MDGs: From Rhetoric to Action

Published on 15th May 2007

Judging the ability of African states to reach the 2015 MDGs target depends on how you are looking at a glass: is it almost full of water or almost empty? While Uganda, for example, is doing well in tackling HIV/AIDS through openness, it is performing dismally on maternal and child mortality.

It is difficult to say that a country is doing well, say in education, as the enrollment of children in primary schools cannot be flatly credited without critically analyzing the impact it has on the society. It is one thing to enroll and quite another to drop out of school due to lack of basic requirements in poor households.

The UNDP regional workshop held in Kampala from 18-20th April to undertake collective stock-taking on the progress made in undertaking MDG based planning, concluded that although the challenges faced by many countries towards MDG-izing their national development plans were immense, the commitment demonstrated was encouraging. However the UN resident Coordinator and UNDP resident representative in Uganda Theophane Nikyema notes that the first seven years since 2000 have been spent talking about MDGs, let the remaining eight years be spent making MDGs work. 

Ambassador Bouna Semou Diof, the Director Tokyo International Conference on African Development TICAD notes that bad governance is a hindrance to achieving MDGs. He sees no relationship between democratization and economic growth. He looks at democratization as a process that has never been perfect, even to greater economies like China and Asia.

“Africa has moved ahead in terms of multiparty democracy and freedom of expression, and African leaders now seek global solutions to their global problems,” he notes. China, a country that at first was seen as an economic enemy, is now trading with many countries.

The role of the private sector cannot be underestimated when talking about economic growth and poverty reduction. The development of all countries in Asia that have achieved their Millennium Development Goals are driven by the private sector.  Why should it take a country three days to process a trading license for an investor while it takes months in others? Such bad policies need to be removed. MDGs should be looked at as goals that need to be aimed at to score, and at times it may be difficult to aim at them.

Creativity that already exists among African people should be highly encouraged especially among women and youths. Why should Africans import extragenious knowledge when there is the local knowledge?

Access to finance and assets is of paramount importance in fighting poverty. Land, which is a minimum requirement for survival, should be made productive through improved farming mechanisms. Environmental related issues like soil degradation, deforestation, and global warming should be seen as a vicious cycle with poverty.


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