SUB Saharan African countries have shown very little progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reviews the MDGs 2007 report launched this week by the United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
Mr Ki-moon addressing a high level segment of economic and social council in New York said a strong and sustained effort towards MDGs could mean the difference between the success and failure of the grand endeavour.
He however pointed out that the main message from the report remained encouraging as the MDGs remained achievable in most countries, but only if political leaders took urgent and concerted action.
He added that countries in Africa and elsewhere were demonstrating that rapid and large scale progress on the MDGS being possible.
Mr Ki-moon said experience had also shown that successful development strategies must be aligned with MDGS through internal effort not imposed from outside.
He stated that such strategies should be coupled with a broad-based and balanced macroeconomic policy that fostered growth and employment creation.
“Decent Jobs, especially for women and youth, provide the strongest link between economic growth and poverty reduction.
Their generation must become a higher national policy priority, along with related efforts to enhance productive capacity and improve access to markets,†he said.
Mr Ki-moon urged developed nations to keep their promises of meeting the 0.7 per cent official development assistance target.
“Today, I urge donors to issue timelines for scaling up aid to reach their target commitments by 2010 and 2015,†he said.
He also called on developing countries to address the disparities in the global trade regime, which handcuff many developing countries.
He added that the world desperately needed a successful conclusion to the Doha trade negotiations citing existing trade barriers, agricultural subsidies and restrictive rules on intellectual property rights that reinforced global inequities.
Mr Ki-moon said these made a mockery on UN tall claims to eliminate hunger and poverty from the world.
“The time to convert existing promises into actual progress is now. We must convert the global partnership for development into more than a catchy slogan and turn it into fact, so as to address the most pressing development issues of our day, from climate change to trade and aid,†he said.
