CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
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CHECK AGAINST
DELIVERY
Remarks by UNDP Administrator Helen
Clark
at the Conference on Development Co-operation in
Times of Crisis and on Achieving the MDGs
Madrid, Spain,
9 June 2010
My thanks go to the Government of
Spain for inviting me to address this important conference. I also congratulate
Spain for its determination to make development co-operation a key element in
its Presidency of the European Union
Let us imagine, for a moment, the
headline which could appear on the cover of El País or the Financial
Times the morning after the Millennium Development Goals´ 2015 deadline expires.
That headline could possibly go
in one of two directions. Either it could read “Global leaders fail to fulfill
promise to the world’s poor”, the kind of headline we are not unused to seeing,
or it could convey very different news. It could say “World achieves the MDGs
and agrees to make poverty history.”
The direction that headline will
take is up to all the stakeholders in development. Its importance cannot be
overstated.
That is because the MDGs are the
most broadly supported, comprehensive, and specific poverty reduction targets
the world has ever established. For the international community, they represent
a concerted effort to focus and multiply our individual efforts. They are
credited by the United Nations Intellectual History Project with being one of
the great ideas to have emanated from the UN system.
For all those living in extreme
poverty, reaching the MDGs offers the means to a better life - a life with
access to adequate food and income; to basic education and health services; to
clean water and sanitation; and to empowerment for women. Put simply, advancing
the MDGs will be an important milestone in our quest for a more just and
peaceful world.
This year marks a decade of
progress toward the MDGs, although that progress has been uneven across the
Goals and within regions and nations. If we are to reach the MDGs by the
target date, 2010 must spark five years of accelerated progress.
That progress needs to reach the
countries, communities, and marginalized groups which have been left behind –
overlooked, bypassed, and unable to benefit from progress made
elsewhere.
In just over one hundred days, a special review Summit on
the MDGs will convene in New York. The commitment articulated by the European
Union nations during the Spanish Presidency will have a significant bearing on
the Summit’s prospects for success. What is needed from the New York Summit is
agreement by world leaders on a concrete MDG action agenda to reach the Goals by
2015.
While it is clear to all that
these are challenging times for both developed and developing countries, my
message to you today is that achieving the MDGs is possible.
There is a range of tried and
tested policies, which, scaled up and adapted to the national context, can
ensure progress. Take, for example, the concerted action by civil society, the
private sector, CEOs, philanthropists, political leaders, and the multilateral
organizations who have come together in unprecedented ways to expand access to
HIV medicines, support mass immunization, and scale up
the distribution of bed nets to prevent the spread of malaria.
Through experience, development
practitioners are continually learning what works and why. UNDP strives to
capture and share lessons from our day-to-day work with partners around the
world.
The MDG Achievement Fund,
generously established by the Government of Spain, is an important instrument to
this end. In over 120 initiatives in 49 countries, the Fund supports the
co-ordination of a range of development partners to speed up MDG progress and
tackle inequalities. The results are teaching us a lot about how, for example,
to reach vulnerable groups with low cost nutritional supplements, adapt to the
inevitable consequences of climate change, and ensure that young people’s need
for jobs are addressed in development strategies.
With strong global partnerships,
with committed leaders, and by applying what we learn and replicating and
scaling up what works, we can achieve the MDGs.
Progress to dateThe global recession has
complicated the road ahead to 2015, but we should not lose sight of the
significant and, in some cases, remarkable progress made to date.
I was able to see many examples
of progress, during my visit to four countries in Africa in May. Just some of
them:
·
Tanzania
has increased its net enrolment rate in primary schools by over ninety per cent
between 1991 and 2006;
·
Burkina
Faso and South Africa have
cut in half the proportion of people who lack access to improved drinking water;
and
·
Mali is expanding access to energy in rural communities across the
country.
Worldwide, the number of children
reaching their fifth birthday has increased steadily – although progress is not
yet fast enough to meet the target.
Around the world, including in
some of the poorest countries there are good examples of impressive results in
combating extreme poverty, hunger, and HIV/AIDS.
These successes show that the
MDGs are achievable.
But, I repeat, the progress which
has been made, even before a series of crises hit the world, particularly over
the past three years, was uneven and too slow to meet the 2015 target date for
all the Goals.
