Global Policy Forum

By Sanjay Suri

People in rich nations need to give up their "caricature of sub-Saharan Africa" and to recognise and support real progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, Eveline Herfkens, executive coordinator of the Millennium Campaign told a meeting here [in Berlin] last week. The Millennium Campaign is being pushed by the United Nations to advance moves towards the goals agreed by world leaders at the United Nations in September 2000. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include a 50 percent reduction in poverty and hunger, universal primary education, reduction of child mortality by two-thirds, cutbacks in maternal mortality by three- quarters, promotion of gender equality, and reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The target date for specific goals is 2015. "The setting of targets has led to an acceleration towards them, but very few have been achieved," Herfkens said at the meeting organised at the launch of the IPS Europe regional centre in Berlin. The meeting was supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a leading German foundation promoting international development cooperation.

But despite this there has been real progress towards many of the goals in sub-Saharan Africa, Herfkens said. "We are talking of 48 countries in very different situations, with half of them growing faster than the EU," Herfkens said. "There are a lot of success stories there." Ten countries are on track to get all children to school by 2015, she said. Uganda has reversed the spread of AIDS. Mozambique is on track in meeting the target to curb child mortality, Tanzania is on track to provide safe water for all. "Sub-Saharan Africa is today better governed than ever before in its history," she said. "There are less civil wars than there used to be. Big problems like Congo and Sudan are closer to being solved than ever before. Fifty percent more kids go to school than ever before."

Rwanda now has a higher percentage of women in parliament (48 percent) than the Nordic countries, Herfkens said. South Africa has decided that half of all members on government commissions will be women. "Given the picture, it's a man bite dog story that there's good news in sub-Saharan Africa. And if you can make it work there, you can make it work anywhere." Developing countries themselves carry prime responsibility for achieving the goals, Herfkens said. "It is the responsibility of the developing countries to achieve the first seven goals, but they cannot do it unless there is more aid, and better quality of aid, fair trade terms, and debt relief."

Leaders from rich countries often come to the UN, "make beautiful tear- jerking speeches, put their signatures to fantastic declarations, and then take the plane back." They must now "live up to what they promise." There is a limit to what the UN can do, she said. "The UN cannot enforce compliance, we can't send the police after them." But there has been a lot of mobilisation over the last few years because the rich "found out the hard way that what happens in a small village in Afghanistan can hit us here."

Within the EU, she said, Germany is dragging back initiatives to commit 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) as development aid. Many in Germany think 0.7 percent is too much, she said. "But you still get to spend 99.3 percent on your own problems." Germany's contribution of 0.28 percent is less than the 0.36 percent from Britain and 0.42 percent from France. That puts Germany "in the company of countries you don't want to be seen with," she said. Like Italy and Portugal. At a meeting due to be held May 24 the Luxembourg presidency is expected to propose that the older 15 EU members commit themselves to 0.5 percent by 2010 and 0.7 percent by 2014. Germany can make or break if the EU can go to the MDG summit in September with this offer, she said. "If Germany cannot even endorse that minimum, the whole EU position will fall apart. Italy and Austria will be pleased, because then they won't, and the Germans will be blamed."

The rich countries need also to improve the quality of aid, she said. "We are destroying the quality of governance in poor countries; we've made them accountable to us, the donors, rather than to their poor people." "We are the first generation that can put an end to poverty, and we should not refuse to seize this opportunity."

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