By William Owusu & David Adadevoh
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Not a single country on the African continent is on track to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, warned yesterday at a meeting of heads of states and governments attending the twelfth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
However, he said, at the same time, advances on specific goals in individual African countries suggest that rapid progress is certainly possible towards the achievement of the MDGs.
"Our host nation, Ghana, is an excellent example. It has made significant strides in increasing primary school enrolment. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda also report of improvements. Elsewhere, Senegal is making great strides towards meeting the water target while Niger, Togo and Zambia have made impressive progress in malaria control through the free distribution of bednets."
The eight MDG targets are: the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achievement of universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.
The UN Secretary-General was speaking at the ‘high level segment’ of the twelfth edition of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development currently underway in Accra.
The meeting was specifically designed for the leaders to deliberate on the topic: "Trade and development for Africa’s prosperity – action and direction".
Apart from the UN Secretary-General, Presidents J.A. Kufuor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Mrs Tarja Halonen of Finland and Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, Vice President Ana Vilma Abanez de Escober of El Salvador, as well as former President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, all spoke on the level of development of Africa.
Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, was the moderator for the session.
Mr Ban said "we face a development emergency which is well past the mid-point of the race to achieve the MDGs but the success stories need to be replicated and scaled-up across Africa with effective support from the international community.
"The scaling-up of development activities require unprecedented effort, but it is achievable because African economies have performed extremely well in recent years."
He said existing commitments are enough to achieve the goals and urged the governments to focus squarely on the implementations of the MDGs.
He also said the recent alarming rise in global food prices and the issue of climate change could threaten efforts being made to achieve the MDGs unless concrete measures are put in place to check the threat.
On his part, President Kufuor said the only way to address the multiple development challenges of Africa is to strengthen and reinforce the partnership between African countries and the United Nations.
"He said "this will enable the UN system to increase and sustain the substantial contribution which it is already making in the promotion of development aspirations of developing countries."
He said while there are no standard prescriptions for development for all countries, there were certainly very important lessons that could be learned from the success of Brazil, China and India who he said were making strides towards accelerated development.
"Happily these countries are already engaged in partnership with Africa and other developing nations and these partnerships are aimed at producing mutually beneficial outcomes," he said.
President Kufuor said the time has come for the trend towards South-South Cooperation which led to the creation of UNCTAD to be encouraged in order to break the continuing North-South Development Paradigm.
He called for a new deal on aid, trade, investment and technology transfer between Africa and its development partners on the principle of development solidarity.
He also said a new partnership must capitalise on the growing South-South trade and economic integration process, adding "in Africa this must start with regional integration as a foundation for a continental union".
When he took his turn, President Lula da Silva said "Africa is a continent of hope despite the problems inhibiting her development. Some African economies are growing at a faster rate even than some developed countries."
He said the action to fight hunger and poverty must be intensified, adding that "Brazil was committed to the development of Africa particularly in agriculture."
Mrs Halonen said Africa has a fair opportunity to participate and benefit from global trade.
She called for the need to deepen democracy through good governance and the support for Africa saying that "Finland is committed to the development of Africa."
She also said increased trade and investment should be able to generate employment on the African continent to ensure economic growth and wealth creation.
President Koroma said "development must be underpinned by a robust trade. We need to take a solid step because we need a lot of catching up to do".
President Mkapa and Vice President Albanez de Escobar all called for equal opportunities in global trade.
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