Mutual accountability needed to achieve anti-poverty goals – UN Assembly President

2 april, 2008. New-York-Kyiv: Mutual accountability between rich and poor States is the only way forward to achieving the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said today, addressing a debate on how to best achieve those Goals by 2015.

Mr. Kerim said it was clear from the discussions so far – the multi-day debate in the Assembly began yesterday with a series of speeches and panel discussions – “that we have the solutions. The key issue is that we all have to deliver on our commitments, scale up our efforts and accelerate progress. Failure is not an option.”

The Assembly President stressed that it was important not to “descend into mutual accusations” that would divert attention from taking real action to achieve the MDGs, which include pledges to drastically reduce poverty, improve maternal and child health and ensure much greater access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

“When aid is effectively aligned behind national governments and predictable over the long term, rapid progress can be achieved,” he said. “Leaders across every level of the development system now need to hold themselves to account… We need to urgently translate political commitments – made at the highest level – into results on the ground.”

Mr. Kerim said yesterday’s panel discussions on education, health, poverty and hunger reaffirmed the view that making progress on those fronts is crucial to achieving all of the eight MDGs.

Yesterday he told the opening of the debate that the world has a “critical window of opportunity” this year to accelerate progress towards the MDGs by translating earlier commitments into concrete action.

Recent reports have indicated that sub-Saharan Africa remains well off track to achieving any of the Goals, and the debate has heard calls for renewed commitment to help the continent make greater progress.

Addressing the resumed session of the thematic debate titled “Recognizing the achievements, addressing the challenges and getting back on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015”, he said mutual accusations were useless and mutual accountability essential.  “We need to urgently translate political commitments -– made at the highest level -– into results on the ground.

Several Government ministers, speaking on behalf of various regional groups, noted progress in their respective efforts to achieve that goal, but also highlighted the challenges thwarting implementation. 

For example, Joanne Massiah, Minister for Agriculture, Lands, Marine Resources and Agro Industry of Antigua and Barbuda, said on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China that the international community was far from making good on the USD 50 billion worth of official development assistance it had promised for the attainment of the Millennium targets. 

Moreover, the money that had already been delivered was heavily reliant on debt cancellation and thus detracted from resources available for achieving the Goals.  International financial institutions must create adequate strategies for developing countries, as well as a monitoring mechanism to track and promote implementation by all stakeholders. 

Developed countries should be evaluated not only on their implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, but also on progress made towards achieving Goal 8 -- developing a global partnership for development.

Iryna Kryuchkova, Deputy Economy Minister of Ukraine, said her country was one of the first countries of the former Soviet Union to sign on to the Millennium Development Goals.  With the help from UNDP, the Ukrainian Government had adopted the ‘Millennium Development Goals Ukraine 2005 plus’ Report and the ‘Millennium Development Goals 2007’ Report. 

"It was important to establish international agreement on the Goals, as well as to have the institutional capacity to monitor them.  Ukraine was adapting the Goals to its local needs and had set up several sub-task indicators to do so.  Ukraine has been working to achieve poverty reduction, environmental conservation, reduced maternal mortality, lower infant mortality and a limit to the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. It had set long-term timelines for research and monitoring," the deputy minister says.

According to Kryuchkova, the current Prime Minister had put in place the “Ukraine Breakthrough” programme, a 100-day plan to reduce poverty, close the income gap and improve social standards.  It had also launched medium-term programmes to increase Ukraine’s competitiveness by 2015, in order to achieve European integration. 

“The Government also aimed to halve the number of people living on less than $4.30 daily from 11.9 per cent of the population in 2000 to 5.5 per cent in 2015, she said.  Further, it aimed to reduce by one third the number of people living below the poverty line.  In the last four years, real income had increased eightfold,” she said

“The Government had adopted measures to increase the minimum old-age pension to the minimum subsistence level.  It was also increasing social services and benefits for families and children, in a bid to reduce income inequalities and raise the living standards of many. It was trying to ensure quality education, including higher education, and to align its education system with the needs of the labour market and with European standards.

“Efforts have been under way to implement the terms of the Kyoto Protocol; increase the number of people with access to clean water; and reduce air pollution.  Further, there had been progress in reducing infant mortality. 

Ukraine had one of the highest levels of HIV/AIDS in Europe.  There were 13,800 cases of HIV/AIDS in 2005 and 16,100 cases in 2006.  The number of tuberculosis cases fell in 2006, but the situation was still not satisfactory.  Ukraine developed a national programme to address that situation, but it needed international assistance, as well.  Also, in 2005, Ukraine’s Parliament adopted a gender equality law,” she concluded.