The report released recently by the Planning Commission on the progress of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reflects that although progress on a number of key goals is on the right track, that of others is either considered difficult or found too ambitious to be achieved within the deadline of 2015.
The report appears to be a frank and open one in that the difficulties have been clearly spelt out. These, among others, are: poor flow of donor assistance, inadequate domestic capacity and, in some cases, the gigantic nature of the task that renders fulfilment of the goals difficult. The fact that the rich nations failed to live up to the MDG promises should in all fairness be viewed as a major constraint that, to a large extent, halted the progress of work or did not even allow Bangladesh to take up a planned action programme to address some of the important goals. From the report, it is clear that Bangladesh will lag behind in some key areas such as providing jobs to working age population, raising the proportion of pupils completing grade-5 and adult literacy rate to 100 per cent, increasing women's participation in non-agriculture sector by 50 per cent and expanding country's forest coverage to 20 per cent.
Most assessments of the progress of the MGDs in different regions and countries show that although poverty reduction, that too in a vague manner, has been achieved, there are a good number of critical parameters that would remain far from achieved not only within the time frame of 2015 but far beyond. As regards reduction of poverty, although the goal to halve the number of people in extreme poverty has been reached, the goal to reduce hunger is still elusive, with a billion of malnourished people in the world.
Looking at the targets one finds that some of these are extremely daunting for the developing and the least developed countries like Bangladesh, because it is not just the efforts and resources that can do miracles but a cluster of social and economic realities that also need to be addressed simultaneously to expect results on a positive note. In this context, it needs to be recognised that while isolating poverty from other parameters is difficult, poverty as a manifestation of many maladies is an all-embracing landscape. Hence, reduction of poverty may at times be misleading, if judged in isolation. Viewing poverty as integrally linked to social backwardness, the targets associated with its goals include, among others, a substantial improvement on literacy rate, promoting free speech and the rule of law, protecting property rights, encouraging entrepreneurship and educating all children up to at least the primary level.
Poor flow of donor assistance has been recognised as one of the key impediments to realising a host of the goals or at least approaching them in a steadfast manner. The Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister has termed the MDG promises wishful planning, as all the rich nations did not come forward to fulfil their promises. Earlier the rich countries had committed to provide 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) to the developing and least-developed countries as official development assistance to help them achieve the MDGs. The situation would have been much better had they kept to their promises.
According to the Planning Commission Report, Bangladesh receives overseas development assistance (ODA) worth $1,672 million a year on an average. The disbursed ODA as a percentage to the country's GDP has declined from 5.59 per cent in fiscal year (FY) 1990-1991 (the base year for global set of goals) to 1.87 per cent in FY 2012-13. Of the 34 countries of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), only eight are reported to have provided these funds to Bangladesh, with Japan topping the list by a distinctly big margin. As things stand now, resource mobilisation appears to be a key deterrent to pursuing the goals in a realistic manner.
It is true that the MDGs, in some respects, reflect a sense of over-ambition rather than the difficult ground realities obstructing any visible outcome in terms of achievement. These refer to promoting gender parity and empowering women (MDG-3), ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG-7) and developing global partnership for development (MDG-8). As for some of the MDGs where Bangladesh is on track according to the report, indicators do not suggest that the country will be able to achieve them by next year. However, the important thing the report has highlighted is the areas where not only Bangladesh but most other developing and least developed countries are finding things difficult to get along with.
wasiahmed.bd@hotmail.com
Resource mobilisation—key deterrent to MDGs
Wasi Ahmed | Published: September 20, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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