Delano Franklyn, Contributor
Indian slum children play in a puddle of water in Mumbai. As India joined the world's richest nations at the G8 summit in Scotland, hundreds of millions of Indians, including children and elders, struggle to survive in appalling conditions on less than US$1 a day. About 30 per cent of India's more than one billion people live below the official poverty line of 2,100-2,400 calories a day.
THE DECISION by the G8 countries to forgive more than US$40 billion in debt owed by 18 highly indebted poor countries (HIPC), mostly in Africa, must be commended. Countries to benefit are Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and our CARICOM partner, Guyana.
For Guyana, the decision will immediately eliminate about US$340 million of its $US1.1 billion debt. While the G8 countries, consisting of the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, have taken this decision, the European Union, which includes some of these countries, is contemplating the recommendation to cut the price of sugar from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, including Guyana, by 39 per cent over the next three years.
If the recommendation to cut the price of sugar is accepted by the European Union's agricultural ministers and the EU Parliament, the Caribbean will be losing approximately US$110 million dollars per year. Guyana would be losing about US$45 million per year. So while Guyana is being given assistance on one hand, it is being taken away with the other. Developing countries must not lose sight of this development.
While the latest round of discussions on international poverty alleviation, with specific focus on Africa must be commended and welcome, it must not be forgotten that the leadership of the developed world is reflecting a position, particularly the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement and that of the Group of 77 and China have always maintained, that poverty will not be eliminated or seriously cauterised unless conscious efforts at debt cancellation and reduction are undertaken by the powerful countries and institutions of the world. This must be done without the undue conditionalities being attached.
An estimated 1.2 billion people (one sixth of the world's population) live in extreme poverty in developing countries and more than 850 million are undernourished. Another one billion live on less than US$1 dollar a day. This is an affront to humanity and must be faced head on if all of mankind is to adequately benefit from the world's resources.
It was against this background, among other things, that in September 2000, 170 Heads of State and Government, including the leaders of the developed world adopted a comprehensive Millennium Declaration, which generated eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as a set of 'concrete, qualitative and time bound targets to be reached by the year 2015'. These included:
The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equity and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development
DEVELOPMENTS SINCE THEN
The Millennium Summit in 2000 was followed by an International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico in March 2002. The Monterrey Conference produced a 'new global compact that commits developing countries to improve their policies and governance and simultaneously calls on developed countries to increase support, especially by providing developing countries with more and better aid, debt relief and greater access to markets'. The attainment of the MDGs also has the support of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which in 2003 reaffirmed their shared commitment to achieving the MDGs, particularly the goal of eradicating poverty.
The cancellation of the debt of HIPC countries is, therefore, not by chance. It has come about because of the constant pressure applied by developing countries and the consensual agreement arrived at under the aegis of the United Nations in both 2000 and 2002. A cursory glance at goals 1 and 8, five years on will show the following:
GOAL 1: HUNGER AND POVERTY
The number of people living on less than US$1 a day dropped by nearly a quarter of a billion by 2001. The reduction has been greatest in East and South East Asia (especially in China and India) while the situation has gotten worse in sub-Saharan Africa. The rates of malnutrition remain very high in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the expectation is that the population living on less than US$1 a day will fall from 50 million in 2001 to 46 million by 2015, if the region can maintain a per capita growth of 2.6 per cent.
Although Jamaica has been able to reduce poverty by half between 1995 and 2005, flat economic growth and the widening of the gap between rich and poor during the same period, has given great cause for concern in the country's effort to eradicate hunger and poverty.
GOAL 8: GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT
As was pointed out at the 2000 Conference, 'the UN Millennium Declaration' embodies an agreement that developing countries will work to maintain sound economies and developed countries in turn, agreed to support poorer countries through aid, trade and debt relief'.
The developed countries have made some effort to live up to their promise:
Official aid has recovered from its decline in the 1990s reaching a record high of US$79 million in 2004;
The decision by the G8 to cancel $40b of debt.
The recent decision by the G8 to focus on poverty in Africa especially sub-Saharan Africa.
The announcement by the European Union, which now provides about US$37b in ODA - would double ODA to developing countries by 2015. This is in keeping with the agreement by donor countries in 2002 to contribute 0.7% of GNP target by 2015 to help achieve the MDGs.
NOT ENOUGH
Despite these notable developments the present financial commitments by the developed countries fall far short of the amount widely considered necessary to achieve the MDGs. Their initiative must be broadened. This could possibly include:
The complete cancellation of debts where not to do so will undermine the country's ability to achieve the MDGs.
The establishment of clear timetables by all other donor countries to reach the 0.7 per cent of GNP target, similar to the commitment given by the European Union.
The international community must devise strategies to reverse in the shortest possible time the net negative flow of resources from developing countries. These negative transfers which have persisted for the last eight years totalled US$312 billion in 2004.
Linking debt repayment and debt servicing by commodity dependent developing countries to adverse movements in the price of commodity exports and imports.
Greater coordination among international institutions and agencies dealing with development, finance, monetary and trade issues to promote coherence in policies with a view to making them more development oriented.
Reform of the global financial architecture, including enhancing the voice and participation of developing countries in the decision-making processes of the International Financial Institutions
While some progress has been made internationally in working towards the implementation of the MDGs by 2015, much more will be required to be done if these targets are to be met. Of greatest importance will be the provision of the requisite funds to finance development. Important steps have been made, but developed countries will have to put out greater efforts in living up to the commitment of developing a global partnership for development. This partnership cannot be predicated on giving with one hand and taking with the other, as has happened in the case of Guyana. At the same time, developing countries must also keep their side of the bargain. They must ensure that the requisite policies are pursued which will lead to better governance and sustainable economic growth.
Delano Franklyn is the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade
