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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
Wealthy countries are not fulfilling duties
Clinton versus Bush
World Bank considers ban of company
The fight against poverty: NGOs lack priorities
Sudan: conflict escalates in Darfur
Afghanistan should be self-sufficient in ten years
“Disarmament must begin within the Afghan government”
5/2004
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[ Millennium Development Goals ]
Wealthy countries are not fulfilling duties
Unless something changes, poverty in sub-Saharan Africa may not be halved before 2146. This is the sobering prognosis of Eveline Herfkens, who has been the UN Secretary General’s Executive Coordinator in the campaign to realise the Millennium Development Goals since 2002. In view of this result, the former Development Minister of the Netherlands declared herself in favour of emergency measures and an increase in the international development aid of at least 50 billion euro annually at a meeting with her long-standing colleague, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, in Berlin in late March.
Furthermore, she demanded a cutback in agricultural subsidies in Europe and North America, which she considers a “slap in the face of the developing countries”. Nevertheless, Herfkens did not want to be pessimistic: “Some countries in Africa can reach some of the Millennium Development Goals”, she said – Mozambique, for example, the education goal, Uganda the fight against AIDS and Tanzania a better supply of drinking water.
Wieczorek-Zeul came up with a surprise at the meeting. For the first time, in front of the press, she gave a date by which Germany should reach the goal that has been sworn for decades – to provide 0.7 percent of the gross national product for development aid services: the year 2010. When asked whether the German Cabinet shares this projection, however, the minister toned down. She said everyone knew that the 0.33 percent mark defined at the UN Conference on Development Financing in Monterrey was only an intermediate target.
Wieczorek-Zeul reacted to Herfkens’ indication that, unlike some other EU countries, Germany has not given any deadline yet by which the 0.7 percent commitment should be honoured. Herfkens described the Millennium Development Goals as a significant breakthrough in development policy. The United Nations, the international financial institutions and the donor and receiver countries all agreed that the necessary resources and the know-how to implement the goals are available. According to Herfkens, it is above all the developing countries that are challenged to attain the first seven goals – from eradicating poverty to universal primary education, gender equality, reducing maternal and child mortality, an improved supply of drinking water to combating AIDS. A prerequisite for success, however, was that the donor nations took the 8th global partnership – more seriously. Only recently, the World Bank has noted that the poor nations have already done a lot to reach the goals, while the wealthy countries are currently far behind in fulfilling their promises.
Johannes Wendt
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