Vector Issue 12 - 2011

More documents

Recommendations

Info

MDG develop a global partnership for development w h y can’t WE just All get What’s it all about? What’s it supposed to do? And can’t we all just get along!? Perhaps the most varied, and least understood of the UN MDGs, this MDG is designed to tie the other seven together, by taking steps towards strengthening trade, political and health systems. ? along www.ghn.amsa.org.au 30 nick watts university of western austraila vector FEB <strong>2011</strong>
key goals 1. Raise the commitment of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to 0.7% of the Gross National Income (GNI) of donor countries. 2. Develop an equitable finance system, by allowing the Least Developed Countries (LDC) access to markets of developed countries, and through tariff reductions benefiting these countries. 3. Ensure that in an increasingly globalised world, we address the needs of the LDCs and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) 4. Manage the heavy debts of low income countries (think Live-Aid… kind of). 5. Provide access to essential medicines, life saving drugs through a variety of patent and trade-related mechanisms. 6. Set in place structures which allow the spread of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – internet & mobile phones – to the global South. Ten years in, where do we stand? Well, only 1 billion of the world’s 6.88 billion have access to the internet, debt levels (whilst still high) are falling rapidly, and ODA stands at roughly 0.34% of GNI of developed countries, a little under half way towards the 0.7% we’re aiming for. Australia (one of the lucky few who has kept a budget surplus throughout the recession) has recently committed to increase our ODA to 0.5% of our GNI by 2015, falling significantly short of our 1970 promise (renewed in 2002 Monterrey Consensus). Meanwhile, the UK - a country which is literally hemorrhaging from the results of the global financial crisis - is well on track to achieve their commitments. Achieving these targets will require partnership… in fact… it requires “global partnerships for development. We’ll need all countries (of high and low incomes) to work with behemoths such as the Bretton Woods trio (the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation), three bodies charged with managing the trade and finances of the world. We’ll need unprecedented Public Private Partnerships (PPP) between governments and privatised pharmaceutical companies and ICT companies to ensure global access to essential communication technologies and medicines. We’ll need donor countries to work together to coordinate their aid, ensuring that evidence based assistance is delivered to the parts of the world where it is needed most. We’ll need non-governmental and organisations (NGO) such as Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) and Oxfam to assist with aid coordination and distribution. But most of all, we’ll need a partnership between civil society, a roar from the public, telling the governments of the world that there is support for action on poverty, ‘allowing’ them to act. Each and every partnership takes us one step closer not only to achieving MDG 8, but to the eradication of extreme poverty. After all: “It is not in the United Nations that the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved. They have to be achieved in each of its Member States, by the joint efforts of their governments and people” - Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary General 1. United Nations Development Programme. MDG Monitor. Geneva2010 [26 Oct 2010]; Available from: http://www. mdgmonitor.org/. 2. Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). Australian Partners. Canberra2010 [26 Oct 2010]; Available from: http://www.ausaid.gov.au/. 3. UK Department for International Development (UKDFID). Governance and Social Development Resource Centre. London2010 [26 Oct 2010]; Available from: http://www.dfid.gov.uk. 4. UN MDG. Millennium Development Goals - 2015. New York2010 [26 Oct 2010]; Available from: http://www.un.org/ millenniumgoals/global.shtml. www.ghn.amsa.org.au vector FEB <strong>2011</strong> 31
Page 1 and 2: vector www.ghn.amsa.org.au Issue 12
Page 3 and 4: contents 4 EDITORIAL 5 8 Reflection
Page 5 and 6: arthur cheung university of queensl
Page 7 and 8: to be coordinated, is a poignant in
Page 9 and 10: http://www.good.is/post/which-count
Page 11 and 12: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty a
Page 13 and 14: the need for interventions to be pr
Page 15 and 16: of women who share in employment in
Page 17 and 18: aWindowintoGlobalHealth vector FEB
Page 19 and 20: It would be simplistic to assume th
Page 21 and 22: Progress to date: MDG5 is the worst
Page 23 and 24: aWindowintoGlobalHealth Goal 3: Emp
Page 25 and 26: Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, a
Page 27 and 28: SNAPSHOT 33 million people are curr
Page 29: PLAY A PART AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE U
Page 33 and 34: several hundred million additional
Page 35 and 36: I recently undertook my medical ele
Page 37 and 38: alexandra f r a i n & l u k e hamil

Vector Issue 12 - 2011

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?