A July 19, 2007 report by the United Nations has revealed that not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa is on track to achieve the internationally agreed target for halving extreme poverty by 2015. This dire failure is unsurprising given among other factors, the inability of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to negotiate development-friendly trade rules, and the financial burdens imposed on many African countries by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and The World Bank.

According to the report, the number of people living on less than one dollar a day has barely changed in the past seven years.There has been little change in the number of children under five who remain hungry and underweight; a mere four per cent decrease was observed between 1990 and 2005. Mortality rates for children under five dropped by less than three per cent and only an additional five per cent of the population have gained access to basic sanitation, leaving 37 per cent of people without this necessity. The number of deaths from AIDS is also accelerating - a staggering two million people in 2006.

The report also highlights the impact of global warming which is already being felt throughout the region in terms of the intensification of droughts and desertification in Kenya, the accelerated melting of ice field peaks in Tanzania, and the increased flooding experienced in the Niger Delta. This inevitably heightens the scarcity of resources such as food and water, fuels conflict and exacerbates poverty. Only 42 per cent of the rural population presently has access to clean water but this, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), could soon include up to 250 million Africans.

Although, there is limited improvement in education, healthcare and agricultural productivity in a few countries, the overall trends for poverty reduction, access to clean water and basic healthcare are continuing to plummet.  The G8 leaders concur that it is important to prevent the imminent deaths of millions of Africans who are being indirectly denied the right to these essential resources. Yet as the failed Gleneagles promises for increased aid to Africa demonstrate, global political priorities and economic policy address poverty indirectly.

The Chronic Poverty Research Centre has calculated that even if the Millennium Development Goal for poverty and hunger is achieved by 2015, 900 million people will still be living on less than one dollar a day. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Africa is currently enjoying robust economic growth.The continent is exporting more food than ever before through world trade and corporate investment.  In light of the persistence and prevalence of extreme poverty, however, the relationship between these economic improvements and the provision of the most basic welfare is intangible at best.

The data on poverty in Africa strongly suggests that the internationalisation of market forces over the past quarter century has kept Africa impoverished,but simultaneously created unimaginable wealth for a relative minority in the global north. The ‘trickle-down effect’ which claims that financial returns from commercial exports and growth will eventually benefit lower socio-economic groups seems to have been reduced to an ‘intermittent-drip effect’ in the case of Africa. As a consequence of this arrangement that is in line with international free trade rules, local producers and economies loose out as corporate profits are repatriated abroad or paid out in executive salaries and shareholder dividends.

The good news about economic growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa is further compromised by the fragility of booming commodity prices. Being primarily an agricultural continent, Africa relies on the export of a small number of commodities to create growth.Not only is this dependency on exports to global markets a risky way to underwrite the social safety net, but it undermines the simple logic of prioritising food security.

Africa has for the past 25 years provided a clear demonstration of the dislocation between economic growth and the provision of basic human needs. There is an overwhelming need for an alternative principle upon which to organise the global economy, a fact that continues to be ignored by key policy makers in the US and EU. The decision that humanity as a whole must make is whether we are prepared to serve the needs of the downtrodden majority or perpetuate a system that perverts economic democracy and dismisses any sense of common unity and morality.

A team of 265 development experts and economists came together and pronounced that it was possible to end extreme poverty in 20 years. The team argued that the world has enough knowledge on methods and technologies that can end the suffering of the poor. The team’s plan as outlined in the UN Millennium project report, called for the world to move forward in a unified and coordinated manner.

According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Center – IDMC, the issue of Darfur has witnessed 5 million internally displaced people ignored nationally, regionally and internationally as nations pursue divergent economic interests. Experience has shown that natural disasters trigger considerably more interest and financial support than conflict related crises. If governments cannot protect their own people- then who else should? The impact of such instabilities to the economic growth of other countries cannot be ignored. Kenya has seen the influx of refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia, and so has Tanzania and other relatively peaceful countries.  

The report adds that the current pattern in LDCs appears to be “economic liberalization without learning and global integration without innovation. Therefore, the Governments of LDCs should adopt policies to spur science, technology and innovation, as well as improve infrastructure, human capital and financial systems. MDGs talk is hot air balloon unless governments deliberately pursue peace and create an environment that will create productivity. If such an environment is provided, then and only then African can reduce the rampant poverty.With the current status quo, Africa will not meet the MDGs by 2015.