Ibn Chambas:

We Can’t Achieve MDGs
Posted: Daily GUide | Monday, 15 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE IMMEDIATE past President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, is overly convinced that Africa cannot achieve the much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 as expected.

The eight targets, which are expected to be achieved by 2015, include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, attainment of the universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and women empowerment, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases to ensure environmental sustainability and development of a global partnership.

However, Dr Chambas, who has an extensive knowledge about happenings and developments in West Africa and beyond said, “The sad news is that we are not meeting those targets.”

He disclosed this was when he had the opportunity of giving a public lecture at the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the University of Ghana at the 19th edition of the Hall’s ‘Celebrity Platform’ over the weekend.

According to him, preliminary surveys have shown that the West African sub-region would not achieve the MDGs by 2015.

He therefore challenged leaders of the continent “to make sure that even if they are not achieved, we must arrive at a point where we can reduce poverty by 50 percent.”

Dr Chambas, who has now been elected as the Secretary General of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group further noted that “when we create viable, effective and efficient regional economic communities, we can bring added value, the advantage of regional integration, to add to the national effort.”

In spite of the fact that Africa is far from achieving those targets, he noted that the continent had been doing fairly well until the recent global economic crunch.

Dr Chambas revealed that for more than two decades, the growth rate in Africa was either zero or in some cases negative.

“However, somewhere around 2000, we begun to see an improvement in the performance of African economies,” he emphasized, attributing the development to the resolve of some countries to embrace the good tenets of democracy.

He noted that prudent management of resources and a number of reforms that was adopted has impacted the higher growth rates over the years.

This, according to him, was evident in the fact that “by 2005, the regional growth rate was about 5 percent, but in some countries it was a bit higher; just one or two countries were not doing well.

“In 2006, 2007 we had moved to 6.1 and 6.5 percent respectively and 2008-2009 we were working to see this growth rate move into the second percental rate, but the global financial crisis came and the result was that there was a fall in the demand for our commodities,” he stressed.

That notwithstanding, Mr. Chambas said in 2009, the growth rate in Africa was much higher than most regions of the world, which according to him, was a good and encouraging sign that Africa is coming out of the recession much faster than expected.

Meanwhile, the growth rate for 2010 is projected to be higher.

Unfortunately, Dr Chambas envisages that it would only be in the region of 4 to 4.5 percent, explaining that continent must achieve 7 to 8 percent if it is to make progress in the fight against poverty.

He therefore challenged Africans to help reach these targets.

“Until we are able to reduce the high levels of poverty in the country and the continent, it will be difficult to talk about sustainable peace and development,” he noted.

The MDGs were drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration, which was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 127 heads of state and governments during the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.