When 147 Heads of State and Government met at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 and signed a declaration vowing to meet eight set goals in 15 years, no one could have foreseen that today, at just past the halfway mark, forces – both natural and man-made – would have conspired to make achieving those targets much more difficult than they seemed back then.
Following the signing another 42 nations adopted what is now known as the Millennium Declaration, with its eight goals, which in effect were commitments already made singly by governments at various summits during the previous decade, put together in a single package. The goals are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development. The target date for achieving them, 2015, has not been adjusted, although there have been concerns raised about some regions of the world meeting some of these goals.
Perhaps the most significant among the global events that would have had a negative impact on these goals was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, which brought down the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and killed thousands of Americans and other natives of other parts of the world. It would be safe to say that this single event set off a chain, from which repercussions are still being felt today.
Within a month of 9/11, the United States and the United Kingdom had begun their ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan. The stated purpose of this war was to capture Osama bin Laden, destroy al-Qaeda, and remove the Taliban regime as intelligence had revealed that it was providing safe harbour to bin Laden, said to be the architect behind the 9/11 attacks. To date, seven years on, bin Laden has not been captured and fighting still continues in Afghanistan.
Nearly two years later, another event with global implications began: the US instigated war in Iraq in March 2003. The stated purpose behind this invasion was to prevent Saddam Hussein, then leader of Iraq from using his weapons of mass destruction against America and Americans. Five years on, Hussein is dead having been captured, tried and executed and his regime has been toppled. However, the weapons of mass destruction were never found and it has since been revealed that there never were any and that the US and its collaborator the UK knew this at the time the war started. That war continues to this day.
Meanwhile, spending on the wars over the years has seen a dip in the money available for aid to developing countries, not only from the US and the UK but from several other developed nations in Europe and the world, many of which were initially involved. Add to this the fact that civil war and some cross-border conflicts on the African continent have never ceased and one begins to see why some countries in the world will always be playing catch up where the Millennium Development Goals are concerned.
Over the years too, natural disasters have wreaked havoc with human and financial resources. Some of the more memorable are the 2001 Gujarat earthquake which killed more than 20,000 people in India and Pakistan, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed over 200,000 people, hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in the US, which killed almost 2,000 and this year’s China earthquake which has killed upwards of 69,000 people. In addition to the deaths, the damage caused by these incidents runs into billions of dollars, and picking up the pieces afterwards has stretched humanitarian aid efforts well past their limit.
This year has also seen a food crisis of great magnitude which has not yet peaked, as well as an ongoing fuel crisis.
While this all seems dire for the lofty goals set at the turn of the century, the world is not yet in a state of impoverishment; the ‘haves’ still have, it’s just that the ‘have nots’ now could perhaps now be called ‘have nothings.’ The implications for halving global poverty, much less the other eight goals, do not have to be spelled out.
This is a critical period for the entire world, but UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon believes that, “The MDGs are still achievable if we act now.
This will require inclusive sound governance, increased public investment, economic growth, enhanced productive capacity, and the creation of decent work.” It is time to play catch up and he has therefore issued a call for an international effort to accelerate progress and to make 2008 a turning point in the fight against poverty. Let’s hope that all take heed.
