Islands Business - Development: GOVERNANCE HURDLE TO MEETING MDGs

Why islands need to shape up

The 2005 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Progress Report—a comprehensive accounting on how far the world has come and how far it has to go in achieving the MDGs—revealed that if the current trend persists, there was a risk many of the poorest countries will not be able to meet many of the MDGs.

David Abbott... weakness is in the delivery of basic services.

The MDGs were established in 2000, following the Millennium Summit in New York, when the world’s governments committed themselves to a series of development targets to be reached by 2015.

The eight MDGs cover aspects of economic, social and environmental development ranging from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIVAIDS, and providing universal primary education and access to safe water.

The ultimate goal is an improved standard and quality of life of all human beings in this world. Reflecting on the MDG Progress Report presented at the World Summit held in New York in September last year, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had said: “Considering how far we have come, such a failure would mark a tragically missed opportunity. This report shows that we have the means at hand to ensure that nearly every country can make good on the promises of the goals. Our challenge is to deploy them.

“Let us be clear about the costs of missing this opportunity,’’ Annan remarked. “Millions of lives that could have been saved will be lost; many freedoms that could have been secured will be denied; and we shall inhabit a more dangerous and unstable world.’’

Discussions during the 2005 World Summit also pointed out that Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) are among those that may not be able to achieve the MDGs. The reasons for this are varied.

“The overarching reason is governance and the level of leadership and management at the individual sector level to ensure the resources that are available to the countries are used most efficiently and most effectively,’’ said David Abbott, the Macroeconomic and Poverty Reduction Advisor and MDG Team Leader at the United Nations Development Programme’s newly established Pacific Sub Regional Centre (UNDP-PSRC).

“There are significant weaknesses in the delivery of basic services such as education, health, water supply and sanitation to the poor, particularly those who live in the remote areas. Providing these services to the poor is crucial to the attainment of the goals,’’ Abbott said.

According to Abbott, to ensure success in achieving MDGs, the region needs to strengthen the capacities of government officials on MDG-based planning, pro-poor policy and pro-poor budgeting to foster greater understanding of government officials on how to align national plans and strategies with the MDGs.

“A crucial aspect of implementing the MDG framework has to do with budgeting, particularly in light of the expected scaling up of resources as a result of the 2005 World Summit,” he said.

“This pre-supposes that there is existing capacity to plan the development process around interim and longer term goals and targets, including MDG goals and targets.

“It also assumes that there is sufficient capacity to prioritise and formulate a budget based on competing and prioritised needs versus available domestic resources and projected aid flows.

“A focus on pro-poor and gender sensitive budgeting is also essential to ensure that those at the lower end of the social and economic strata are suitably targeted,” Abbott said.

He also stressed the importance of building capacity for improved management and implementation of poverty reduction programmes aimed at making progress towards the MDG targets.

While global goals and targets can act as benchmarks, it is important for countries to have specific targets that reflect their particular national circumstances and priorities.

For example in MDG 6, while HIV/AIDS is an issue for all Pacific countries, malaria is endemic in only some, whereas for others the priority health concern is more focused towards non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This would provide the opportunity for identifying a “localised” MDG indicator.

Abbott said incorporating the MDGs, both global and localised, into national development strategies provides countries with a widely recognised and accepted set of poverty reduction indicators for monitoring performance of overall development programmes.

“It may be argued that if a country is achieving its core MDG targets, then it is likely to also be making significant gains in reducing hardship and poverty across many other sectors as achievements in one sector have mutually reinforcing multiplier benefits in others.”

To assist in strengthening the capacities of the governments in the region on MDG-based planning and budgeting, the UNDP Pacific Sub Regional Centre in collaboration with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the UNDP Regional Centres in Colombo, Bangkok, Bratislava, and the Caribbean, the UNDP Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is organising a workshop on MDG-based planning, and the development of a pro-poor policy and budgeting framework that will be held from October 2 to 6 in Nadi, Fiji.

In addition to enhancing a better understanding of MDG issues in the Pacific and their relationship with national development goals, the workshop also aims to establish a more solid grasp of MDG inclusion in national plans or national development strategies.