Threat of
setbacks
The wave of devastating natural
disasters, the global recession, the lingering effects of food and fuel crises,
and the reality of climate change have shown us how fragile MDG progress can be.
In 2009, for the first time in
history, more than a billion people were estimated to have suffered from chronic
hunger, around 130 million more than before the food, fuel and economic crises
hit. The economic crisis left an estimated 50 million more people in extreme
poverty in 2009, and is projected to leave an additional 64 million people in
extreme poverty by the end of 2010.
In many countries, export prices
and volumes declined, remittances dwindled, and tourist flows and foreign direct
investment slowed.
While the impact has been a
setback to hard fought development gains, it cannot become an excuse for
lowering our level of ambition for the MDGs. On the contrary, it makes achieving
them more urgent and compelling.
Meeting the MDGs means building
fairer and more inclusive and resilient societies – societies which stand a
better chance of withstanding such shocks in future.
Preparing for the MDG Summit
in September
The MDG Summit in September
offers a big opportunity to generate new momentum around the MDGs.
UNDP is helping member states
make the most of this opportunity by providing a strong evidence base of what is
working to achieve the Goals.
UNDP and other members of UN
Country Teams have been working with thirty countries to prepare in depth,
national MDG reports to substantiate what is working. Then, drawing on this
country level evidence, UNDP is preparing an “International Assessment” of what
it will take to achieve the MDGs by 2015. It will identify common and underlying
MDG success factors, and highlight recurring national and international
constraints on progress. From this analysis, conclusions will be drawn on
the concrete measures which help to accelerate MDG progress.
The assessment is due to be
launched shortly, in time to inform negotiations on the Summit outcome document
and to complement the Secretary General’s MDG Progress Report, which will offer
a target by target account of global progress to date.
UNDP has also developed a
diagnostic framework to help governments and development partners identify the
interventions which will have the most impact on achieving the MDGs, and the
policies which can sustain hard-won gains. A number of UN Country Teams and
programme countries are piloting this tool right now, to validate its
effectiveness in accelerating MDG progress globally.
The aim is to make the most of
scarce resources, by building strong and broad partnerships around the specific
actions which can speed up MDG achievement.
Action agenda
While any action agenda must
be adapted to each country’s unique context, our analysis and experience, thus
far, highlights eight common areas and opportunities for priority action. I
share these with you here as background for your discussions.
First, we all need to support
country-led development:
To accelerate
and sustain progress, development strategies must be locally-owned and based on
broad national consensus. It helps immensely where a country’s institutions are
responsive and accountable, and have the capacity to implement MDG policies and
programmes.
Development partners can help by
supporting inclusive development planning which reflects the perspectives of the
poor and marginalized; and also by supporting the strengthening of the local and
national capacities needed to mobilise resources, deliver services and make
evidence-based policy decisions. UNDP can offer its expertise in helping build
the capacity of governments to plan and deliver, and ensure that aid is used
effectively.
Second, we need to foster inclusive
economic growth:
Evidence
suggests that rapid reductions in poverty and hunger result from economic growth
which is job-rich, and which has a specific focus on agriculture in countries
where large numbers of people live off the land. A fair distribution of income,
assets, and opportunities also helps.
In the
developing world, 2.5 billion people depend on agriculture for their living.
Boosting agricultural production can simultaneously reduce poverty and improve
food security. To be more productive, farmers need access to quality
fertilizers, seeds, and extension services, and they need secure land rights.
Farmers and local businesses need better access to markets. That requires
improvements in rural infrastructure. A global trade deal which works for
poor people and poor countries is also a part of the bigger
picture.
In late April, Spain together
with the United States, Canada, Korea, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
agreed to pool resources to create the Global Agriculture and Food Security
Programme. Its focus on increasing agricultural productivity and linking farmers
to markets is very timely.
Third, we must improve opportunities
for women and girls:
That will be a
powerful driver of MDG progress across all the Goals.
The empowerment of women and girls must be a top priority. That must
include measures which reduce the burden of domestic activities and free women
to generate income, care for their children,
and send their girls to school; as well as offering broader political
empowerment.
