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Contributions from
the Column
Media
Fantu Cheru, Colin Bradford Jr. (eds.): Financing the Millennium Goals
Andreas Mehler, Henning Melber et al. (eds.): Africa Yearbook 2004
Franz Kolland, August Gächter (eds.): Introduction to development sociology
OECD (ed.): Climate change and development
8-9/2006 |
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The Millennium Goals:
achievable, never mind ecesssive rhetoric
Fantu Cheru and Colin Bradford Jr. (eds.):
The Millenium Development Goals: Raising the Resources to Tackle World Poverty.
London, Zed Books, 2005, 238 p., £18.95, ISBN 1-84277-735-1
Charles McCreevy wants to see bank transfers from Munich to Malmo or Malaga cost the same as those from Munich to Mannheim – that is, virtually nothing. By removing the remaining barriers to intra-European payments, the EU Internal Market Commissioner plans to make the EU more competitive internationally. At the global level, however, there is no Charles McCreevy. Reducing the huge cost of migrant transfers to their native countries would contribute to reaching the United Nations Millennium Goals, which aim to halve poverty by 2015 and improve living conditions for the world’s poorest people.
Are the Millennium Development Goals achievable? And where should the funds necessary to finance them come from? These two questions are what the anthology edited by Fantu Cheru and Colin Bradford deals with. The book is convincing, especially considering that it summarises the findings of a conference series. Unlike the usual dry conference proceedings, it reads as if it were planned for publication from the start.
The first two chapters contribute to this overall impression by putting the Millennium Goals into their historical context. It makes a refreshing change from the distinctly ahistorical perspective, which was typical of development debate at the turn of the millennium.
Moreover, it is heartening to learn that our experience since the early days of European industrialisation suggests that the Millennium Goals are not merely a PR concept, but are absolutely achievable. The introductory chapters summarise the development approach of the goals in an agreeably down-to-earth fashion, without resorting to clichés.
A well-rounded discussion follows on how to raise the resources needed to implement the MDGs. The general approach of the book will make even the sceptical reader more optimistic. Its message is that more is involved than simply increasing official development assistance. As Andrés Solimano points out, ODA funds are unreliable, fluctuating more than any other source of revenue. Rather, what is crucial, is to exploit potentials which have received little attention so far, and integrating them into the millennium strategies.
Such potentials include migrants’ remittances, which were mentioned above, as well as the mobilisation of capital in the developing countries themselves, by means of tax reforms for example.
The debt relief debate also receives attention. Nancy Birdsall and Brian Deese argue that waiving debt should in future be granted a higher priority than financial or technical assistance. No high transaction costs apply here, freeing up resources which become directly available to the recipient countries, without the enormous cost of coordinating classic development assistance.
To sum up, the Millennium Development Goals may go along with some exaggerated rhetoric. But the authors do no doubt that many feasible paths – some unspectacular, some as yet undeveloped – indeed lead to these goals.
Carel Mohn
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