Vector Issue 12 - 2011

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 2011
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