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MDGs: Officials optimistic, activists pessimistic
A two-day special ministerial meeting to review progress on meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region ended Wednesday, with some activists calling the meeting’s final declaration “just rhetoric”
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two-day special ministerial meeting to review progress on meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region ended Wednesday, with some activists calling the meeting’s final declaration “just rhetoric”.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said the 41 point declaration is concrete and represents the perspective of Asia-Pacific countries.
“The meeting has resulted in a declaration — the Jakarta declaration, which stipulates commitments of Asia and Pacific countries to continue developing their efforts to achieve the MDGs,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry director general for multilateral affairs Rezlan Ishar Jenie told a press conference on Wednesday.
“We have identified our achievements and failures and set plans on what to do next,” he said.
According to the declaration, there has been progress in meeting some of the MDGs, but there are also areas where progress has been slow and countries may only meet those targets after 2015.
“We therefore … underscore the urgent need for Asia and the Pacific to intensify collective action, to overcome current and emerging challenges and make use of opportunities to meet the MDGs at a regional level and contribute to reaching the goals at the global level,” the declaration read.
The declaration also recognizes the importance of private sector involvement, for example, through public-private partnerships and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Private firms can play a bigger role in implementing the MDGs, for example, by using government incentives to build “basic infrastructure”, such as roads, Asian Development Bank representative Shilo Chatterjee said.
The private sector could help inform the public not to throw garbage into rivers, said Nila Djuwita Moeloek, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s special envoy for MDGs.
“Companies also can provide technology to clean rivers through their CSR programs,” she added.
Urban Poor Consortium coordinator Wardah Hafidz said involving the private sector in MDGs projects would result in their domination of the process at the expense of the public interest.
The declaration was just rhetoric as it said progress is slower in rural areas than in urban areas.
Institute for Global Justice executive director Indah Suksmaningsih said.
“MDGs have been intended since the beginning to help those having difficulties, while everyone knows those having difficulties mostly live in rural areas,” she told The Jakarta Post.
“We also have known for the last 10 years that only rich countries will be able to reduce their poverty rate. The results now speak for itself,” she said, adding national progress on MDGs to date was equivalent to a painkiller, not a cure.
Migrant CARE analyst Wahyu Susilo said the declaration failed to include Vice President Boediono’s critique of developed countries.
Boediono previously said developed countries had earmarked only 0.31 percent of their gross national product for official development assistance, well below a 0.7 percent target.
