Realization of MDG's, is it a Tall Order?

With the lack of proper policies in leadership in African states, the attainment of major millennium development goals might not be possible by 2015. This is attributed to some major economical and political reasons that most African economies and leadership are currently running on. Swayed by lack of financial support, many African nations have moved the attainment target from 2015 to either 2020 or 2030 and this has from time to time affected the time frame in which many development projects in the countries suffer from lack of commitment by the agenda in question.

In the early 2000 Kenya anticipated to have attained majority of the goals by 2020 but the period has since been moved to 2030 and as we speak is that many of the MDG's are very far from being attained. this is due to the policies and international agreements in form of treaties in  which have spelt doom for the growing economies in the developing and third world countries like that of Kenya and India. Although to some extends the treaties mean more good than harm to Africa, the African leaders have to be more careful to avoid frustrating the people they represent. The millennium development goals often referred to as the MDG8 are as follows.

       I). eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

     iïi).promote gender equality and empowerment of women.

     ív). Reduce child mortality.

     V.) improve maternal health

     vi). Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases.

     vii). Ensure environmental sustainability.

    Viii). Develop a global partnerships for a development agenda.

MDG's were set and drafted on basis of moving African and the rest of the third world countries to greater heights of living standards. From time to time there have been summits which have discussed about the major road maps to the attainment and implementation processes. Many summits have spelt doom for the implementation of the major reforms and the major carry forward idea lies in the individual leadership of most countries in Africa which Kenya is part of.

 

     Promotion of a free market between Kenya and the rest of the countries with the circle of the East African community (EAC) Puts Kenya in a good position of attaining the MDG8 within the low trade tariffs zone. the recent launch of a free market within the east Africa member states is a major step that as many Kenyan entrepreneurs say, ' The market is okay for the movement of the goods and services within the region and that major investors can try and explore the region without fear of intimidation'.

MDG8 the least important of the goals was supposed to develop a global cancellation and to address some of the set backs on the global economic systems that systematically undermined sustained development in the world's poorest economies. in the early 2000's many African states had accumulated loans from the IMF and majority had some difficulties in addressing the MDG8 which required the giant economies like the US and the UK chip their donations to African states in order the lower the rate of poverty and higher the transition rate of primary to secondary education.

    The infrastructure strategy and the education systems remain a major challenge because to many countries in Africa and Asia as many frameworks only exist on paper and not in reality. Kenya on her part has played a major role towards the reduction of the rate of illiteracy, mortality and fighting of major diseases such as malaria, TB and the prevalence of the HIV/Aids. And to achieve this, it has strategized the fight against major setbacks towards the attainment of illiterate free society by introducing a free and compulsory primary education and a subsidized tuition fee secondary education which has ensured the transition rate from primary school to secondary school rise by a greater margin.

     Despite of the implementation of the MDG2 the main MDG1 which is the fight and eradication of extreme poverty has poised a major challenge to many African countries. Majority of the African population in majority of the states live on below a 1 US $ a day and the prices of many of the basic commodities have inflated to unimaginable percentages.

                THE EU- AU Summit 2007

During the EU-African union summit of December 2007 in Lisbon Portugal, a joint strategy was adopted between African union and the European Union. In this strategy, is a partnership on the MDG's which is closely linked on the partnership on trade and regional integration. Despite the joint agreement of the Lisbon summit, the progress on MDG8 is mixed as there is little or no global partnership in attaining of glo9bal agenda in development especially in Africa.

                 Debt cancellation

     In 2005 the financial for development in monetary (FFD) agreed to deliver more effective and more aid called for further debt cancellation and additional funding to the official development association (ODA) and pushed for creator cohesion of international monetary financial and trading systems in support of development.

    The G8 summit agreed to cancel debt up to US $ 55B owed by some of the world's most improved and indebted nation to free up resources to meet the MDG's. The G8 which are the worlds giant economies have not shown commitment to the summit agreements and less is expected from the world major economies.

 

    According to Shadrack a lecturer in a US university is that, "attainment of MDGs in Africa is not only a subterfuge to our own thinking but is highly quixotic." he adds that."Ever since I became literate, Kenya and other African countries have been setting their development goals envisioned in their well written manifestos. Nothing gets realized and as a result they keep on shifting their goal posts to some inexplicable future."

The major reason why these goals have not and will never be realized is due to the inherent culture of corruption, which we unfortunately tend to glorify. Our policy design, formulation and implementation leave a lot to be desired. We enjoy nonsensical rhetoric devoid of any reasonable thoughts in the name of setting our development goals. The debt burden notwithstanding, we are largely to blame for our backwardness

            Poverty and tax evasion

Poverty eradication has been a challenge to many African countries in that majority of these summits and commitment warned that the MDG's will never be achieved by 2015 and according to the monetary consensus of DOHA Qatar in December 2008 which Represented a turn for the worse as many multinational institutions and companies have invented ways of tax evasion in poor countries especially in Africa. And a reference was made to the joint responsibility of creditors and debtors over debt claims as many early 2000's ambitions was fading promises to deliver a global partnerships for development had stalled.       

The EPA's negotiations, which are not a requirement for the compatibility with the world trade organization (WTO) rules to allow flexibility in the maximum negotiations to ensure that African governments retain their policy on development agenda.

To sum up, the prevalence of high rate of poverty and accumulated debt in many African governments and lack of goodwill (both economic and political) in the implementation of several resolutions of the African union place the attainment of the MDG's at a very low level hence a lot is yet to be done to make the planning more effective.

Technological niche and advancement in the telecommunication sub sector puts the MDG's closer to attainment and if the governments could develop legislation that have a theme of combating tax evasion, cab the corruption and promotes free market within the region it would put the attainment of the world's economies to the same range.

The Abuja treaty of 1991 which lead to the establishment of the AU within thee objective of political and socio-economic integration of Africa, one of the outcomes of this is to create synergies between the Africa integration process and economic partnerships agreements. Former British Prime minister Tony Blair and the former US president George w Bush who steered for the new economic partnership of African development (NEPAD) has at some extend put African economies at pace and if more serious and working policies should be put in place then they must be in line with the realization of the millennium development goals (MDG's). And make it a reality by 2015.

Shadrack Limungi a lecturer in A US university African governments' Achilles heel has been inept leadership compounded by inherent corruption that all and sundry seem to glorify. Attainment of MDGs is not only quixotic but an unfortunate subterfuge to any rational thinking.

He adds "Policy design, formulation and implementation have been more of a nonsensical rhetoric devoid of any reasonable thought when it comes to our despotic African suzerain. Albeit our increasing foreign debts, ostensibly, lack of oomph on the part of our leaders to steer the country out of the current social, economic and political quagmire have more to do with our way of thinking too; that our help should always come from the west!"