MDG achievements?
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh was invited by the UN to attend the UN Conference on millennium development goals (MDGs) in New York recently where Bangladesh was accorded special honour in attaining these goals. The PM also addressed the UN General Assembly session. She led about a 100-member delegation. This big entourage drew criticism from certain quarters, especially as the UN conference was devoted to poverty reduction and the effects of poverty.
As it is, the UNDP report on MDG attainments by Bangladesh reflects an exaggerated optimism. First of all, the report says that it covers the period up to 2009 when actually it includes the country's achievements till 2008 or a little beyond. Thus, it is considerably outdated. In the sphere of the overall and the main MDG goal, poverty reduction, the progress of Bangladesh has been noted to be only marginal. Even the acclaimed success in areas such as primary education and sanitation is doubtful in the backdrop of the large number of school dropouts and hardly visible signs of widespread use of sanitary latrines in rural areas.
The MDG programme will come to an end by 2015 or only five years from now. Bangladesh would need to very substantially increase its taxation base and get very generous donor assistance for implementing successfully MDG targets. It needs $104.18 billion between now and 20015 for the purpose. But it has been promised a little over $ 1 billion only by the IMF recently for the next two or three years for spending on MDGs. Our taxation base is also nowhere near to being readied to mobilise resources on the scale that would be needed to well attain MDG goals.
Thus, it is no overstatement to say that the present hurrah about MDG successes is really an empty one. Besides, let us remember that whatever recognition Bangladesh has got rightly or wrongly for achieving MDG goals is the collective attainment of three successive governments, the BNP-led government, the caretaker government and finally, the present Awami League government. Out of the three, Awami League has been in power for less than two years only whereas the other two ran the country for seven long years when much of the claimed success on MDGs were attained. So, the present government cannot say that the MDG achievements are exclusively their own.
A M S Haider
New Elephant Road, Dhaka.
As it is, the UNDP report on MDG attainments by Bangladesh reflects an exaggerated optimism. First of all, the report says that it covers the period up to 2009 when actually it includes the country's achievements till 2008 or a little beyond. Thus, it is considerably outdated. In the sphere of the overall and the main MDG goal, poverty reduction, the progress of Bangladesh has been noted to be only marginal. Even the acclaimed success in areas such as primary education and sanitation is doubtful in the backdrop of the large number of school dropouts and hardly visible signs of widespread use of sanitary latrines in rural areas.
The MDG programme will come to an end by 2015 or only five years from now. Bangladesh would need to very substantially increase its taxation base and get very generous donor assistance for implementing successfully MDG targets. It needs $104.18 billion between now and 20015 for the purpose. But it has been promised a little over $ 1 billion only by the IMF recently for the next two or three years for spending on MDGs. Our taxation base is also nowhere near to being readied to mobilise resources on the scale that would be needed to well attain MDG goals.
Thus, it is no overstatement to say that the present hurrah about MDG successes is really an empty one. Besides, let us remember that whatever recognition Bangladesh has got rightly or wrongly for achieving MDG goals is the collective attainment of three successive governments, the BNP-led government, the caretaker government and finally, the present Awami League government. Out of the three, Awami League has been in power for less than two years only whereas the other two ran the country for seven long years when much of the claimed success on MDGs were attained. So, the present government cannot say that the MDG achievements are exclusively their own.
A M S Haider
New Elephant Road, Dhaka.