Whose Goals: Civil Society Perspectives on MDGs

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The millennium development goals (MDGs),which have set numerical targets to be achieved by the end of the year 2015 ,aim to represent a framework for achieving human development and broadening its benifits. Through the MDGs ,all governments of the world, for the first time, agreed on a common agenda on poverty reduction targets within a set timeframe while also acknowledging that resources, knowledge and technologies available to humankind are adequate for this task. Despite this affirmative declaration, some vital questions arise. Will the MDGs be any different from many earlier UN goals that remain unfulfilled? Can it truly achieve what it sets out to do in the absence of adequate attention to violent conflict, civil and political rights, and just and democratic governance as well as narrow indicators on the issue of gender equality and women's empowerment? These questions remain unanswered for years and continue to go so unless poverty is defined as a political issue and a political solution is sought to address it.

The shocking reality is that almost all the attempts made to date in the name of reducing poverty have considered the poverty as a technical issue and always sought technical solutions to address it. Development priorities ,policies and strategies have been develop with a technocratic point of view that proved to be a defective approach as several decades of attempts failed to address poverty. Poverty needs to be viewed as a political issue and requires political solutions. Poverty now encompasses serious violation of human rights, freedom and justice. This is the outcome of ineffective political and social systems under which the policies, programmes and strategies of poverty reduction have been placed for the last five decades.

Poverty is compounded by the political economy (production and distribution of power , wealth, and knowledge) of society and nation states. The political economy determines the access to and control over productive resources and decision making process of people. poverty is less concerned with how to grow food crops, but depends on how the land to grow the crops on is distributed and the entitlement rights over the land and other productive resources ensured. poverty is closely related to the socio-political structure of society that marginalizes women, Dalits, Ethnic minorities, disable people and other disadvantaged groups. The technical solutions for these political problems seem synonymous with "treating a headache with medicines for stomach ache".

Incidences of poverty are no less culpable than other natural calamities like tsunami, flood , landslide, earthquake etc. Like calamities poverty requires immediate response and rescue measures. One cannot wait for a certain span of time for responses, since the intensity of the problem is as severe and shocking as that of a calamity. Addressing poverty requires democratic governance(polity),which guarantees the acess of poor and marginalized people, women and Dalits to policy, and decision-making levels. Democratic governance differs from good governance in the sense that the latter does not always match with democratic polity. peace , guarantee of human rights freedom and justice are the prerequisites for development ,which consequently contribute to reducing poverty. In the context of nepal, attempts to tackle poverty were introduced in the first five year plan 1956-600with the commencement o planned development. since, then many efforts have been made to enhance the living standard of people by reducing the level of poverty. Millions of dollars have been spent as foreign aid and debt, but the incidences of poverty continue to be chronic. Investment of aids ultimately did not result in meeting the aspiration of the poor. Over the years, the poor in whose name foreign aid has been provided became poorer and those who ruled become richer.

Political instability and exclusionary process of development have been the major factors lending to poverty escalation .women, who constitute more than half of the population, as well as dalits, janajatis, disabled and ethnic groups have scarcely had a proportionate say in the development plan and policies. Those who live in geographically vulnerable areas have hardly heard about national development schemes, let alone participated in the plans and policies and share the development outcomes. Despite their substantial contribution both as labour and mentor to the production sector, their role in development process, plans and policies is often undermined. Absence of this force from development activities further contributes to poverty escalation.

As Nepal is signatory to the millennium Declaration of 2000, the MDGs are national commitments of nepal. However, the progress on the line has been far from satisfactory in case of several goals. Meeting the goals requires better alignment between the political accountability guaranteed by the democratic governance (polity), policies and practices. But these prerequisites are not in place in nepal today. In the meantime , the MDGs seem less realistic in our context since they are silent on the caste, ethnic and class issue . In countries like nepal where the society is stratified along caste, ethnicity and class, it is imperative to settle these issues of poverty and development.

The purpose of this report is to analyse the MDGs status and progress made so far, to highlight what the poor , those working with the poor and civil society have to say with regards to the MDGs and asses and analyse the challenges facing nepal in meeting the MDGs.

