MDGs mixed success 'highlights need for action'
MDGS’ MIXED SUCCESS HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR URGENT ACTION ON CLIMATE & INEQUALITY
Today’s final progress report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) carries important lessons about what the global community can achieve when it recognises a shared moral imperative and the need for common action.
But it also highlights the worsening crises which remain, says Christian Aid
“The UN’s new report reveals progress across much of the world on some of the most critical targets that countries set for themselves fifteen years ago,” said Toby Quantrill, the charity’s Principal Economic Justice Adviser.
“That means better daily lives for many millions of people. Achievements such as increasing the numbers of girls in primary education, halting the spread of malaria and providing access to clean water will make a real difference to people’s daily lives.
“However it is also painfully clear that progress in other areas has been limited and some problems have got worse – for instance the climate crisis and widening inequality at every level, including that between women and men.
“Action on the MDGs has had little impact on these problems, some of which were less clear 15 years ago when the Goals first came into force. But now that they are alarmingly apparent, the time has come for more fundamental change.”
This year presents huge opportunities to begin to solve climate change and heal deep inequalities. The new Sustainable Development Goals that governments will agree in September should be used to galvanise action on inequality, not least through the principle of Leaving No One Behind.
Mr Quantrill added: “The Goals, as well as the Paris climate summit at the end of the year, should also be used to drive the urgent changes needed to slow dangerous climate change.
“And to generate the funding that will pay for creating a better, safer world, we must move beyond aid, which, whilst critical, will never be enough on its own.
“Tax is the most reliable and sustainable form of financing for all governments but only a determined assault on financial secrecy, combined with fairer global rules and global institutions to manage those rules, will ensure that multinational companies and wealthy individuals start paying their fair shares.”
Ends
Notes:Christian Aid set out its own vision of what should follow the MDGs in its report The World We Want To See.
Oxfam
Political will is missing from development debate as UN reveals MDG benefits are uneven
The political will that delivered the Millennium Development Goals is absent from today’s development debate, yet even bolder political leadership is needed if we are to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals, said Oxfam today in response to the release of the UN’s final Millennium Development Goals Report.
The UN report provides an assessment of global and regional progress towards the MDGs. It shows that progress has been made in the global fight against absolute poverty in the set 15 years but the benefits have been uneven. The new Sustainable Development Goals which aim to eradicate poverty and protect the planet are due to be agreed in New York in September.
Takumo Yamada, Senior Policy Advisor at Oxfam, said:
“The progress of the Millennium Development Goals demonstrates what can be achieved with the necessary political will, backed up with sufficient quality funding and the right policies. With millions more children surviving and making it into school the results speak for themselves.
“MDGs were made possible largely because of a scale up in the quantity and quality of aid in the early years. Sadly progress has stalled since the financial crisis, and the lack of a strong accountability mechanism has allowed rich countries to turn their backs on the world’s poorest people.
“We will not lock in the MDGs or deliver on a new set of ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ that aim to leave no one behind unless we tackle the extreme concentration of wealth, resources and power in our world. This will take political courage and active citizenship.
“Getting a fair and effective financial framework in place is a critical first step. Governments must seize the opportunity of the Finance for Development meeting in Addis next week to reform the global tax system and clamp down on corporate tax dodgers who are cheating poor countries out of billions of dollars every year – money that could be spent on tackling poverty and inequality. Rich governments must also recommit to deliver on their decades' old promise to deliver 0.7 per cent of their national income in aid and ensure at least half of this money is spent in the world’s poorest countries.”
