Millennium Development Goal # 8
Develop a global partnership for development
Julian Hickman
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.
Millennium Development Goal #8
Create a Global
Partnership for Development
Target 12. Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable,
nondiscriminatory trading and financial system.
Target
13.
Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries.
Target
14.
Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island
developing states .
Target
15. Deal
comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national
and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term
As I work on this paper, a list of the Eight
Millennium Development Goals sits on the kitchen table along with lunch. On the plate I have a sandwich and some
pickles. A cup of coffee is sitting
beside the plate. It is Honduran coffee
brought back from our last mission trip.
Lunch will be a quick meal. Like
everyone else,I am busy and there is little time to really enjoy lunch.
The reasons I have my lunch and others in the
world have very little are not simple.
It is not simply the result of my hard work or the efforts of my
parents. We are born in this place by
chance, not merit. We currently have a
stable government. My ancestors came to
an unknown country which luckily had many navigable rivers and was full of resources. Since then, our country has not been
invaded.
Millennium Development Goal #8: deals with the
broad issues of poverty and effective solutions. It is not the sexy goal, it is the hard work of the broad
view. It is focused on policy, coordination, partnerships and
information. As part of this, it
addresses systemic issues of imbalance that are hard to address at the local
level when the focus is on a single problem such as food production.
Stability and commitment: Local and international instability and chaos
can frustrate any attempts to deal with health, food or other issues. Good governance, infrastructure and order
are necessary. The local government
must be able and willing to support the effort. Through Goal #8, organizations
work with governments and NGO's (Non
Governmental Organizations) to promote needed solutions. Furthermore, accountability is essential to
effectively using our funds.
Partnerships: Often the problem
of severe poverty can not be addressed without partnerships. The problems require multiple players.
Farmers can not succeed if malaria keeps them
and their families sick or the cost of fertilizer is so high they can not
afford it. If large grain producing
nations gain access to the local markets and are able to sell the grain at far
less than can be produced locally. The
local farmer is not going to succeed.
The influx of cheap food but loss of work may leave their family in even
more poverty.
Fairness: Embedded in Millennium Goal #8 is also an
issue of fairness. If fertilizer in
third world countries costs multiple times more than fertilizer in the USA, how
can farmers compete? The cheap food we
sell in poor countries means the money they spend leaves their country. Our food is cheaper not only because we can
be more efficient but we have many hidden subsidies. The fairness of this competition
is suspect.
Balancing fairness is not simple. Our drive to
deal with the price of fuel at home resulted in an embrace of more ethanol
production. This is part of the reason
for significant shifts from food production to ethanol production. In the past week food riots broke out in
several countries over the high cost of food.
Our burning of food grain based fuels contributes to the problems in
feeding the poor in other countries.
Debt: With a possible recession at our door, there
are loud cries for government action to address the problem. We are now looking at issues of predatory
lending, lax regulations, greed and other contributors. No matter what the cause, action must be
taken so that the consequences do not ripple through our economy and drive us
all deep into a major recession. The
indebtedness of poor countries is very similar. Debt forgiveness may be the least expensive way to address
resources in some countries.
Special Cases: In addition to the systemic issues, there
are special problems for certain types of countries. Countries without
navigable rivers or good ports may have unique problems. Island or land-locked nations may need
additional efforts. An element of
Millennium Development Goal #8 is to address these special cases.
Trinity's Support for Millennium Development
Goal #8
One,
the US organization promoting the Millennium Development Goals is our primary national catalyst to promote
partnership, accountability and transparency.
One does not act directly, its role is to promote, coordinate, and
articulate the need for action.
This coming MDG Sunday at Trinity, we are
collecting for One, to support its work in the overall MDG effort. We hope you will first look at One's
Website, look at the organizations they promote, and then give generously in
the envelopes provided on Sunday.