In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Donald Ramotar, said it was timely to assess the progress made and also to understand why all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), could not be achieved in full, particularly since the UN General Assembly is taking place on the eve of the target year set by world leaders in 2000.
He explained this is essential in moving forward with the post-2015 agenda that the world body is about to finalise.
“I wish to recall that in the year 2000 when the eight goals were announced, they inspired great hope and enthusiasm throughout the world. This was particularly so in developing countries and among the world’s poor. It is true that the world has made tangible progress in its efforts to achieve the MDGs.”
President Ramotar made the point that global poverty has fallen and continues to fall; many more of the world’s children are attending primary schools; health services have improved for a large number of people resulting in a significant decline in child mortality; and the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria has been halted and even reversed in some regions.
He said his country, Guyana, despite the harmful impacts of the international financial situation, has managed to keep its economy on a steady growth path over the last eight years, adding that that growth has resulted in an improved quality of life for “our people”.
He stated, “Indeed, we are one of only seventeen countries in the world which the FAO recognised as not only meeting the goal of reducing hunger by half, but also of improving the nutrition of our people. We have achieved universal primary education and are close to achieving universal secondary education. We have also made important strides in housing, health, water and other social facilities. Here, I would like to express my country’s gratitude to all of our development partners who have contributed greatly to the gains we have made towards achieving the MDGs.”
Guyana’s success in building capacity in the health sector, according to President Ramotar, could not have been possible without the assistance provided by Cuba, including the training of hundreds of local doctors. “That country is doing so despite its own economic difficulties. Once more we wish to join with the vast majority of countries of the world in calling for an end to the US economic blockade.”
The fact that MDG goals were not uniform across countries and regions, was mentioned by President Ramotar, “In some places, the progress has been dramatic. Asia for instance has had remarkable success in achieving many of the goals. In Latin America and the Caribbean there has also been considerable progress. There are, however, some areas where hardly any noticeable change has taken place since the year 2000. In some others, many countries ravaged by conflicts and wars, laudable gains have been reversed. Some goals have also proven more elusive than others. Maternal mortality stands out in particular as requiring additional attention,” he stated.
The UN, the president said, needs to examine the reasons for the “suboptimal results” with regards the MDGs. He said, “It is true that all of us have a responsibility to the welfare of the world’s people and to the state of our planet in general. The reality however, is that some countries have far more resources than others, some use much more of the world resources as well, and while our responsibilities are common, they necessarily have to be differentiated”
Wealth
Speaking to the issue of inequality, he stated that, “…the richest 1% of the population owns about 46% of the global wealth which is some $110 trillion, while the bottom 50% of the population owns just about $1.7 trillion or 0.7% of the world’s wealth. This amount of $1.7 trillion is the same as the wealth possessed by 85 of the world’s richest people.
He observed that this degree of inequality is unsustainable, and noted that while they have all agreed on increased developmental assistance to developing countries, the reality is that the net transfer of financial resources from developing to developed countries continues unabated, amounting to US$200 billion in 2002 and increasing to US$557 billion in 2010.
Brain Drain
The fact that developing countries suffer a net loss of skills to the developed world through migration was highlighted by the Guyanese president. He said this is done after huge sums are spent on training.
Additionally, he said efforts in the health and education sectors are often frustrated by the elevated level of expenditure on school books and essential medicines due to intellectual property rights.
“Clearly all of these imbalances are unsustainable and will only be addressed through concerted global action”.
Development Assistance
It was pointed out by President Ramotar that many developing countries demonstrate serious determination in working towards the goals by allocating more resources to human development, but the support by the developed countries as envisaged by MDG 8 fell significantly short of expectations. It is extremely disappointing to say the least, he said, that in the face of pressing demands, only about half a dozen developed countries have kept their pledge to provide 0.7% of their Gross National Product (GNP) to Official Development Assistance.
“As we prepare for yet another conference on financing for development in Ethiopia next year, I wish to remind that the commitment of 0.7% was made over four decades ago in this very Assembly and reiterated in 2002 at the Monterrey Conference.”
In light of these failures, President Ramotar stressed that it is imperative that the post- 2015 framework includes: a time-bound commitment for delivery of official development assistance for which commitments have already been made; a global framework for managing intellectual property rights that places the development imperative at its center, a global trading architecture that recognises the asymmetries in the global state of development and is suitably responsive to these, and a framework that ensures private sector investment is consistent with the development agenda.
The recommendations of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing provide a good platform on which to build.
President Ramotar also stressed the need to ensure that it is flexible enough to address the peculiar needs of some countries. “The special circumstances occasioned by the vulnerabilities of Small Island and Low – lying Coastal Developing States (SIDS) bear particular mention in this regard. Far too often the progress made can be speedily reversed owing to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. In this regard, we must spare no effort to ensure that we have a legally binding agreement in 2015. Ironically, as we discuss the post -2015 development agenda, many CARICOM countries are being graduated from eligibility for concessionary financing since they are classified as middle- income based on the narrow measure of GDP per capita.”
Many of these countries are heavily indebted, he added, as they must make unavoidable investments in building and rebuilding social, economic and productive infrastructure to strengthen their resilience.
He called on the international community to reconsider this approach by adding a vulnerability index to the equation. “We also call for debt relief as the debt accumulated by most of these countries makes their economies unsustainable.”
Peace
Naming the most important precondition for progress peace, President Ramotar, said many conflicts and potential for conflicts continue unresolved while new threats to global security have risen to dangerous levels. He described Middle East situation as most disturbing,
“Still at the heart of this is the great tragedy that is the plight of the Palestinian people. Once again, we have seen the bombing of an almost unarmed population in the Gaza by one of the world’s most powerful military machines, supported and replenished by even more powerful military forces.”
He called for the end of the apartheid-like situation that exists in Palestine, where poverty and degradation are weapons used to repress a whole people.
“The people of Palestine have a right to live with dignity in their own country and the UN must never compromise on the principle of self-determination. The continuing wars in Syria and Iraq are most distressing. They are leading to more extremism and a rapid descent to barbarism.
The president condemned the barbaric and grotesque killing of journalists, humanitarian aid workers and other hostages and the loss of lives of civilians in these conflict areas by the murderous extremists in those countries.
He cited the situation in Ukraine, as another cause for concern, noting that a potential source of conflict are the many unresolved border issues that exist and which are often used to impede the development of countries, preventing them from improving the quality of life of their people and the promotion of the welfare of the regions to which they belong.
He called on the United Nations to redouble its efforts to assist in the resolution of these issues.
New Global Human Order
President Ramotar recalled the proposal which Guyana made through its first democratically elected President, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, for a New Global Human Order on which the General Assembly has pronounced in several resolutions.
“That proposal seeks to balance the interests of the developed and developing countries. It is a proposal whose time has come and should be pursued with other initiatives to find solutions so that we can realise the dreams of generations that came before us for peace, progress and prosperity”. Just as how the MDGs provided a new focus and raised hopes in the year 2000, he concluded his address by saying that spirit must be rekindled to eradicate poverty and inequality in the post 2015 period.
The Guyanese Leader also touched on the issue of the Ebola outbreak, observing that in today’s interconnected and interdependent world, the destinies of states and peoples are increasingly intertwined.
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