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Bolder political will needed to achieve global development targets: Oxfam
International aid agency Oxfam has said countries need to show bolder political leadership if they want to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals as the political will that delivered the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is absent from todayâs development debate
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nternational aid agency Oxfam has said countries need to show bolder political leadership if they want to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals as the political will that delivered the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is absent from today's development debate.
'The progress of the Millennium Development Goals demonstrates what can be achieved with the necessary political will, backed up with sufficient quality funding and the right policies. With millions more children surviving and making it into school, the results speak for themselves,' Oxfam senior policy advisor Takumo Yamada said on Tuesday, responding to the UN's final MDGs Report.
Yamada said the MDGs were made possible largely because of a scale-up in the quantity and quality of aid in the early years.
'Sadly progress has stalled since the financial crisis, and the lack of a strong accountability mechanism has allowed rich countries to turn their backs on the world's poorest people,' he said.
The UN report provided an assessment of global and regional progress toward the MDGs. Oxfam said the report showed that progress had been made in the global fight against absolute poverty in the set 15 years but the benefits had been uneven.
The new Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to eradicate poverty and protect the planet, are due to be agreed on in New York in September.
'We will not lock in the MDGs or deliver on a new set of 'Sustainable Development Goals' that aim to leave no one behind unless we tackle the extreme concentration of wealth, resources and power in our world. This will take political courage and active citizenship,' Yamada said.
He said putting in place a fair and effective financial framework was a critical first step.
'Governments must seize the opportunity of the Finance for Development meeting in Addis next week to reform the global tax system and clamp down on corporate tax dodgers who are cheating poor countries out of billions of dollars every year ' money that could be spent on tackling poverty and inequality,' Yamada asserted.
'Rich governments must also recommit to deliver on their decades' old promise to deliver 0.7 percent of their national income in aid and ensure at least half of this money is spent in the world's poorest countries." (ebf)(++++)
