UN/FILE: UN Secretary-General, Ban ki-moon meets with key leaders to discuss ways to hasten Africa's progress towards the MDGs development

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gathered international development leaders to boost Africa's failing efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This was an "unprecedented gathering," Mr.Ban told reporters after chairing a meeting with the Millenium Development Goals Africa Steering Group. The meeting consisted of top officials from the African Union, European Union, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. After the meeting, Ban told reporters that the agenda for the meeting was chiefly to discuss ways to hasten the pace at which countries in Sub-Saharan Africa was moving towards achieving the MDGs. "We are concerned that many African countries are off track, particularly for the countries in Sub-Saharan regions. That is the only region in the world where not even a single country is on the track. We must help those countries so that they can join and be on the track. We need to have a balanced development by the time we reach 2015 and there was a very important point raised by the African Development Bank President and agreed by all of us including World Bank and everybody, that in order to strengthen the multiplied effect of MDG goals realization the private sector participation is very essential and important," said Ban. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Africa had the potential to meet its targets if the right steps were taken. "We of course recognize that Africa is a continent of great diversity and so the actions that we are trying to mobilize today have to be customized, they have to be designed to make sure that there is national ownership, they have to be based on country plans and they have to be rigorous in focusing on results. In particular if you survey the continent you have some countries that have been quite successful, there are some great opportunities," said Zoellick. The first of three challenges the group resolved to address is to identify effective mechanisms for implementing the MDGs for health, education, agriculture and food security, infrastructure and statistical systems. Five of the eight goals seek to cut by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and suffering from hunger, ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling, cut the mortality rate among children under five by two thirds, reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters and halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. African Union Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Maxwell Mkwezalamba, cited reasons why Africa was lagging behind and said: "International support has not been forthcoming as promised and this has been one of our major concerns. You look at the commitments made since Monterrey in 2002, the Gleneagles Summit, in 2005 we find that there is not much that has come to Africa and this indeed is something that needs to be addressed if Africa is to attend the MDGs by the target that of 2015. We do also realize that Africa has to take some initiative on its own and we are looking at domestic resources mobilization as one component that will do and also moving resources from the African diaspora." Murilo Portugal, the IMF Deputy Managing Director, said that though overall growth had progressed, little headway had been made in achieving what was key - the MDGs. "We have this year the strongest growth and the lowest inflation in 30 years in Sub-Saharan Africa but we are still lagging behind in terms of growth of what is needed to achieve to the Millennium Development Goals which as it has been said by my colleagues, is endangering a number of countries. So we think that efforts are required on the part of the countries themselves and on the part of the international community to live to the pledges that have been made in Gleneagles of increasing aid," said Portugal. The European Union Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel said the European Union had already met it's obligations to ensure that Africa was still on course. "The donors have not fulfilled the commitments that they made in 2000 and 2005, the European Commission, it's my duty to remember that the European Union and the European Commission have fulfilled their targets. We are on time and we have fulfilled the promises that were made but I am fully confident that after this meeting, we will have the means, the political and moral means, to convince all the donors to fulfill their promises," said Michel. The group is focusing on agriculture, education, health, infrastructure and statistics to get reliable data, among other areas. Asha-Rose Migiro, the deputy U.N. secretary-general, has scheduled a working group meeting of all the financial institutions for September 20.

ITN Source | September 21, 2007

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