Critical look at 2006 United Nation’s M.D.G Report on Africa

By

Dr Aminu Magashi

One would not have any reason to doubt this year’s United Nation’s Report on Millennium Development Goals and more importantly the section of the report on Africa, which form the bases for writing this article. Among the continents reported, Africa stands almost alone in terms of impoverishment and wallowing in abject poverty and hunger. A reporter while commenting on page 4 of The London Lite of Tuesday (17th October 2006 ) about the case of Madonna adopting a Malawian Child ( David ) summarized the fortune of the child in his home country as follows : The child was living in a mud -walled one room house with a corrugated iron roof covered with thatch , For his bath time , he has to trek to a specially dug pit on the outskirts of the village , for his education , after rudimentary schooling , likely jobs include hawking fruits, vegetables and cigarettes , no electricity to watch TV and the baby's free time would be to spend long hours journey in search of a clean water '

Although , the reporter had taken delight in painting Africa  black  , nevertheless his summary has captured the essence of MDGs ‘ Fighting Diseases , Improving Education and Poverty . The UN report under analysis on its cover page has also illustrated Africa in a bad shape; it carries a photograph of African Children in a very precarious situation presumably waiting for passers- by to give them food. In my own judgement, they looked malnourished, cacexic, dirty, hungry and crying loud for an African Leader with a sincere, passionate and courageous heart to take them out of the doldrums and quagmire they found themselves courtesy of long misrule, bad governance and irresponsible leadership all over the continent.

For the benefit of the reader with little or no information about the MDGs and to enable understanding the scope of this discourse, The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were derived from the United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted by 189 nations in 2000. Most of the goals and targets were set to be achieved by the year 2015 on the basis of the global situation during the 1990s. It was during that decade that a number of global conferences had taken place and the main objectives of the development agenda had been defined. The baseline for the assessment of progress is therefore 1990 for most of the MDG targets. According to Jose Antonio Ocampo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Six years ago, leaders from every country agreed on a vision for the future – a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment; a world in which developed and developing countries worked in partnership for the betterment of all. This vision took the shape of the Eight Millennium Development Goals, which are providing countries around the world a framework for development and time-bound targets by which progress can be measured.

According to the report , in Sub Saharan Africa ( SSA ) , proportion of people living on less than One Dollar per Day ( yard stick for measuring Poverty ) in 1990 and 2002 were 44.6 % and 44 % respectively .The proportion of people with insufficient  food between 1990-92 ( 33 %  )  , 1995-97 ( 34% ) , 2001-03 ( 31 % ) . Let me hasten to mention that the target for 2015 is to reduce Poverty by 50 %. Six years after the declaration, the people in Sub Saharan Africa are more or less of the same status as they were in 1990. The only progress is an increase by 1.4 % from 1990 to 2002 of the number of people that has cross the Poverty Line. With respect to Food Sufficiency an increase of 2 % by 2003.

Education, being one of the bed rocks of development. The target is to ensure that by 2015 every child (boys and girls) is able to complete full course of Primary Education; this goal equates zero tolerance to Illiteracy. It also means that any child within the age bracket of being in school must be in school.  In 1990/91 and 2003/04 the net enrolment ratio were 53 % and 64 % respectively.  In 14 years, there is an increase of only 11 % enrolment in Primary School Education.

Looking at the Health MDGs, one would only pray and hope for a better tomorrow. The target is to reduce by two-third the Under- Five Mortality Rate by 2015. In 1990, there were 185 deaths of children before reaching their fifth birth day out of 1000 live birth. By 2004, it was 168/1000, a mere decrease by 17.  Taken a cue from Nigeria’s experience as it was revealed by The Punch, a daily newspaper in its Editorial ‘The Rising Child Mortality Rate in Nigeria of Tuesday, November, 09, 2004. Amongst others, the Editorial mentioned that latest UNICEF report revealed that more children are dying yearly from poor nutrition and inadequate health care and it does no credit to the nation. UNICEF was reported to have said that, its current survey reveals that the under five mortality rates in the country as of 1999 and 2004 are 168/1000 live birth and 217/1000 live birth respectively.  It concluded that more children die now when compared to the Under-five mortality rate as of independence period, 1960 which is 207/1000 live birth.

Another important target mentioned by the UN Report is to ensure reduction by 75 % of Maternal Death by 2015. One single indicator of measuring progress is the proportion of women being delivered by skilled attendants. In S.S.A, in 1990 and 2004 it was 42 % and 46 % respectively. After 14 years, S.S.A is recording a progress of 4 % increase.  At the rate women are dying during pregnancy in S.S.A, it is approaching a scenario of having one death out of every 16 live birth.  For example Nigeria is accounting for 10 % of the global estimate of Maternal Mortality Ratio, even though its population only accounts for 2 % of the world population. The irony of Maternal Death in S.S.A is the facts that, majority of the causes are preventable using simple and basic means. In line with that, many African States are not safe for a woman to be pregnant and go in to labour.

