Guest Blogger Minar Pimple (Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign – Asia Pacific) looks at the MDG Summit in New York.
The UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals concluded on 22nd Sept 2010 with the adoption of a global action plan to accelerate the achievement of the eight anti-poverty goals to meet the 2015 target and the announcement of major new commitments of international funds for women’s and children’s health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease.
Kevin Rudd, Minister of Foreign Affairs, led the Australian delegation. In his address, he explicitly committed to double Australia’s aid over the next five years, amounting approximately A$ 10 billion for various priority sectors—a promise that will make Australia the fastest-growing donor country in the OECD family of donors. A promise that would lift the country up from the bottom of the league for the amount of foreign aid it provides as a percentage of GNI (Gross National Income). Another commitment is that Australia will provide 0.15 per cent of its GNI for the least-developed countries, including those in its neighborhood—the Pacific Islands Countries.
Similar pledges and promises were made throughout the last decade at similar venues, including the MDG Review in 2005 and 2008 at the midpoint of the 2015 target. One may wonder what would be different this time when 2015 is actually nearing against the backdrop of some unfavorable conditions, including the global financial, food, energy and climate crises.
The difference between now and then is the fact that the imperative to achieve MDGs has become far more serious making accelerated achievement through renewed global partnership an essential precondition. All over the world Civil Society organisations are raising their voices as seen in Stand Up and Make a Noise campaign where in thousands of actions, millions of people all over the world participated to let our leaders know that we will not be seated nor remain silent in the face of broken promises to end poverty.
Click through to read more of what Minar has to say, and start grilling him!!
He is online now to answer your questions!
The MDG Review Summit Outcome Document ‘strongly encourages all donors to establish rolling indicative timetables that illustrate how they aim to reach their goals, in accordance with their respective budget allocation process’ to fulfill their Goal 8 responsibility.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Document ‘stresses the importance of mobilising greater domestic support in developed countries towards the fulfillment of their government’s commitments’, it is imperative that Citizen’s are empowered to monitor realisation of MDGs on the ground. To ensure that mothers and children do not die of preventable causes and right to life with dignity for all women, men, youth and children becomes a reality rather than an aspiration of the Millennium declaration.
To translate outcome document in real tangible outcomes, participation from all citizens especially youth is key in holding our leaders accountable. A strong, well-informed Australian civil society will play a crucial role in creating conducive climate in support of MDGs, while demanding their government to honour its commitment; providing transparent data on aid effectiveness as well as demonstrating and delivering tangible results.
Watch the video blog below from Oaktreer’s at the NY Summit and share your thoughts on the matter!!
[vimeo 15182659]
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Have your say in the blog below!
Hi Mr Pimple and everyone,
Thanks for the video update from NY, guys. Hope you're having a great time.
It does indeed seem a strange situation to have the Secretary General's new initiative be "endorsed" by the UN but not accepted as an official initiative. On Wednesday, the Secretary General talked about improving women’s and children’s health as having a multiplier effect across all the MDGs, and thus, prioritising the health MDGs as being the best investment we can make at this time – just 5 years out from 2015. So far as I know, this is widely acknowledged as true within the UN and most development discussion. Why, then, has the UN not officially prioritised the health MDGs within the outcomes document?
Unfortunately I can not answer this question, though I agree that health MDGs as part of the overall MDGs need to get more attention as all MDGs are interrelated and interdependent.
Although I know we've made some headway in the past decade when it comes to achieving the MDGs, it is really upsetting to see just how far off we are from reaching them by 2015. Its great that Kevin Rudd has made some exciting statements in terms of Australia's financial commitment to this cause, however I'm still pretty skeptical about whether they will actually be upheld. How many times have promises been made in the past that haven't been kept? I know they might be serious now, as we draw closer and closer to 2015, however its hard to get hopes up when there's not much in the past to show that these most recent commitments will be kept. If the past is anything to go by, I don't have a lot of faith in the government to actually uphold such promises, but I will definitely be one of the first to celebrate if it does!
Hi Minar
A report release this month shows that while 1 in 5 Australian's would support the MDGs, only 6% know about them. This statistic doesn't quite shock me, but it is very worrying when we are 2/3s down our timeline.
How, do you think, can the MDGs hit the mainstream public in a more effective way? NGOs are limited with financial resources, but these are needed to hit the TV & other popular media. What can the UN do to increase the public campaign?
Thanks!
As you know UN Millennium Campaign partners with Oaktree and MPH in spirit and conviction, also that Oaktree just received MDG Award for its youth mobilisation recognising it's work, even with limited resources we have to keep at it and people will keep joining us as we grow in strength
Hi Minar,
I wanted to query how much new money has really been pledged by countries like Australia at the UN Summit? It seems as though most of this money is in fact money that has already been pledged but not yet spent. Do you think there should be requirements on world leaders to clarify their levels of giving and distinguish it from previous donations?
Thanks!
Hi Minar
I'm interested to know your opinion on whether the momentum of the MDGs has dropped as we near closer to the deadline..
It seems to me quite understandable for many leaders to accept that the targets won't be met at to start looking beyond 2015.. and I wonder if and how this might affect leader's commitments and the areas the are likely to invest their funding and attention.
Can you comment on any change in atmosphere this year to that of earlier MDG reviews?
I think the climate this year was more urgent and serious as reflected in reaffirmation of MDGs, it is not true that most of the leadears think that MDGs are not achievable rather they want to push for it and the fact that beyond 2015 discussion was neither initiated nor encouraged. If you look at the Outcome Document carefully rather the ambit has been expanded keeping in the promise of Millennium Declaration.
Minar, you refer to the climate at the summit as being 'urgent' – do you think this urgency derives from a distress and disappointment among global citizens that the MDGs may not be reached by 2015?
I wonder if the growing pessimistic consensus at the grassroots level that the MDGs probably won't be reached by 2015, will paradoxically inspire and give impetus to world leaders – particularly of developed nations – to pledge more monetary and humanitarian aid over the next five years.
Hopefully the next five years will prove this theory correct.
Thanks for your great article Minar!