Comment - Achieving MDGs difficult without massive investments

According to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) report 2007, released recently, achieving the targets by 2015 is difficult due to lack of financing for poor countries to implement their MD plans. The issue is not new and since the inception of the Millennium Declaration the funds needed to achieve the set goals were considered the main issue.

There is no alternative way of financing the program other than the rich countries channelling funds through UN agencies or other international donor agencies.

Unfortunately five years after signing the Millennium declaration and half way of the journey completed, today the UN has still to urge the rich countries to live up to their pledges.

In the report the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says, the world does not want new promises and it is imperative that all stakeholders meet, in their entirety, the commitments already made in the Millennium declaration, the 2002 Monetary Conference on financing for development and 2005 world summit.

There are many estimates that give the investment needs to rescue billions of poor people across the globe out of extreme poverty. The amount needed is huge but if the rich world is ready to share the cost, it is a negligible sum which each citizen in those countries will have to bear.

According to a World Bank calculation there were 1.1 billion people living below the level of $1.08 poverty line in 2001. Their average income per day was $0.77 or $281 per year.

These poor people had a shortfall of $ 0.31 ($ 1.08-0.77) relative to the basic needs or $113 per person per year. Accordingly, the total income shortfall of the poor worldwide is ($113x1.1), $124 billion per year.

According to Prof. Jeffrey Sachs's calculation, using the same accounting units (1993 ppp adjusted US $), the income of 22 donor countries in the Development Assistance Committee in 2001 was $20.2 trillion. To get the $124 billion it only needed to transfer 0.6% of donor income.

The pledge of rich countries is 0.7% Gross National Income (GNI) However, the rich countries do not seem interested in supporting the world's poor instead those governments are investing several times more to build their military capacity, military engagements in other countries and a lot of other wasteful expenditure.

In 2002, the total foreign aid from all donors to all developing countries was $76 billion $6 billion was debt relief grants, not the actual flow of resources. During the same period all developing countries paid $11 billion in loan repayment to rich countries and therefore the net foreign aid flow was only $59 billion.

$16 billion went to middle income countries and finally the poor countries received only $43 billion. $12 billion was direct support for governments and the remaining amount consisted of technical cooperation which mostly pays for expensive foreign consultants. These calculations show that only a fraction of the investment needed is actually received by the developing countries.

According to estimates the total Official Development Assistance (ODA) needed for the MDGs is $135 billion in 2006, $152 billion in 2010 and $195 billion in 2015. According to the report the collective record of achieving MDGs is mixed and there have been some gains and achieving that target is still possible in most parts of the world.

Even in a low phase of implementation the number of people in developing countries living on less than $1 a day fell to 980 million in 2004 from 1.25 billion in 1999. The report said that the progress continues and the target will be met.

However, the success is unequally shared, because the decline is mainly due to rapid economic growth in Asia. Poverty in Western Asia has more than doubled between 1990-2005. In Sub-Sahara Africa the proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell from 46.8 in 1990 to 41.1 in 2004.

In most of the developing regions the average income of those living on less than $1 a day has increased. Achieving the other goals too are similar and there are variances from region to region and country to country. Achieving MDGs are difficult without massive investments in infrastructure, health and education.

Though the rich countries and multinational donors highlight the lack of good governance and other issues in some countries as the bottlenecks to meet the target some economists argue to the contrary.

Many UN reports provide shocking evidence to prove that the poor countries need investments and not anything else. Another UN report published last week said that there are more than 2.6 billion people, roughly 42 percent of the world's population, waiting in line for toilets that just do not exist.

Lack of sanitation is a major obstacle in achieving MDG 04, to reduce child mortality. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) more than one billion people worldwide have gained access to improved sanitation over the past 14 years. Still, an estimated 2.6 billion people, including 980 million children, are lagging behind.

Children are vulnerable to diseases caused by lack of proper sanitation. Poor sanitation and hygiene and unsafe water claim the lives of over 1.5 million children under five every year.

According to the WHO at any given time, half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a baby's chance of dying from diarrhoea is almost 520 times greater compared to a baby born in Europe or the United States.

These bold truths are a crying shame to the triumphs of capitalist globalisation. Before providing mobile phones and internet to the poor it is better to consider providing toilets and safe water. Multinational companies will market these products among those who do not even have these facilities.

Funding the MDGs is not charity work that can be done by charities such as the Gates Foundation alone. It is a political priority that should be undertaken by the capitalist system in the world today. It is the main front of the war against terrorism, because poverty is the breeding ground for terrorism as well as all other evils.