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DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society Warns Food Crisis Can Eat Into MDG Gains

Joyce Mulama

GLASGOW, Jun 20 2008 (IPS) - Progress that has already been achieved towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may be reversed due to the current global food crisis, it is emerging at the eighth CIVICUS World Assembly.

The Jun. 18-21 event being held in Glasgow, Scotland, for the third year in a row, brings together about 1,000 delegates from civil society organisations from 111 countries.

"Countries may be taken back many years. It is a tale of one step forward, two steps backwards. I am not sure we will be able to talk about significant progress on MDGs because of the toll food crisis has taken on economies of developing countries," Irfan Mufti, campaign manager with the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) said in an interview with IPS.

Global food prices have been increasing in the recent past, but have spiralled out of control in the last few months, sparking protests from several parts of the world.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, the world’s poorest people, are, and will be hardest hit by the global rise in food prices. The Washington-based body says poor people in developing countries spend more than half of their overall budget on food. "For the 160 million people worldwide who survive on less than 50 cents a days, food price inflation will spell disaster," says a May 16 statement from the organisation.

Their governments are expected to adjust to the situation. "Whatever little reserves these countries had built, they are spending it on the giant leap in food prices. There are hardly any reserves to spend on social services, how will these countries ensure and guarantee achievement of MDGs?" Mufti asked.

CIVICUS is appealing for global responsibility to ensure that countries achieve the MDGs by the 2015 deadline. They are urging donor nations to honour their 1970 pledge of contributing 0.7 percent of their Gross National Income (GNI) as development assistance to poor countries.

"Governments (third world) cannot do it alone. They need the political will of the developed nations as well. Rich countries need to increase the quantity of assistance if progress on MDGs has to be made," Mufti said.

In an interview with IPS, financing for gender equality expert, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, executive director of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), reiterated that rich nations had reneged on their promise to allocate part of the GNI to fight poverty in poor countries. "This is a lack of accountability on the part of the donor countries. If there is no accountability, we will not achieve the set goals. They should live their word," she urged.

The AWDF is the first all-Africa fund to finance programmes that develop and promote women’s leadership and issues like economic empowerment that are high on the agenda of the African women’s movement.

The CIVICUS plea for global responsibility comes in the wake of the MDG Call to Action, an initiative launched last year by Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to encourage the international community to speed up progress to reach the MDGs.

"We have made significant progress in many countries and on every continent. But at halfway to 2015, we are off track," Sarah Kline, DFID Call to Action team leader said.

Many countries have made progress in education, the second MDG goal. The number of new children enrolled increased by 70 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and 88 percent in developing regions between 2004 and 2005, according to U.N. statistics. However, 75 million children of primary school age are not in school – most of these from sub-Saharan Africa. And, though enrollment has increased, there are concerns about the quality of education.

Unfortunately, progress in women’s empowerment is far off-track in Africa. Currently, female representation in parliament is at 16.6 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and 21.8 percent in the developing regions, according to U.N. statistics of 2007. This is way below the gender equality target of 50/5.

The other goal is combating HIV/AIDS (goal 6). Even in countries where overall HIV prevalence is low or has been reduced, the number of infected women is still on the rise. "We need to look at what is fuelling the disease. Issues of violence against women must be addressed very specifically with the relevant legislation. This is far lacking in most of Africa," Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, general secretary of the global Young Women’s Christian Association said.

Studies show that violence against women in Africa, particularly when they demand to have protected sex with their spouses, puts them at the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Women are at the centre of efforts to meet this and other MDG goals.