Taking on the world’s development goals and challenges

Date: 14/07/05

Five years ago, the 191 members of the United Nations pledged to implement a Millennium Declaration by 2015. This autumn there will be an assessment of the progress made so far. David Cronin looks at the part the EU is playing in pursuit of some of the goals. Goals: Reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under five; reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio; halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDSBoosting access to contraceptives and family planning advice appear essential if the Millennium Development Goals are to be attained.

The challenges look enormous. AIDS claims the lives of three million people a year, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for three-quarters of that figure. The ratio of maternal mortality per 100,000 live births is as high as 2,000 in Sierra Leone, 1,800 in Malawi, 1,700 in Angola and 1,600 in Niger. By contrast, the corresponding figures for Belgium, Germany and Ireland are ten, eight and five respectively. But the amounts deemed necessary to improve sexual and reproductive health are tiny compared, for example, with the $1 trillion (€833 billion) that the world spent on weapons and the military in 2004.

At the 1994 Conference on International Population and Development in Cairo, the international community agreed that $18.5bn (215.5bn) should be allocated to programmes dealing with AIDS, maternal health and family planning for the year 2005. Yet the latest estimates suggest that international donors provided less than $4bn (@3.3bn) for such schemes in developing countries during 2004.

The EU's share of that funding came to $214 million (@178.3m), roughly one-seventh of the sum donated by the US.

Hedi Jemiai, Brussels representative of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), notes that EU policymakers have made emphatic statements in support of reproductive health, but believes this needs to be translated into larger financial commitments. "I want to be fair to the EU; they are playing a leadership role here," he says. "But they can do much, much better."

Although the US remains the biggest single donor to sexual and reproductive health schemes, it has been more selective about what it will finance than Europe. The Bush administration has made no secret, for example, of its desire to promote sexual abstinence as a means of preventing AIDS, whereas the family planning lobby generally argues it is more realistic and effective to increase the availability of condoms and to encourage their use.

In 2002, George W. Bush decided to stop the $34m (@28.3m) a year the US had earmarked for the UNFPA. This followed allegations - firmly rebutted by the UNFPA - that the agency was financing forced abortions in China.

Poul Nielson, the former European commissioner for development and humanitarian affairs, reacted to the announcement by promising that the EU would meet the funding shortfall caused by Washington's decision.

When the Archbishop of Nairobi Raphael Ndingi Nzeki told his congregations not to use condoms in 2003, even though about 20% of Kenya's population was HIV-positive, Nielson declared: "Condoms are part of the solution; the condemnation of condoms is part of the problem."

Jemiai says the EU should try to counterbalance the arguments put forward by the Vatican. While Pope Benedict XVI has recently depicted condoms as a major threat to the fabric of African society, the UNFPA views them as life-saving devices.

Jemiai says he is optimistic that Louis Michel will take an even more strident stance on defending condoms than Nielson, his predecessor.

He says: "I think that Louis Michel and the EU should continue what they are doing now and do it even more strongly. People listen to politicians in poor countries, just as they listen to their priests. When politicians stand up, it can make a big impact."

Author looks at the part the EU is playing in pursuit of some of the goals United Nations Members pledged in 2000 to implement by 2015.

United Nations: Millenium Development Goals http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

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