As Africa takes center stage at the Group of Eight Summit (G8), a new report produced by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund says that only 10 of the 45 sub-Saharan countries are on schedule to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Prepared at the request of the G8, the report details some of the setbacks suffered by Africa with regards to the eight development targets endorsed by world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, including cutting poverty and hunger in half, achieving universal primary education and gender equality, and reversing and halting the spread of HIV by 2015.
"When the leaders of Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa meet with their G8 counterparts tomorrow to discuss the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) -an-all African plan to help improve the lives of people and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the global marketplace- they have a unique opportunity to help start turning the promise of the Millennium Declaration into reality," said UNDP Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown.
"Built around time-bound targets that have universal political support, the MDGs can serve as both a mobilizing tool for developing and donor countries and an accountability framework," he said. "On the one hand they provide accountability through measurement of results from drinking water to school enrolment; on the other, they offer the peg and the benchmark to campaign for the commitment and resources necessary to meet the real scale of the needs."
The study, entitled "The Millennium Development Goals in Africa: Promises & Progress," tracks the continent's results against each of these benchmarks and points to some of the region's most pressing problems. For example, Africa has the highest number of poor people, with nearly half of its population -some 300 million people- living on less than one dollar a day. And that number is rising, jumping 25 percent between 1990 and 1999. "If current trends continue," the report warns, "Africa will be the only region where the number of poor people in 2015 will be higher than in 1990."
The continent doesn't fare much better when it comes to the goal of participating more fully in the global economy. African countries have actually lost ground in this area. While in the 1980s the region's exports of manufactured goods increased more than 30 percent annually, growth dipped to below three percent in the 1990s. Similarly, while Africa's share of global trade stood at about five percent in the 1980s, it fell to less than three percent during the following decade. To make matters worse, official development assistance to the region declined significantly after 1992, hindering economic growth and efforts to reduce poverty.
The UNDP is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. The organization has programs in virtually every country in Africa and works in the areas of democratic governance, poverty reduction, energy and environment, HIV/AIDS, crisis prevention and recovery, and information and communications technology. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
