Press Briefing on Millennium Development Goals report

 

While there had been a massive, unprecedented reduction in extreme poverty in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, facing a complex and critical situation, had not witnessed the same progress, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, José Antonio Ocampo, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press briefing.

Speaking to correspondents following the launch of the Millennium Development Goals Report 2005 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (for Secretary-General’s remarks, see Press Release SG/SM/9922-DEV/2521), Mr. Ocampo noted that contrary to global trends, extreme poverty had actually increased in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s.

Describing the Secretary-General’s report as “user-friendly”, Mr. Ocampo, who was joined by the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, Thoraya Obaid, said it was the most authoritative evaluation of progress  towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals globally and regionally.  Some 25 agencies had contributed to the report with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs acting as coordinator.  The report was meant to serve as a complement to the Secretary-General’s report “In Larger Freedom”.  The report would also serve as input for both the High-level Meeting on Financing for Development later this month and the September summit.

Concerning the issue of hunger, he said the picture was that of slow progress throughout the world and a reversal since 1997.  Compared to 1990, there had been a small reduction in people with hunger, even in sub-Saharan Africa, from 20 per cent to 17 per cent in the world.  Most regions were not on track, however, to meeting the target of halving the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015.

The report also mentioned some critical factors, such as conflict and natural disaster, that exacerbated poverty and hunger, he added.  Facing conflict was a significant part of the war against poverty.  Overcoming conflict was crucial to overcoming poverty, given the fact that the largest proportion of conflict took place in the poorest countries.

Turning to Goal 8, he said there had been a recovery in aid since the Monterrey Conference, reversing a trend that had taken place for over a decade.  Aid levels, however, had continued to be much lower than in the earlier part of the 1990s, and even lower then before that.  Significant commitments were ahead, however, including the recent commitment by European Union members to reach, by 2015, the 0.7 per cent target for official development assistance as a percentage of gross national income.

Most of additional aid had been used, however, to cancel debt and meet human and reconstruction needs in the aftermath of emergencies, he explained.  In net terms, the actual money going into development programmes had not increased much during the recent recovery.

On the issue of trade, the report pointed out several positive trends, particularly the dynamic growth of trade and the advances made by the middle-income countries in the international trading order, he said.  Contrary to the specific measures taken by industrial countries to allow greater access of the goods of the least developed countries to their markets, a growing proportion of exports from least developed countries were not entering duty free into the developed countries, reflecting not only harmful regulations, but also their weak supply capabilities.

He added that the major issues now on the table were:  the fact that agricultural subsidies in the industrialized world continued to be at a very high level; and that major manufactures of interest to developed countries continued to have much higher targets than what was typical in international trade today.

Noting that gender cut across the Millennium Development Goals as a whole, Ms. Obaid said some progress had been made in fighting poverty, promoting the rights of women and improving maternal health.  Some success had also been made in combating HIV/AIDS.  An alarm clock of disease, disability and death was ticking, however, and the international community would have to go along way before it could rest, knowing that it transformed the world.  Each minute, each day, nine persons contracted HIV, six persons died of AIDS, and one woman died bringing life into the world.

With the coming opportunities for the international community to demonstrate its commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, she said she looked forward to world leaders deciding to intensify their efforts to slow and stop that clock before it ticked even faster and to prevent billions of less fortunate women dying from pregnancy and childbirth.  Nations had agreed that no woman should be left to die or suffer injuries due to a lack of reproductive health.  The report reaffirmed that universal access to reproductive health care by 2015, including family planning, was the starting point of maternal health.

Reproductive and maternal health freed women to pursue opportunities in education and work, she said, giving them the power to make decisions that improved the life of their families, communities and nations.  The empowerment of women was a prerequisite for overcoming hunger, poverty and disease.  Gender equality was a human right at the heart of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  World leaders must help woman and men defeat HIV/AIDS.  While prevention was the first line of defence, treatment and care also needed to be expanded.  The needs of the world’s 1.3 billion young people also needed to be met.  They should take party in designing and carrying out plans to conquer HIV/AIDS, and their energies should be released for the titanic struggle against AIDS.

