The Silent Crises: Status of the Millennium Development Goals in 2010
It's not surprising that the urgent priorities the world agreed to at the turn of the century have slipped off the priority list.
by Stephanie Tombari

It has been said that you can measure a civilization by how well it takes care of its most wounded citizens. Ten years into the 21st century, it is time for a check up.

“The latest report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), produced by the UN, suggests that we have made meaningful progress since the MDGs were signed on to, but that much of this progress has been threatened by the global economic crisis, the food crisis, and climate change,” says Robyn Bright, National Coordinator of Micah Challenge Canada in Ottawa.

And time is running out. The eight MDGs – which include halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV and providing universal primary education – come due in 2015. At least, that was the promise made by world leaders at United Nations headquarters in New York ten years ago.

But a 2009 MDG Gap Task Force made up of the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and 18 other UN agencies reports that although development aid was up in 2008, donor countries are falling short by $35 billion per year on the pledge made at the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. There remains a large gap between the 0.7 percent GDP promised by donor countries and what is actually being donated: according to Make Poverty History Canada, Ottawa had allocated just 0.32 percent to international development in 2008. Much of the increases in official development assistance (ODA) have been applied to conflict countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, while some of the poorest countries of Africa have seen very little.

What’s needed to make achieving the MDGs a possibility, suggests Mike Hogeterp is fierce public pressure and a big, fat reality check.

“From the perspective of living in an affluent Northern nation, global poverty and injustice are isolated from our experience and convenient to ignore,” says Hogeterp, research and communications manager for Committee for Contact with the Government of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Canada. “These are issues that rarely generate a groundswell of citizen passion, civil society actions and, therefore, energetic government response. In this light it's not surprising that the urgent priorities that the world agreed to at the turn of the century have slipped off the priority list.” 

Government commitment to poverty reduction has come into question recently. In December 2009, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) cut funding to the Canadian ecumenical social justice organization KAIROS, despite a 35-year relationship and without a satisfying explanation.

“The decision to pull funding is deeply disappointing,” says Hogeterp. “It comes at a time when Canada's ODA policies are shifting to a focus on the western Hemisphere. This includes a shift away from support for a number of least developed countries in Africa. Canada's aspirations to focus aid are on the surface a good idea but there has been little in the way of public reflection about how the shift to new priorities and geographical focus will help us to satisfy our MDG responsibilities or even, the legal and moral demands of Bill C-293 (Canada’s ‘better aid’ bill).”

But Bright assures that the MDGs have experienced some encouraging success. In Sub Saharan Africa, the rate of children in primary education increased from 58 percent to 78 percent between 2000 and 2007, with a total of 89 percent of children now attending school globally. The use of bed nets for malaria prevention has increased by as much as 54 percent among children under five, and the number of children surviving their first five years has gone down from 93 to 67 deaths per 1000 births. “Malawi has succeeded in reducing child mortality by 50 percent in less than 20 years, despite being one of the world’s poorest countries,” Bright explains. “This was made possible through the development of a strong, singular national health plan that attracted donors, as well as an increase in the number of births attended by trained health care workers, increased immunization coverage, and funding for better nutrition.”

Maternal health, says Bright, has seen the least bit of progress. “Since 1990, the number of deaths resulting from pregnancy and child birth has decreased only marginally (from 480 deaths per 100,000 births to 450 per 100,000 births). Many of these deaths could be easily prevented through pre-natal care, access to trained health care workers during delivery, and access to emergency obstetric care.”

But there’s still time for Canada to keep promises to the world’s poor. “In terms of personal responsibility, we can all take action to see the goals met,” says Bright. “Whether it is choosing to drink fair trade coffee, donating the value of that latte to help cover the cost of a malaria-preventing bed net, or partnering as a church with a community in the global South, there is much we can do on our own to reach the goals.”

“Support civil society organizations doing development and human rights work in the South and inform parliamentarians that you support this work,” suggests Hogeterp. “In a few words: make development and human rights prominent public issues.”

“We are living as part of a truly incredible generation,” says Bright. “A generation whose global knowledge and interest, whose technological know-how, and whose capacity to mobilize for change is such that we could well see the end of poverty in our generation.”

Stephanie Tombari is a freelance writer working to highlight issues of injustice, and the people committed to change. She lives in Burlington, Ontario." She can be reached at www.stephanietombari.com. Stephanie is a contributor to the book, Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing up Female and Evangelical (Hannah Faith Notess, Editor).

Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical

by Hannah Faith Notess (editor)

“Refreshing…Enjoyable and Challenging…Notess has compiled a diverse collection of women’s voices, giving an outlet to the stories of those who have grown up in Christian faith communities—individuals with poignant stories of faith, doubt, and strength” (Kohleun Adamson, Barclay Press).

Originally published in Christian Courier, January 2010.

Used with permission. Copyright © 2010 Christianity.ca.

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