PM: Developed nations must remember MDGs

Developed countries will in September be reminded of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that speaks to their contributing 0.7 per cent of their gross national income (GNI) to developing nations.{{more}}

With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the MDGs, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said last week that the richer economies focus on all the MDGs except the one that relates to their economic contribution.

The MDGs, adopted by world leaders in 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, are the most broadly supported, comprehensive and specific development goals the world has ever agreed upon.

The eight time-bound goals provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.

They include goals and targets on income, poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality, environmental degradation and the Global Partnership for Development.

“They (developed nations) talk about all of the other Millennium Development Goals but they are not talking about that one,” Gonsalves said, referring to the 0.7 per cent GNI contribution to developing nations.

“I want us to talk about all of them. That is why I am looking forward to the review at the United Nations in September,” Gonsalves told reporters at Cabinet Room on August 3.

Gonsalves was referring to a summit in New York on September 20-22, which United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend, to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.

“I will say we are pretty much on target,” Gonsalves said of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and the MDGs, even as he said there is, statistically, zero maternal death in the country.

Gonsalves, who had just returned to SVG from an official visit to Uganda, said SVG, having reduced infant mortality from 23 to 16 per 1000 live births, had “experience to share” as Uganda wrestles with 456 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.

“We have some way to go still. But the number 16, compared to developing countries, is a good number; not the best number, but a good number,” he said.

Gonsalves said his Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration, which came to office in 2001, has “built on earlier work” and has “done phenomenal work” in this regard.

“Therefore, we have experiences to share with our brothers and sisters in Africa. We have expertise to lend to them in as much as they have resources and phenomenal trading opportunities and we are a locale for them for investment,” said Gonsalves, who is also Minister of Finance.

Gonsalves said of the MDGs, further reducing infant mortality is probably the biggest challenge for SVG.

“We need to go from 16 to about 8-9. It’s going to take a lot more effort. Not just on the health system, but by parents and particularly young mothers,” he said.

Gonsalves further noted that there is work to be done regarding poverty reduction, although indigence has fallen from 25.7 per cent to 2.9 per cent under his watch.

Generalized poverty has moved from 37.5 per cent to 30.2 per cent.

“We have more to do on that, but … we have certainly broken the back of indigence,” Gonsalves said.

He further said it was important to be able to move toward the MDGs in a structured manner as quickly as resources allow. (KXC)