She said she had hope, because the international community knew how to conquer AIDS, empower women and prevent their deaths from childbirth.  Bangladesh, for example, had substantially reduced maternal death by working on such issues as access to emergency obstetric care and expanded family planning programmes.  Egypt was another example, cutting the number of maternal deaths in half in eight years.  Scaling up responses was the only way to win the battle for development.

The only way to do justice to the content of the report was for the international community to reiterate its commitment to translating the lessons it had learned into concrete action, she said.

Responding to a question on Africa, Mr. Ocampo said the situation in Africa had been characterized by the Millennium Project as a “poverty trap”.  In a world in which incomes were rising, the possibility of Africa coming out of that trap by itself was very difficult.  Africa was the best example of the view of global partnership for development that was at the core of Goal 8.  It required efforts on the part of Africa to make things better, including by overcoming war and increasing the levels of human capital needed for socio-economic progress.  That could only be done, however, with significant effort by the international community.  That was the core of the message that the Millennium Development Goals carried.

Responding to a question on the Arab region, Ms. Obaid noted that in terms of the UNDP Human Development Report and the Millennium Development Goals Report, the Arab Development Report had not said that no progress had been made.  Progress had been made, but there were problems.  The report had presented both the positive and negative.  As in other regions, there were structural and capacity problems and implementation of human rights issues.  That was basically what the Human Development Report had said. She did not see much incompatibility between the two reports.

Responding to another question, Mr. Ocampo said the Secretary-General had made a concrete call to meet the 0.7 per cent target, which had been on the table since the 1960s.  He had also called for concrete intermediate targets.  So far, concrete commitments had been made by European Union members.  He was confident that at least for several of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) there would be total debt relief this year.

Asked whether he thought the fight against poverty could be seen as moral and human rights issue, Mr. Ocampo said he viewed the Goals and the broader United Nations development agenda as deeply based in human rights.

Asked to define “human capital” in terms of growth, Mr. Ocampo said he was referring to well educated, healthy people.  While progress had been made in achieving universal primary education by 2015, it was far below the 100 per cent target.  Some African countries had been made significant progress in recent years, including Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

Ms. Obaid noted that Botswana had lost earlier gains as a result of HIV/AIDS.  Unless HIV was conquered in Africa, there would be empty schools, hospitals and institutions.

Were there any specific policies to deliver “quick wins”? a correspondent asked.

Responding, Mr. Ocampo said there were several quick wins suggested by the Millennium Development programme.  Mosquito nets, for example, could be used to fight malaria.  While quick wins could make major steps in some cases, long-term progress was needed in such areas as education, health and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Was it realistic to believe that the Millennium Development Goals could be reached without a significant increase from the United States? a correspondent asked.

Mr. Ocampo said the United States had been increasing aid in recent years in a substantial way.  It had not committed, however, to the 0.7 per cent target.  The United Nations hoped that all developed countries would commit to that target by 2015 and to an intermediate target in 2010.

Also responding, Ms. Obaid said that multilateral aid to break the cycle of poverty meant global peace and security.  That was in the interest of the United States.  It was also a moral and human rights commitment.  Providing additional aid would ensure that young people had life, hope and vision.  That was a powerful argument.

There was as an increasing number of concrete examples that aid worked when it was well delivered, Mr. Ocampo added.

Asked whether he thought it was possible to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 10 years, Mr. Ocampo said he believed it was possible.  The decision to do so would need to be made this year, however.  There were several examples of countries that had reduced poverty by half in 10 years.

Ms. Obaid noted that the issue of malaria and HIV/AIDS could not be compared.  Malaria could be fought with medication.  The bottom line for HIV, however, was behavioural change.  Behaviour change was needed to fight HIV and that was an individual matter.  HIV was a much larger fight than malaria, requiring government, civil society and individual commitment.

Asked how many of the Goals were on target, Mr. Ocampo said that question needed to be answered at the regional level.  Even if a target was met at the global level, that did not mean success.  That was why the United Nations had committed to programmes to reach the Goals at the country level.

* *** *