by Chengetai Madziwa and Mukundi Mutasa – SANF 05 no 77
Southern Africa is making progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals but the region is facing significant development challenges, notably poverty levels and the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
According to a progress report by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), its 14 member states are facing daunting challenges in trying to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
The “Report on the Status of and Prospects for Achieving the MDGs in the SADC Region” was submitted to the African Union as an input to the African Position on the MDGs, and will be submitted this month to the UN General Assembly in New York.
Apart from the HIV and AIDS pandemic and high poverty levels, the other challenges include income inequalities, persistence food shortages and environmental degradation, as well as institutional, policy and resource constraints.
The report concludes that the SADC region faces uneven prospects of achieving the MDGs – differing sharply from country to country – and that significant policy reforms are needed at national and regional level, as well as by the international community, to accelerate the process.
The challenges include institutional capacity building, domestication of the MDGs into national long-term development strategies, effectiveness and transparency in the management of natural resources, good governance and partnership-building with all stakeholders.
At the international level, a fair international trading system, a deep and broad debt relief programme including the cancellation of external debt for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) in the region are needed, as well as new financial commitments through grants.
A communiqué issued in August after the SADC Silver Jubilee Summit in Gaborone, said there is an urgent need for member countries to strengthen policies and programmes aimed at accelerating social and human development, “individually and collectively”.
The SADC summit also called upon international co-operating partners to increase the level of resources to finance education, health and social development activities.
The region is making progress in economic growth, education, environmental management and gender equality. In 2004, economic growth accelerated in the SADC region as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by an average 4.1 percent, against the 3.2 percent achieved in 2003.
The growth rate has been boosted by the fastest growing economies in SADC, namely Angola, DRC and Mozambique with growth rates of 11 percent, 6.3 percent and 7.8 percent respectively.
The region is also making significant progress in the field of education and some member states have achieved universal access to primary education.
“The alleviation of poverty and the improvement of the quality of lives for our people are the key challenges that we are faced with as a community,” South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, said during a media conference in Gaborone following the summit.
As world leaders gather in New York for the UN Millennium Review Summit from 14-16 September, to review progress in achieving the MDGs, the SADC region will highlight the challenges and opportunities it faces as it works towards achieving the goals.
The MDGs, approved by world leaders during a UN Millennium Summit in 2000, principally target the halving of poverty by 2015.
The eight goals, outlined in the Millennium Declaration, urge countries to join forces in the fight against poverty, illiteracy, hunger, lack of education, gender inequality, child and maternal mortality, disease and environmental degradation.
The MDGs also call for a development partnership at global level to establish a fair trading and financial system, deal with the debt problems of developing countries, provide access to affordable essential drugs, and make available the benefits of new technologies.
SADC’s Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) provides a broad policy framework for the region to deliver on the objectives of poverty eradication, and in turn the MDGs.
Guided by the RISDP, SADC has specific goals and targets for its four directorates on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment; Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources; Infrastructure and Services; and Human and Social Development and Special Programmes.
Crosscutting issues such as gender, statistics, and HIV and AIDS have separate units.
ost of the RISDP targets are in line with continental and international goals and objectives, notably those of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the MDGs. (SARDC)