MDG 6 is aiming at halting by 2015 and begun to reverse the HIV spread. In 1990 the HIV prevalence in S.S.A is merely less than 1 %, by 2004 it has reach an average of 6 %. New Tuberculosis cases are in the increase in S.S.A. When one exclude those cases associated with HIV, in 1990 and 2004 there were 148/100,000 and 281/100,000 respectively.

The proportion of people using improved sanitation in S.S.A in 1990 and 2004 were 32 % and 37 % respectively, the target to reach by 2015 is 66 %. S.S.A is the world’s  most rapidly urbanising region and almost all of this growth has been in slums were new city residents face over crowding , inadequate housing and lack of water and sanitation , the end result of that would be rapid spread of communicable diseases among the inhabitants .

The stark but painful reality before all of us ,  is the simple fact that Africa will not achieve the said goals  by 2015 , it is far from that and it implies that global attainment of MDGs is almost impossible by the same target year . The failure of Africa is the failure of every body, since we are talking about global partnership and development. It is pertinent to note that from 2000 to date , Africa has receive tremendous international funding support from Donor Governments , International Private Foundations and Multilateral Agencies , but yet the progress is very sluggish . So what is happening?

The self acclaimed Nigeria’s king of the tabloids ‘Sun Newspaper in its editorial of Friday, October 27^th, 06 titled High Cost of Corruption quoted World Bank President Mr Paul Wolfwitz to have said that 20 years ago, there were about 150 million Africans living below poverty line but today, the figure has doubled to about 300 million in a continent that has seen about $500 billion oil wealth that has not been adequately utilised to help the people

He spoke at the opening ceremony of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Third Plenary Conference in Oslo, Norway ( Monday , 16^th October 06 ) . He also painted a gloomy picture of the endemic poverty level in Africa. In his opening speech at that conference, he mentioned amongst others that ‘I hope we all realise why we are here. When we go back tonight to our comfortable homes and nice hotel rooms, it's worth reminding ourselves that about Three Billion people in the world are going to bed this same night hungry…over a Billion children will wake up tomorrow with no prospect of going to school and with no access to healthcare …. We need to remember these facts, because that is why we are here.

The World Development Report (2003) has indicated that if global progress continues at the same pace as in the 1990s, only the MDGs of halving poverty and halving the proportion of people without access to safe water stand a realistic chance of being met, thanks mainly to China and India.  SUB- SAHARAN AFRICA WOULD NOT REACH THE POVERTY GOALS UNTIL THE YEAR 2147 AND FOR CHILD MORTALITY UNTIL 2165’ (Emphasis mine)

In his well presented paper titled ‘Public Health and the UN Millennium Goals’ , Professor Andy Haines , the director of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on Tuesday 3^rd , October 2006 before an International Community at School of Oriental and African Studies ( SOAS ), University of London  , he observed that more money is critical for the attainment of MDGS and based on W.H.O Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2002) , it suggested increased expenditures by donor governments of  $27 billion (0.1 % donor country income) and by low income country governments of $35 billion by 2007 .  Also the G8 and other donors will increase official development assistance to Africa of $25 billion a year by 2010, more than doubling aid to Africa compared to 2004.

He brilliantly concluded by saying that money would not be enough , but other factors have to come in , such as political commitment , sound policies , good governance , institutional capacity , human resources and ddevelopment and application of effective interventions

I must be frank with the donor countries that no matter the amount of money being pump to Africa as long as Corruption, Miss-management and Miss-priority are not addressed, development indices will continue to worsen. They are investing their money through weaker structures and corrupt government officials and politicians who are motivated by avarice and pecuniary reasons. Many African Leaders that usurp and foist themselves on the electorates;  are inept and bereft of realistic ideas to turn the vast human and natural resources in to significant growth and development.

The International community must openly frown at these shenanigans and campaign for Good Governance, Accountability, Transparency, Genuine Democracy, not Civilian Dictatorship and Despotism. Lastly good percentage of their aid must go to strengthening weaker government structures, activities of health professional bodies and civil societies and providing technical and managerial skills to the new and emerging leaders of Africa who will continuously advocate and monitor government policies, track records and demand for good governance. That way, Africans will be rest assured that the International Community are sincere when they talk about  Global Partnership for Development.

Dr Magashi is a Masters Degree Student ( Public Health ) at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and also a director with Community Health and Research Initiative, Kano, Nigeria, he can be reached at healthinteractive@hotmail.com or  gamagashi@gmail.com