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Asia-Pacific countries fail to fill in development gaps,
there is a high chance they will not achieve all the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, the United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (Unescap) said in a report.
Unescap’s report “A Future Within Reach 2008” said many
countries are not on track in achieving the MDGs owing
to problems sourcing the funds to be used to finance the
MDGs and gaps in achieving pro-MDG growth.
The
report cited World Bank estimates that the world needs
$54 billion to $62 billion a year just to attain Goal 1,
which aims to reduce income poverty and undernutrition.
For the other goals, the World Bank estimated the global
costs as $35 billion to $76 billion a year.
“Poor
progress toward achieving MDGs is often due to a gap
between commitment and implementation. All stakeholders
need to pay attention to this but governments, the
United Nations system and the international community,
in particular, need to fulfill their various
promises—making aid more predictable and effective and
forging stronger country- and regional-level programs in
support of the MDGs,” the report stated.
The
report urged governments to back the MDGs fully at
national and international levels, setting out
achievable targets, clear timelines and practical
strategies. The Unescap also said that governments need
to break out of the limited sectoral approach and
instead adopt a more integrated framework.
The UN
agency said there is also a need for governments to
institute systems for continuous monitoring and
evaluation. This will ensure that implementation remains
on track and that some goals are not pursued at the
expense of others.
“At the
country level, this means that governments need to
establish clear MDG strategies and budgets. At the
regional level, all the United Nations agencies and the
development banks have to establish a stronger
partnerships to make optimum use of their combined
financial, technical and human resources,” the report
said.
Meanwhile, Unescap said in a statement that if
per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) rises by 1
percentage point, the headcount poverty ratio tends to
fall by 0.86 percent.
However,
the UN agency said economic growth has less effect on
other MDGs, such as undernutrition and child and
maternal mortality.
“Even in
the unlikely event that countries boosted their
projected per-capita GDP economic growth by 3 percentage
points, many countries would remain off-track in
achieving some of the MDGs. To achieve the MDGs they
will need to improve the structure and quality of
economic growth, as well as make appropriate changes to
national-development strategies,” UN Undersecretary
General and Executive Secretary of Escap Noeleen Heyzer
said in a statement.
The
report points out that until now, the MDGs have not been
strongly integrated into budgetary plans. This indicates
a gap in the strategic planning. To be effective,
national MDG strategies should be “need based,” setting
out national targets and priorities that are consistent
with reaching the MDGs.
The
study also said policies aiming at economy-wide
institutional and policy reforms, macroeconomic
stabilization, sectoral policies and propoor expenditure
and revenue policies need to be strengthened.
On the
other hand, some of these policies may harm the poor in
the short to medium term; thus, great care is required
to take account of the adverse impacts of the policies
on the poor.
“The
effectiveness of all efforts at achieving MDGs will
depend critically on the quality of governance. Raising
standards of governance will assist countries in their
efforts to achieve ‘propoor’ growth,” said David
Lockwood, United Nations Development Program Regional
Bureau for Asia and the Pacific acting head.
UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, for his part, has pledged
to mobilize national leaders in a drive to reach the
MDGs when they come to United Nations Headquarters in
New York
for the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate in
September.
In
January, he said the world is at the “mid-point” of the
campaign to end world poverty, set forth in the MDGs,
and called for attention to the poorest of the world’s
poor, known as the ‘bottom billion.’
The
previous regional MDG report, “A Future within reach:
Reshaping institutions in a region of disparities to
meet the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the
Pacific,” was issued in 2005. The first report,
“Promoting the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and
the Pacific,” was published in 2003. |
