The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) initiative launched in 2000 had set the year of 2015 to achieve its targets on eight key development goals. This includes cutting down cut poverty and hunger, expanding access to education, boosting gender equity, improving basic health services and redoubling the fight against diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria which disproportionately impact the world’s poor. To review the pledges made ten years ago, a UN summit was held this week. From what we know about the MDG, progress has been slow and there is almost near agreement that the target for 2015 will not be met. All this is not surprising given the past experience of such global summit meetings where tall promises are made to be only broken. More often than not summit meetings of the UN find it difficult to arrive at a common ground especially while tackling contentious issues such as on climate change, human rights, trade and development. The case of the MDG is more about the failure to act on the agreed terms. Unlike on climate change, there has been unanimity on the issue/s. The only thing lacking is action. And the latest review meeting of the UN would have brought out the need to translate the promises into action. As rightly mentioned by some of the participants simply reaffirming commitments would not be enough. What will be required is to fundamentally change and innovate the way we execute our work. This is an important point that will need to be applied while pursuing our developmental goals whether at the UN, national or local level. Our work method must drastically improve if we are to deliver on our targets. Merely repeating and reaffirming our ideals is never going to be enough. To successfully accomplish goals, we must tap into workable formulas one that can get the job done. This is a valuable lesson that we must take to heart while pursing our objectives.
The other point that needs proper reflection especially on the part of developing countries is the one made by US President Barack Obama. Unveiling what reads like a new aid policy, Obama said the United States would now “concentrate on countries that invest in their future and boost democracy, good governance and free trade”. This is a welcome announcement of the US. While aid is important, however for too long now, the billions of foreign money has not been utilized properly in the developing world. Rather such aid, more often than not, has been misused by the political and military elite who run these third world countries. There is no check and balances. Accountability is missing. There is authoritarian control of power. The argument of this new US policy is that while in the short term, aid has worked to some extent however in the long term there has been no sustainable improvement of developing societies. Obama specifically mentions about the millions of people who have relied on food assistance for decades and rightly says that this is not development but it is dependence. There is no doubt that more aid needs to go to where it is meant for i.e. achieving the MDG on all the eight key development targets. However, the new aid policy announced by President Obama is a step in the right direction. Developing countries will hopefully be encouraged to strengthen democracy, rule of law and good governance. Foreign aid cannot be an end in itself but only a means towards enabling the needy country to pursue goals of peace and development.
