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No poverty in Africa by 2015; Is it
achievable?
A GNA feature by Hannah Asomaning
Accra, March 01, GNA - Imagine a world where there is no
poverty, there is basic education for everybody, respect for
human rights, equal rights and opportunities for men and
women and all the goodies one can wish for.
There would be no crime, pain, hunger and anguish as seen in
some parts of the world today. It would really be a pleasant
place to live in.
The United Nations perhaps imagined these when it came up
with the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by
2015.
The Millennium Development Goals for 2015 were designed in
2000 by the United Nations and signed by 189 countries and
all other member states of the European Union.
Almost half-way through the timeframe, we are unfortunately
nowhere near the envisioned results: halving extreme poverty
and hunger; basic education for all children; halving child
mortality and deaths at child birth; a halt to AIDS and
malaria; a cleaner environment that is having safe drinking
water for all but especially also the development of an
open, fair, non-discriminatory trade and financial system.
The last goal empowers developing countries to contribute by
their own economic strength to all the other goals.
Economists say Ghana should attract sustainable private
investments needed to accelerate economic growth and lift
millions of citizens out of poverty.
He noted that one out of three Ghanaians still live below
the poverty line.
Ghana may even be better economically compared with some
countries in Africa where there is mass poverty, hunger,
high maternal mortality and disrespect for human rights,
resulting in wars and other problems.
Africa has been described as a scar on the surface of the
earth and there have been numerous problems in Asia like
tsunamis, flood, poverty and hunger.
What can be done to solve this problem and help the world
achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015?
Mr John Prescott, Deputy British Prime Minister, noted that
the world was now focusing on how to help Africa tackle her
problems.
"Africa is of course a place of great beauty, fantastic
diversity, resilient and talented people with enormous
potential," he said.
"It is the only continent getting poorer and where in many
places life expectancy is falling," he added.
Mr Prescott said agreements had been reached to double aid
to Africa by 2010, to write off debts of the poorest
countries and to increase funding massively to tackle AIDS
and improve health care and education.
"Britain is planning to spend over 8.5 billion Pounds
sterling over the next 10 years supporting long-term
education plans in poor countries," he said, and called on
rich countries to follow so that by 2015 children everywhere
would be able to complete at least five years of quality
education.
"We look forward to realizing the huge potential of a new
Africa in which every person can one day be free from
injustice, poverty and disease."
Apart from Britain, there are governmental and
non-governmental organizations in Europe equally working to
help the United Nations achieve the MGDs.
The Netherlands is one such European country that focuses on
working together with developing countries to see how best
to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
An organization, "The Third Chamber", known in Dutch as "Dederdekamer",
is one such organization that refuses to accept poverty in
all forms and work with representatives from developing
countries to know their problems and discuss possible ways
of solving them.
The Third Chamber, for instance, makes public support for
international development visible to relevant politicians in
addition to making the voice of developing countries heard
in political and public debates in the Netherlands.
The Third Chamber is an initiative of the Netherlands
National Commission for International and Sustainable
Development (NCDO) in-charge of raising awareness and
distribution of information about co-operation.
Concerned members of The Third Chamber 2007 are urgently
requesting, for instance, the phasing out of export
subsidies for farmers in the developed countries so that
developing countries could support their own farmers'
harvests sold at reasonable prices to the people.
With imported poultry products being cheaper than what is
produced in Ghana, because of subsidies by various
countries, the public prefers to buy imported frozen
chicken.
In the Netherlands, a document called the Coalition
Agreement is used as a guide for the ruling government.
In the current Coalition Agreement for the new Dutch
government the ambition to abolish export subsidies is
surprisingly missing even though all three coalition parties
- The Christian Democratic Party (CDA), PvdA (Labour Party)
and Christenunie - had it on their respective electoral
platforms.
Members of The Third Chamber find the absence curious and a
great deficiency and are calling on the parties to put this
into government policy.
The NCDO also works through the various Netherlands
embassies in developing countries to give development aids
to the people.
Africans need to be effectively involved and concerned about
their own development by working hard to ensure that poverty
eradication is achieved. There must also be promotion and
respect for human rights and change of attitudes towards
achieving the MDGs by 2015.
Ghana has been dubbed: "Gateway to Africa" so the attainment
of 50 years of independence has been tagged by many people
as "Africa's 50th independence anniversary".
It is no wonder that at 50 years, Ghana's President is the
Chairman of African Union since Kwame Nkrumah declared that:
"The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is
linked with the total liberation of Africa."
There is no country in Africa which is still a colony of a
developed world but is Africa emancipated? Are we
economically independent? The questions can roll on and on.
The United Nations and the European Union are now focusing
on how to help Africa out of poverty and other problems.
The Millennium Development Goals are achievable if we
contribute our quota as individuals, nations and the world.
GNA
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