Coleagues, I read the speech presented on our behalf by Dr. Isatou Njie
Saidy, Ajaratou, at the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly. I will present
the speech in its entirety (I will omit the first 3 Paragraphs of
felicitations) interspersed with my review of it. I thank our representative at the UN
for her participation on our behalf.
The speech is relatively long so I will review it in its paragraphs and in a
numbered series. This therefore is the review of the 4th paragraph and it is
numbered Review 1.
[Mr. President, The mid-term review of the Millennium Declaration two years
ago indicates that the Millennium Development Goals are far from being
attained in most of the developing world. This notwithstanding, for us in The
Gambia, our commitment to the MDGs is unwavering. The overarching policy objective
of the government, under the leadership of his Excellency the President of
the Republic of The Gambia Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh, is to reduce poverty and
achieve all the MGDs. We have just concluded a Second Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper which clearly sets out our policy framework for achieving growth and
poverty reduction despite our meagre resources and endowments, and despite
the failure of several partners to fulfil their pledges of aid, debt relief,
and market access for African countries. The same mid-term reviews showed that
the commitments that were made in many fora by the international community
in support of the MGDs in poor countries have not translated into real
resource flows into these countries. We therefore call on the international
community to rededicate itself to the provisions of the Monterey concensus, and the
Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. In this regard, my delegation welcomes
the panel of eminent personalities established by former British Prime
Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, to monitor pledges made at the G8 summits including
those made at the Gleneagles Summit. My Delegation considers it particularly
critical to take action to reverse the downward trend in overseas development
financing.]
I sit and wonder whether there is a gap in understandings between the
developped countries and the developing countries when it comes to the UN. Or is it
that Gambian officials have not read or did not understand the Millennium
Declaration. I had thought that my review of our speech at the UN would be on
the premise that we understand the basic elements of the subject matter.
However, our speech indicates there may be a deficit of critical information.
Therefore, I present some relevant sources of information and I encourage all my
coleagues to read these documents as we review our state:
_http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html_
(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html)
_http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf_
(http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf)
In September 2000, The UN Millennium Summit took place. 189 nations
participated. 147 of those nations adopted some goals targeted to be accomplished by
the year 2015. It was then up to those nations to devise policies and plans
toward accomplishing those goals. The goals are 7 in number and to assist less
able nations, they added an eighth goal to form development partnerships in
their various journeys toward the common goals. The UN promised to undertake
monitoring and encouragement of these nations and partnerships and so they
produce reports every so often to track progress. A report was completed in
2003, 2005, and recently in 2007. The second URL above is the 2005 Report. The
Millennium Declaration does not place any obligation on any participating
nation to give anything to any other idiot. The relevant development partnerships
must be consulted to review promises and contracts among nations. It is sort
of like a Pair Effort where nations associate themselves with other desiring
nations and partner toward achieving the Global Millennium Goals.
Now then, as you can see, the 8 goals are:
1. Eradicate extreme Poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce Child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
It is no accident that the goals appear in the order that they do. It means
that goals 1 thru 7 must be achieved in tandem with goal 8 or perhaps better
before goal 8 can harness values. For example; you would not expect Gambia to
participate in trade anywhere on an equal footing with Senegal if Gambia does
not make any meaningful effort toward eradicating extreme poverty and
hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and the
empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and
malaria, in an environmentally sustainable manner. Nor would you ask Spain to
absorb Gambia's diseased and ill-prepared children. In effect, instead of
lament Gambia's lack of Millennium Development partners or donations from more
developed countries, I think the Vice President ought to have shared what
concrete steps her administration has taken in achieving any of the goals of the
MDG. In fairness to her, Ajaratou, the vice president has shared that her
administration has just (in 2007), concluded their second Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper. And she shares that burden with her delegation to the UN. A
question then arises: Why since 2000 when the MDGs were adopted, that The Gambia
government has only embarked on the production of policy papers? How many
strategic policy papers do they intend to produce before they begin implementing
any one of them? And are those strategy papers dependent on gifts, grants, and
circumstance from generous countries? How do they intend to find those
generous countries therefore? I remembered an opportunity they squandered in
receiving aid from the US based on the Millennium Project. That aid went to Ghana
instead and Ghana is putting it to good use. I recommend Gambia take a look
at Ghana's representative's speech on this issue of beggars and spoilers.
I will give you an opportunity to digest the 2005 Millennium Development
Progress Report by the UN before we review Gambia's performance in detail. I
caution good study and that this review process could take a week or two.
Thank you coleagues for your audience. Haroun Masoud. MQDT. Darbo.
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