Mercy Global Concern - 2003

Progress Report on the Millennium Development Goals:

Transfer of Resources to Developing Countries.

• Economic Growth is critical for developing countries to reach the poverty and service delivery of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Despite the wee-established and virtuous cycle of progress between growth and the MDGs, the evidence is also clear that projected levels of growth alone will not be sufficient to reach the MDGs. This is especially true for low-income countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly for the health and education MDGS.
• While pursuing growth, there is need to improve the effectiveness of existing resources, which is largely reliant on actions that developing countries themselves need to undertake and incorporate into country PRSP's (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers) Reforms are needed both within and across sectors to build strong policy and institutional frameworks which encourage efficiency, accountability and service delivery.
• In view of the multi-sectoral determinants of the MDGs and the inter-dependence of the goals, coordinated investments at the country level are essential. Bluntly speaking, many of the poorest countries will not reach the MDGs unless all development partners take decisive action without delay.

The depth of the challenge varies across the different goals.

• In the year 2000, 115 million primary school children in developing countries were not in school, of which 79 million had never attended school. Over 64 million (56%) of the out of school children were girls; 42 million (37%) were from Sub-Saharan Africa. Current trends suggest that 70 countries are at risk on universal primary completion by 2015 and there is no data for a further 16 countries.
• Over 10.5 million children in the developing world die before their 5th birthday, most from preventable causes.
• At present, 1 billion people live without access to safe drinking water. 2.2 billion people without adequate sanitation and 4 billion live in conditions where their wastewater is discharged untreated in local water bodies.
• Current trends suggest that no more than 1 in 5 countries are on track to achieve the target of a 50% reduction in population without access to these services.
• These challenges alone call for dramatic action. Unless we are able to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, however, the MDGs will be unachievable. The facts are stark. At the end of 2002, 39 million adults and 3 million children were living with HIV/AIDS. Currently, projections suggest an ADDITIONAL 45 MILLION will be infected between 2002 and 2010 unless the world succeeds in mounting a drastically expanded global prevention effort.