Open trade and growing aid help poor countries to record major MDG progress

When African leaders meet in Kampala, Uganda, mid next month for the 15th AU Summit, one item is likely to raise its ugly head yet again — the progress on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The status of the MDGs was on the agenda for the G8 and G20 summits at the weekend in Canada, a signal that problems facing poor countries continue to haunt both developing and rich Nations.

Kenyan officials said the achievement of the MDGs, whose deadline is 2015, is a while away, thanks to challenges such as the effects of the global financial crisis, budgetary constraints and cultural hurdles.

The concerns run across the AU membership.

But perhaps a progress report on the MDGs released last week could be good news to the African leaders.

The report by Overseas Development Institute and UN Millennium Campaign reveals that many of the poorest countries, mainly in Africa are making most progress on the MDGs.

“In absolute terms, many of the world’s poorest countries are making the most overall progress towards achieving goals,” says the report.

Experts said open trade and effective and timely aid in driving this success.

For poor countries, political leadership, accountability and adequate budgetary allocations for the Goals are cited as key criteria to drive sustained progress.

Absolute progress measures overall progress countries have made and relative progress measures how close they have come to specific MDG targets. 

Eleven of the 20 countries making the most absolute progress on the MDGs are amongst the poorest countries in Africa; half of African countries are on track to meet the target of halving poverty by 2015.

The analysis also finds that most low and middle income countries are making progress on most of the key MDG indicators.

“This study decisively establishes with hard evidence that much of the negative reporting on progress on the MDGs is misleading,” said Salil Shetty, director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign in a statement.

“Instead of lamenting that Africa might miss the MDG targets, we should be celebrating the real changes that have happened in the lives of millions of poor people, not least because of the unified effort between governments and citizens, supported by donors. The leaders and tax-payers of G-8 countries must now keep their aid commitments, with the confidence that their investment is making a tangible and large scale difference.”

The top 20 countries include Benin, Bangladesh, Mali, Honduras, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, China, VietNam, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Rwanda, Nepal, Nicaragua, India, Guatemala, Cambodia and Togo.