Brussels, 19/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - "Until real political resolve develops to reduce poverty and the impact that it has in the world, seeking to meet the Millennium development objectives will be in vain", Eveline Herfkens, Executive Coordinator of the UN Secretary General in the campaign to promote the Millennium objectives, said in a video message at the conference organised last week by the Group of European Socialists at the EP on financing these objectives. Those taking part at the conference said they agreed with her. The conference covered three Millennium goals: - the fight against AIDS, debt cancellation, and primary education and gender equality.
Milly Katana, who is part of the United Nations Africa Commission on AIDS and governance, said that the spread of the AIDS virus in Africa prevents all possibility of achieving the other Millennium goals. She noted that more and more women contract the virus as prevention and screening are practically non-existent. She deplored the fact that the response to HIV in Africa is under-funded, saying that, today, "some five billion dollars are needed to recast and remake projects". By way of conclusion, Ms Katana considers, however, that the "Millennium aims were well thought-out as they were linked to each other" (combating hunger and poverty, ensuring school education, promoting gender equality, reducing infant mortality and the mortality rate of women in childbirth, combating AIDS and other diseases, ensuring sustainable development, and a global partnership for development). However, she said, "an integrated development plan must now be found to cover all objectives together, achieving the essential role of human resources in Africa".
As far as cancellation of the developing country debt is concerned, the Franco-American academic, Susan George, began by explaining that, "in one year, immigrants established in the North, in Europe, send more home to their families and tribes in the South than the European Union through its development programmes". The debt today amounts to several billion dollars and is still greater when interest is added on, she recalled, saying that Sub-Saharan Africa has to reimburse $28,000 per minute to its funders, when this money should be used to build schools, to purchase vaccines, etc. She said the "impact of Jubilee 2000, which carried 25,000 signatures in favour of cancelling the debt, came to an end in 2000, as its name indicates". She called on the "World Bank and the IMF to provide real debt relief". In order to make up for the lack of funding provided by the creditor governments, she proposed "the establishment of taxes on products sold in airports or on advertising (…). The abolition of tax havens could also be a solution. President Bush is in the vanguard of this proposal as he considers it must be possible to identify account holders, mainly when it is a matter of people suspected of terrorism". Susan George proposes that a new United Nations Agency be set up to form a group of auditors and inspectors to monitor the route taken by funds from the European Union.
James Boughton, Deputy Director at the Department of Development Policy at the IMF, considers debt cancellation is only possible if "sound budgetary policies are implemented in order to finance the programmes proposed in a sustainable manner". In his view, the final objective must be to "help the low income countries to become economic partners in their own right".
As far as education is concerned, Dr Lieve Fransen, Head of the Social and Human Development Sector at the Directorate General on Development at the European commission, noted that, across the world but mainly in Africa, 104 million children aged between 6 and 11 do not go to school, with girls being the first victims of this phenomenon. The Millennium goal to allow all boys and girls to have access to full primary education by 2015 therefore today proves impossible.
Marzena Kulis, responsible for the World Bank Unit for combating HIV/AIDS, drew up an alarming statement of facts for Eastern Europe. "Today, more than 1.2 million people are infected, with Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan being the countries most badly hit. A study shows, moreover, that resources must be increased by 30% annually to help fight the epidemic, i.e. $300 million annually for these three countries". The region suffers from an obvious lack of political determination to recognise the problem, and the disease remains taboo as it mainly affects the most vulnerable populations. In a Lithuanian prison, 480 out of 107,000 prisoners have contracted the AIDS virus, and this is a population for which there is no legal framework allowing for access to treatment to be gained.
Dr Songane, member of the GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation) group and representing the Health Ministry of Mozambique, considers that the aim of reducing the child mortality rate by two thirds cannot be achieved today, especially in a country like Mozambique.