This was the Millennium Question that Civil Society Activists campaigning against poverty and for the realization of the MDGs across Africa sought to answer at a public meeting organised by the Africa Regional Office of the UN Millennium Campaign, Africa Policy office of Action Aid International and the Pan African Policy Programme of Oxfam UK, all based in Nairobi, Kenya at the Jacaranda Hotel. Almost halfway to the 2015 deadline for the achievement of the MDGs this question will be asked again and again across this continent.

It is a question that invites cynicism from many corners. Many ideological opponents to the MDGs regard it as a neo liberal surrender dictated by the current needs of the hegemonic powers for a more rapacious globalization but pretending to listen to the poor. There are those who even see it as a conspiracy against the poorer countries of the world by imperialism. In this group are resilient Left Cold Warriors who claim the CIA drafted the MDGs! Yet others see the MDGs as laudable but unrealizable because the big powers engineering global poverty are also the ones pushing the agenda. Since Turkeys cannot vote for early Christmas, it is unrealistic to expect those who benefit and control the current unjust global order to be its leading reformers.

Many others take a tactical view of the MDGs while admitting that the goals are minimal and may not be fully deliverable without a fundamental restructuring of power in favour of the poor masses both within nations / peoples and between nations and peoples of the world. However, they see and use it as a campaigning tool legitimized by the declaration made and commitments undertaken by 189 government leaders across the world with time lines, indices of progress and targets for fulfillment. Holding the leaders accountable for these minimal goals will do more for the poor and create the space for bigger demands.

This last view is the consensus of many activists working within the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and the wider MDG campaigns in many countries. The Nairobi meeting was definitely within that framework. Key leaders within the CSO coalitions from all the regions of Africa were present at the meeting. The Discussions moderated by Irungu Houghton were led by Ms. Sarah Ochekpe (National Coordinator of the Campaign in Nigeria), Mr. Sylvestre Bayesa (of the Mozambique Debt Network) and Mr. Deo Nyanzi (Coordinator for the MDG campaign in Uganda). There were two Kenyan participants: Ms Muthoni Wanyeki, the Director of FEMNET and the Permanent Secretary, Kenya Ministry of Economic Planning who represented his Minister, Mr. Henry Obwocha.

All the speakers highlighted the situation in their countries and discussed the opportunities and challenges facing them in the realization of the MDGs come the year 2015.

They accepted that the MDGs, in spite of their limitations, are a great opportunity to put issues of poverty and development on the agenda of all governments in Africa. Unlike in the past when progressive, pro-people ideas were discredited and labeled as 'communism,' all the leaders signed up to the MDGs and should live up to their commitments. More important, these commitments were not made by only the rich countries to the poorer ones but also by the poor countries to themselves. While all speakers recognized that Goal Number 8 that deals with the inequities of Global Trade, Debt and Aid are very important and need global campaign for genuine progress all the other goals (1-7) can only be achieved and felt at the local and community levels.

There was a lot of information sharing on the challenges facing campaigners. One, MDGs remain largely in the domain of governments and the executive branch, with legislators having little role in monitoring any progress. Two, there is still popular ignorance about the MDGs among the vast majority of the peoples. Three, although NGOs are very active in many countries their concentration in cities has meant limited percolation of the information down to the masses in the rural areas. In this regard, Nyanzi shared the Uganda experience of moving away from Kampala and organizing at District level. The Nigeria Campaigners are also strategically looking at ways of decentralizing their work into all the 36 states of the country. 

Four, there is also problem of competition for resources by NGOs, a factor that makes them vulnerable to Donor manipulation and mercenary activism. Five, campaigners  agree that there is  need to popularize the MDGs and widen the constituencies to include all stakeholders whether they are based in urban or rural areas, employed or unemployed, Youth, Women, Students, Labour, legislatures and farmer groups among others.

The biggest challenge is mobilizing the political will by leaders to honour their commitments. Political wills are not made automatically. They have to be cultivated, nurtured and mobilized. Governments cannot deliver on the MDGs if people are not aware of them. The biggest task thus is to make people aware of the commitments. Equipped with that knowledge, they can begin to insist that their leaders deliver on them.

At the official level there is information in lead government ministries such as National Planning, Economic Development and Ministry of Finance. In some countries the Presidents have taken MDGs as executive pets. At the intergovernmental level all UN agencies are supposed to mainstream MDGs in their programmes. 

The UNDP is the key agency in coordinating MDG activities and programmes. The Civil Society, including but not limited to NGOs needs to demand that these agencies give them information and involve them in their activities. Involvement should mean more than just 'inviting' them to meetings in which they were not central to conception, planning and execution. The experiences in this area are not uniform across the countries. In some places they work well whereas in others there are suspicions between governments and UN agencies on one hand and Civil Society on the other. Sometimes the UN is seen as too close to the government and wary of activists who are critical of governments.  

While openness, accountability and coordination at the local and national level are both desirable and necessary to achieve the MDGs, there are still structural problems about the way in which our world is currently organized around the hegemony of a triumphalist neo liberal ideology that will severely limit the capacity of many African states to achieve the MDGs. One, the ideology of free market at all costs and rampant liberalization put poor countries at the mercy of the richer countries who determine both the cost of what we produce and most of what we consume. Two,  it is contradictory to expect poor countries to deliver on safe water, universal access to education, reduce infant and maternal mortality during birth while at the same time limiting their powers to spend on social welfare. Three, though there has been some progress on Debt and Aid, these are not sustainable if Debt relief does not transform into universal cancellation. Four, Aid is the weakest link in the troika of Debt, Trade and Aid that are at the core of the campaign in the rich North.

Politicians can easily double, triple or even quadruple Aid and show their voters that they care but Aid in itself without the fundamental reform of the unjust trade rules and exploitative financial regimes that pauperize the majority of the peoples of the world holds no hope of  redeeming the billions of peoples in the world who are desperately poor. This is where the poverty of Africa connects structurally with the vast riches of the West.

It is not surprising that little progress has been made in this respect. The final collapse of the so called Development round of the WTO talks is indicative of how far we are away from creating a world in which we can satisfy the need of the poor as opposed to the aggrandizements of the Greed of the rich. 

Does this mean that the MDG campaign is pointless? The consensus from our Nairobi meeting is that no matter how bad the scenarios and outlooks may seem, activists must strive to organize instead of agonizing. What is, should not distract us from organizing for what ought to be. Progress may come in drips and drabs but the struggle must continue. In Africa and many poor countries, all politicians stand for elections, whether they are aware of it or not mostly on MDG platform. The challenge is to hold them accountable for it. 

Unlike the party Manifestoes which they often conveniently ignore once elected, the MDGs were signed and have signposts every step of the way: No excuses in 2015.  Do not wait till then. The time to push is now.