The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs): What Practicality?

''These often unsung heroes understand that poverty, disease and famine are just as deadly and destructive as earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes.'' - KOFI ANNAN, former UN Secretary General.

With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit on 20-22nd September 2010 to boost progress toward the MDG's. In Ban's specific words, he says, ''our world possesses the knowledge and the resources to achieve the MDG'S. Falling short of the goals will be both morally and practically unacceptable''. Now my question is actually simple: can we as a global society truly achieve the MDG's? If I were to answer that question without sentiment, fear or favour, my answer will be a carefully scripted NO. But of course it is just my opinion. In any case, I will still need to explain the rationale for my position. Before going any further, I need to make it clear that the world can still achieve the objectives set out in the MDG's but not in 2015. I do not believe it is a realistic time-frame.

So why did I say no? It is important first to remind us of what the Millennium Development Goals are. In the year 2000, leaders of many of the world's independent countries decided to form a global alliance which they termed the 'Millennium Development Goals'. The underlying principle in effect was to eradicate poverty by 2015. The MDG's were therefore divided into 8 categories namely;

• Eradicate poverty and hunger: Without sounding pessimistic, can hunger truly be eradicated? Or even poverty? A student of history knows this is almost impossible. All over the world, people in their billions continue to starve with no end in sight. We may argue though that when some countries experience hunger, it may not be a human problem but a natural one. When the earthquake struck Haiti in January of 2010, there was always going to be people going hungry. But of course, Haiti was an exception. Much more of the people who starve to death or remain notoriously malnourished is a direct indication of bad policies or civil strife. It is not unusual to see pictures of children so thin we can see their ribs threatening to burst through their delicate skins. Countries such as Sudan (which by the way has had a genocide for the past decade), Somalia, Grenada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, rural India, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Cambodia, Vietnam, parts of Nigeria, Chad, Niger etc have millions of their people, especially women and children, dying of malnutrition. The MDG objective is to reduce by half the proportion of those who suffer from hunger. Can we truly say we have achieved that target even by a tenth? Some countries do not even have agencies that keep statistics therefore measuring how close or otherwise we are to the MDG's is impossible.
• Achieve Universal Primary Education: The world hopes to achieve this by ensuring that every national government spends a minimum of 26% of its annual budget on Education. However, how many countries obey this rule? Without education, poverty and underdevelopment will remain with us for a long time. Only 32 countries of the world expend 26% of annual budget on education. Of those 32, none are from Africa and only 3 from Asia. The military government in Nigeria for instance was notorious for allocating only 2% of budget to education. Even at the advent of democracy in that country, its civilian counterparts have not done better than 6%.
• Promote gender equality: My dear reader, can we as a global society truly achieve this? There are still countries today that women count for nothing. It is sad but very true. For instance, in some predominantly Islamic communities, they frown at education for the girl-child. They do not even want to hear it. Compare that to the western world where many more women are making it into the boards of corporate global firms. In that part of the world, women hold seats in their legislative houses and some of them even have female leaders. Countries such as Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan just to name a few still see their women as second rate, inferior citizens. If the global culture toward women does not change, it does not matter what happens in the United States, Britain or Canada.
• Reduce child mortality: The aim here is to reduce the mortality rate among children under 5 by at least two-thirds. Each country is expected to build more specialist and general hospitals to transform the world's health systems. How many governments do this? Some do not out of a legitimate cashless situation. However, many don't simply because of corruption. Without corruption, we will have funds to build even more hospitals than we may need.
• Improve maternal health: This objective is an extension of the above. However, in addition to the targets above, it also insists on improving the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel. How do we guarantee quality in our health personnel? Isn't it through more investment in their careers? The only way children will live healthy lives beyond their first 5 years is if we are confident that they are exposed to the best possible professionals the local health system has to offer.
• Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases: The aim is to examine current efforts at these and fund more research into their control and possible eradication. I know the Western world has no problems with malaria and other curable diseases that so easily kill citizens of Third World countries. However, the HIV/AIDS headache remains a major concern across the world. It also means if care is not taken, the bulk of all funds allotted to research may go to finding lasting solutions to HIV/AIDS since it is a health priority for the western nations thereby relegating Malaria, Tuberculosis, Cholera, Typhoid etc to the background. Again remember these are diseases only prevalent in many less developed countries. Can we achieve anything worthwhile before 2015? Yes, in the area of HIV/AIDS but not in those other diseases which are incidentally the main ones in poor countries.
• Ensure environmental sustainability: Again nature may play a fast one on us in this regard. While we may control certain aspects of our environment such as controlling global warming by reducing fossil consumption, how can we stop or reduce hurricanes, quakes and volcanic eruptions? When these natural disasters occur, they are so devastating that they leave losses of property in their billions. People also die in the process.
• Develop a global partnership for development: The objectives are simple: put in place an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. This one particularly interests me. Even a year-old child can feel the tension in today's modern world. In the last century, two bloody wars were fought and they permanently altered our world. How many wars will be fought in the twenty-first century? I hope none. The point is an ''open, rule-based....'' can not be achieved if many citizens of the world are still so distrusting. There is still genocide in Darfur, Israel and her Arab neighbours are perpetually at each other's throats and even in Nigeria, hundreds have lost their lives early in 2010 because of ethnic and/or religious intolerance. In December of 2009, Umaru Abdulmutallab went aboard a United States-bound plane with explosives in his underpants. These incidents are a direct result of hatred or distrust amongst peoples of the world and a global partnership without mutual respect and a degree of trust will never work.

Personally, I'm an optimist but the power of optimism confers on you that skill to recognize what is possible and at what time and when. Some of the above objectives have even been surpassed by a few countries but they are in the minority. The challenge therefore is replicating same on a global scale. Some of them are truly achievable but not in 5 years. And even at that they will need certain principles and procedures for them to work. If the global scale of corruption does not reduce drastically, then none of the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved even in the year 3000. Long life to the global space. WE WILL NEVER FAIL.