Development barrier
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality; empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: develop a global partnership for development
• The catch: this goal has no time-bound, quantified indicators to hold actors to account
• To achieve this goal, developed countries must provide poor countries more aid, faster debt relief and open their markets to them
• In 1970, rich countries pledged 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for global development. But in reality, their official development assistance (ODA) fell from 0.33 per cent to 0.22 per cent between 1990 and 2001
• Donor countries need to reduce the amount of tied aid, which restrains efficient allocation of assistance. Tied aid is 25 per cent less effective than untied aid
• In 1996, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative was introduced to reduce debt. Of the 19 countries that should have reached sustainable debt levels*, only eight have succeeded so far. Two have returned to unsustainable debt levels
• Trade policies are discriminatory. Developed countries pay large subsidies (US $311 billion annually) to their domestic food producers. This depresses world prices, making developing countries' products uncompetitive
• In the 1990s, the developing world faced an average tariff of 3.4 per cent on its manufactured goods exported to OECD** countries. In contrast, the latter faced an average tariff only of 0.8 per cent
• Achieving all 8 goals will require at least US $50 billion a year over the US $56.5 billion available currently. The need for rich countries to deliver is not a matter of charity but policy
*Net present value of debt to exports 150 per cent
**Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Source: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr et al 2003, Human Development Report 2003, United Nations Development Programme, Oxford University Press, New Delhi
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