What was achieved at UN anti-poverty summit?
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CONSENSUS VS. DIFFERENCES
The document was agreed by the world body's 192 member states one week before the convening of the high-level MDG summit -- a clear evidence that wide consensus was already in place.
The states may share the ultimate goal of accomplishing the MDGs, but that does not prevent them from bargaining over the text for a month before finally giving their backing.
One of the barriers was a reference to the rights of people living "under foreign occupation," supported by the developing countries but opposed by the United States and its Western allies.
The final text urges actions "to remove the obstacles to the full realization of the rights of peoples living under foreign occupation to promote the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals."
On so-called "innovative financing mechanisms," which is still controversial among states, the leaders acknowledge its "positive" role "on a voluntary basis."
A gap between the rich and the poor was all the more clear at the summit. Some leaders in the developing world called for reforming the "unfair" international economic and political order which benefits the rich and ignores the poor.
On the other hand, the chancellor of economic powerhouse Germany, Angela Merkel, urged that "the primary responsibility for development lies with the governments of the developing countries. " Apparently speaking out for the rich, Merkel said aid cannot substitute for domestic resources and "cannot continue indefinitely."
Merkel did not mention how the fourth-largest economic power plans to fulfill unhonoured aid pledges, only saying that "Germany continues to strive to achieve the target of 0.7 percent of ODA as a percentage of GNI," as required by the UN.
UN data showed that total aid by donors current stands at 0.31 percent of GNI.
As some analysts pointed out, the summit, which is full of past promises and pledges, did not produce concrete actions to accelerate the MDGs. They also noted that developed countries generally reiterated commitments that have lagged behind for years.
Donor countries at the Gleneagles Group of Eight Summit and the UN World Summit in 2005 pledged to increase official development assistance (ODA) by $50 billion. Presently, there is a shortfall of about $20 billion. Rich countries also promised to double aid to Africa by $25 billion. But, the funding gap is over $16 billion.
ARE THEY ACHIEVABLE? UN reports showed that the MDGs have been set back by the financial and economic crisis. Donors are cutting back assistance due to a tight budget while progress in some developing countries has been reversed.
One cannot help wondering whether the anti-poverty goals will really come true in 2015, given that the results so far can only be best described as "mixed," with only five years left.
"The goals can be evaluated from two perspectives -- globally and statistically," Hong Pingfan, chief of the global economic monitoring center of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, told Xinhua.
"Globally, most of the goals would be achievable except for goals 4 and 5 -- reducing child and maternal mortality, due to a significant lack of progress so far," he said.
But, even with goal 1 -- cutting extreme poverty by half, seemingly to be within reach, at least for now, there is no guarantee that every country would realize it, in particular some African countries, he said.
"I'm against evaluating the results by using pure statistics," he said.
"Suppose when 2015 arrives and poverty is only reduced by 49 percent, can we say it is a failure? No. I would say it is very successful, because the poverty severity the other 51 percent would have been lessened greatly."