Children born to
women with some formal education are more likely to survive to their fifth
birthday, receive adequate nutrition, and be immunized and enrolled in school.
Thus, investment
in women and girls is not only the right thing to do, but also will have
intergenerational and community-wide benefits.
Fourth, we need to target investments in
health and education, in clean water and sanitation, and in the professionals
who run these services.
This will not
only save lives, but also help to lay the foundation for sustained human
development and growth. Healthy and educated people are better able to improve
their own lives.
In the coming years, Haiti will
undoubtedly gain from the Spanish commitment to water and sanitation.
Instruments such as the Spanish Cooperation Fund for Water and the Sanitation
Fund for Latin America are important to achieve target 3 of MDG
7.
Rapid
improvements in both education and health care have occurred where adequate
public investment accompanied the elimination of user fees. Sustaining
these improvements, including in quality, requires long-term commitments to
developing effective systems, and institutions, and to skills and professional
development.
New global
partnerships have increased the uptake of immunization, the distribution of bed
nets, and antiretroviral drugs, and the presence of skilled attendants and/or
midwives when mothers give birth. We know that these interventions work. Now we
need a concerted effort to bring them to scale and ensure that the gains can be
sustained, even in times of economic downturn.
Fifth, we
need to scale up social protection and employment programmes and other targeted
interventions:
We have seen
social protection and cash transfer programmes expand access to nutritional
supplements, increase the frequency of health check-ups, and keep children in
school.
Rather than being seen as a drain
on a nation’s Budget, social protection needs to be seen as a critical
investment in building the resilience to cope with present and future
shocks.
Sixth, we need to expand access to energy
and promote low-carbon development:
Expanding energy access has a
multiplier effect on MDG attainment. It increases
productivity; reduces smoke-related deaths; brings lighting to homes, schools
and hospitals; and frees women and girls from time-consuming domestic chores
like grinding grain.
In a carbon-constrained age,
growth based on reduced carbon footprints is also vital for all countries. To
achieve that, a climate deal which generates significant funding for low-carbon
energy and development solutions is essential – and must not be allowed to fall
off the international list of priorities.
As a leader in renewable energy,
Spain has a wealth of knowledge and know-how to share on mitigation and an
active role to play on reaching a climate deal.
Seventh, countries need be able to
mobilise domestic resources to finance the MDGs:
Most of the
resources needed to achieve the MDGs have to be raised from and allocated
effectively by a country itself.
Thus, improving
domestic resource mobilisation is critical to accelerating MDG progress -
whether by improving tax collection, broadening the tax base, or through other
innovative methods of raising revenue.
Resources also
need to be spent well. Countries should be routinely evaluating and adjusting
their budgets to maximize the return on their investment of public
monies.
Expanding the reach and range of
financial services in the developing world is also important for capturing the
domestic savings which can spur private sector development from the micro level
up.
Eighth, the international
community does need to deliver on the ODA commitments it has
made and improve the predictability and effectiveness of aid.
Well
targeted and predictable ODA is a critical catalyst for meeting the MDGs, and
for helping countries to build the capacities they need to design and deliver
programmes and attract private investment.
The shortfall
between the ODA projected for 2010 and what was promised at Gleneagles in 2005
amounts to around 0.05 percent of the OECD/DAC members’ combined Gross National
Income in 2010. This gap can and must be filled, even in these challenging
times. Some countries are living up to their commitments, while others are
not.
Broad national
alliances in support of international co-operation are critical. As the
recession continues it is important to preserve the long term vision and
political will behind alliances such as the Spanish National Pact Against
Poverty. If these alliances hold, the international community can deliver on its
commitments between now and 2015.
Conclusion
UNDP will offer its peer-reviewed
international assessment of what it will take to reach the MDGs in order to help
build agreement on an MDG action agenda from now to 2015. We look forward
to working with Spain and other European Union partners to take that agenda
forward.
Through MDG achievement, we have
the opportunity to offer a better life to billions of people. We have the
opportunity to see headlines in our media which make us proud of what our
contribution has supported. The decisions made by the European Union nations,
along with many others, are critical to realizing the promise of the MDGs to the
world’s poor.
***
Ajouté le :
15/06/2010
Par :
UNDP
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