The report is based on both quantitative and qualitative data collected from primary and secondary sources of information. Secondary information is based on review o documents related to the MDGs published by government and non-government organizations,along with material available in related websites.The primary information is collected from questionnaire survey conducted in rural villages through focus Group Discussion (FDGs), opinion surveys among NGO representatives village fact sheets and case studies .In total 130 FDGs based on village level questions were conducted in 130 villages, as well as 116 village fact sheets, 70 opinion surveys among NGO representatives from various districts and 12 interviews were selected for case studies.

Nepals Poverty and the MDGs

Poverty is a serious violation of human rights in nepal Though the government claims a significant achievement in reductionin population living below the poverty line by 11% from 42%in 1995/96 to 31% in 2003/04, this figure is widely criticised.many doubts regarding its accuracy arise especially when the worsening social, economic and political situation of the country is taken into consideration.Despite government claims, nepal occupies one of the lowest levels of human development in the world, along with a massive gap between the rich and poor.

The roots of poverty in nepal lie in an inequitable development process.unequal distribution of land and income,and lack of basic facilities and infrastructure contribute to poverty in nepal. Exclusion of disadvantaged people and undemocratic governance are additional cause of poverty . In recent times , this has been further exacerbated by the absence of people's representatives at all levels of governance, nominal or non existence of government administrative structure in rural areas and increase in security expenditure at the cost of development expenditure.

By understanding poverty as an economic and growth related problem and sidelining political responsibility, poverty perpetuates and possibly increases. This approach, having failed over times, still holds prominence among policy makers and governments and is also reflected in the MDGs. Thus, it is not surprising to know that the progress in attaining MDGs is far from satisfaction.

The undemocratic government presently in power and the political crisis ensued by the armed insurgency and king Gyanendra's move on february 1st has further contributed to the crisis. The king's takeover greatly contributed to curtailing people's fundamental rights, ad brought the political and development process to a standstill. The political crisis also had an adverse impact on the country's security situation , affecting especially the poorest of the poor in rural nepal.

Civil society organizations in nepal have shown their deep dissent with the present political mess. Many have been protesting for the restoration of suspended rights and democratic freedoms. An increasing number of donors halted their assistance due to the gloomy environment of political uncertainty. The international community , Primarily the UN, EU, UK, Denmark, Norway , Canada, Switzerland ,USA, and India, have been critical of the king's take-over and arguing for reconciliation between the mainstream political parties and king.

This complicated political scenario in nepal is bound to create formidable challenges even in maintaining the current pace o attaining MDGs. There is no doubt that the present state of constitutional and political crisis needs to be addressed first and democratic polity needs to be restored, if nepal is serious about achieving the MDGs.

Attainment of the MDGs will largely depend on the political willingness and ability of the leadership to address income poverty through equitable distribution of the nation's resources such as access to agricultural land and other natural resources with appropriate pro-poor policies and programmes. Ensuring equal wages , expanding the scale of labour and raising agriculture productivity are areas that need special attention while addressing income poverty. This needs tto be supported by improvig food distribution and food security. Another critical focus area is empowerment of women in politics and administration, and integrating Dalit, Janajati, differently able people and other disadvantageed groups into mainstream development activities, while addressing their needs to enable them to benefit from development interventions through targeted prorammes.

An enormous amount of resources, both financial and human, will be required to introduce effective development interventions in alignment with the MDGs. The government estimates indicate that in order to attain selected MDGs and rural infrastructure targets, a total of Rs 1,130.4 billion (about US $ 16.1 billion), at 2004/05 prices, is required for the period 2005-2015.Given the present situation and the track record of economic growth during the past few years,this kind of fund mobilisation may be a tall order for any government, especially in the nepalese context. Furthermore, arranging skilled, adequate human resources to work in development projects in remote places will pose a huge challenge in the years to come.

It is generally agreed by all, the government as well as nepal's development partners, that ineffective inmplementation of projects is one of the major weakness of nepal. Inefficient management, which is subject to frequent political interference , slow moving bureaucracy and lack of coordination among government agencies, further aggravates it. Monitoring is generally described as weak in most cases. Unless general management is drastically improved, attainment of MDGs will remain a distant dream.

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