn of events - does not.
The sobering analysis will temper optimism engendered by the announcement in last Thursday's budget of the HIPC decision, approved this week by the World Bank and IMF, which will wipe clean $3.7 billion from Ghana's external debt.
The United Nation's Millennium development goals are a far-reaching set of ideals which include halving the number of people living on less than $1 a day; halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water; and to achieve universal completion of primary schooling. The purpose of this week's 'workshop' here in Ghana, and the conference in Mexico, is to brainstorm ways to achieve the level of funding necessary to attain these goals.
The event yesterday was opened with speeches from the UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Alfred Sallia Fawundu, Mr. Harrold, and the Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. Gheysika Agambila. All three highlighted the comparatively low levels of aid to Africa coupled with protective tariff pricing in the Western world as two of the major obstacles which need to be overcome.
The workshop is a two-day event, and its conclusions will be taken to Monterrey in Mexico for the Financing for Development Conference beginning on the 18th March.
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