International Development CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Centre for Sustainable International Development

Executive Summary

1. The Post 2015 development goals must build on successes and shortcomings to date and focus on human rights, equity, social inclusion and justice, governance and accountability. The well-being of population groups hitherto invisible in the MDGs should be accorded priority and new working methods developed to ensure that the global agenda responds appropriately to their needs.

Brief Introduction

2. This submission is from the interdisciplinary Centre for Sustainable International Development (CSID) at the University of Aberdeen.1 Five principles underpin the work of CSID, including: a commitment to equity and social inclusion, promoting equal access to sustainable development for all citizens; enhancement of human dignity and protection of the human rights of all persons.

Factual Information for the Committee

3. Progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Develop Goals (MDGs) is well documented. The latest United Nations (UN) Report on the MDGs states that several global targets have already been met for: poverty alleviation; access to universal primary education and improved water sources; and reducing child mortality, deaths from HIV-related conditions, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

4. The incidence of new HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has decreased,2 although many countries most-affected by the pandemic are unable to provide treatment to all in need.3

5. Concerted highly visible efforts to Make Poverty History4 are being realised.5 However, for women in SSA and Southern Asia maternal death firmly remains “her-story” and MDG5, improving maternal health, is the most “off-track”.

6. Improved measurement systems have enabled more accurate reporting on the MDGs. However, the global targets masque considerable regional and national inequalities across all the MDGs with data insufficiently disaggregated to identify socially excluded and vulnerable population groups who may be invisible in national statistics and household surveys. Aggregated data which permits global reporting to be dominated by progress made in populous countries is problematic and may hide deterioration in smaller fragile nations.

7. Global achievements have been unequally distributed across regions and countries and by income level. The SSA and South Asia regions have been hardest hit by food and financial crises with few countries able to meet poverty reduction and hunger targets. The number of under-nourished people in SSA increased from 210 million in 2006 to 230 million in 2008,6 occasioning calls to focus efforts on the bottom 1.4 billion.7 ^, 8

8. Inequalities result from insufficient attention being paid to the human right to development as espoused in the 1988 UN Declaration on the Right to Development which focuses on the “well-being of the entire population and of all individuals”9 and Article 24 of the Millennium Declaration (2000).10 The MDG targets fail to recognise the rights of all individuals to health, well-being, decent work, water and sanitation, nutrition and human security (especially freedom from gender-based violence).

9. Inequalities are also increasing due to “global gluttony” regarding food, energy, water, natural resources and consumer items by the mega-rich and burgeoning middle income countries.

10. The situation of women and girls has improved since 1990, though high levels of gender-based violence,11 an excess mortality of girls and women (about 3.9 million each year), disparities in girls’ schooling (especially for disadvantaged populations in SSA and Southern Asia), unequal access to economic opportunities, and to household resources and women’s representation in the public sphere.12 Such factors contribute to persistent high levels of maternal mortality, combined with inadequacies in the health system (insufficient trained health care providers,13 poor access to affordable medicines14 and life saving technologies)15 and problems with transport to health facilities.

11. The gross shortage of trained teachers16 and health care personnel17 (especially in rural areas) is severely hampering the achievement of the MDGs in SSA and South Asia.

12. Progress towards universal access to primary education has been unequal and a recent initiative created to rectify this.18 Yet concerns remain over the poor quality of education. Universal access to secondary education is now required to increase the number of young people with academic and vocational skills, including out-of-school youth (estimated at 72 million) whose prospects are otherwise bleak.

13. Increased access to information, communication technology (ICT) is regarded as a means to improve development, while open access education could accelerate the number of trained teachers and health workers. Yet ICT has tended to favour those living in urban areas, especially young males and “historically, technologies have been used by those in power to retain their positions of power.”19 ICTs contribute to creating greater inequalities at several levels: between countries; rural and urban areas; and between people.20

14. Certain population groups are not adequately covered by, or may not have benefitted from, the MDG targets, eg, men and women living in fragile states, conflict-affected areas, displaced persons and people with disabilities. An estimated 700 million people live with disabilities, 80% of whom are in developing countries;21 while 20% of the world’s poorest people are estimated to have some disability.22

15. Inadequate attention to sustainable rural livelihoods and infrastructure has not only disadvantaged many rural populations without access to quality services, but has contributed to the young and able-bodied migrating to urban to seek employment and services, thereby further impoverishing mainly women and the aged who remain in rural areas. Migration has also resulted in increased urbanisation and growth of informal settlements.23 Rural-urban differences persist in access to safe water and people living in countries in SSA have less access to safe water.24

16. A revitalised agricultural sector25 as a “basis for a sustainable structural transformation” is needed, along with climate change mitigation measures26 to improve food security and alleviate poverty.

17. Energy and water poverty is increasing throughout SSA and South Asia (though no MDG target measures this)27 with some households paying up to 40% of their income for water. Investment in renewable energy is extremely limited, but it can reduce environmental impact including deforestation and dependence on oil and gas, is less vulnerable to price rises and can contribute to stability if made widely and equitably available.

18. Most conflicts in developing countries are related to conflicts over natural resources. The displacement of people caused by humanitarian situations clearly leads to the disempowerment of affected populations who may live in inadequate shelter for up to a decade after the event. “Armed conflict remains a major threat to human security and to hard-won MDG gains... In 2009, 42 million people had been displaced by conflict or persecution, four-fifths of them in developing countries.” 28

19. Recent discoveries of crude oil in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Sierra Leone and concerns about trans-boundary aquifers (especially in SSA) can potentially destabilise and undermine development gains and further increase inequalities. In oil-rich Nigeria for example, the gap in maternal and child health intervention coverage between rich and poor households has increased and is one of the largest globally.29

20. Achievement of the MDGs depends heavily upon the availability of financial resources. Only four countries30 have achieved 0.7 % of GDP pledged to international aid under the Paris Declaration.31 There have been recent increases in funding from foundations and the private sector together with a proliferation of actors and increasing fragmentation of collaboration.32 Uncoordinated activities of these new players can potentially undermine both the global agenda and governments’ responsibility to meet agreed development targets. It is timely to reassess the global aid business and develop new types of partnerships and coordination arrangements that respond appropriately to the development needs of all citizens.

21. Where most work needs to be done on well-being, inequalities, and rights, countries possess significant natural resources and can potentially generate financial support that could make a significant difference to the MDGs. A key complicating factor, beyond the well-known issue of the resource curse, is that further development of such natural resources is seen as detrimental to the global environment. Breaking out of this bind requires new ways of thinking about global relationships. As financial markets struggle to recover from the current crisis, new investment opportunities can be developed which tap into the human capital potential of developing countries. This will not be straightforward, but “business as usual” hardly looks promising.

Recommendations for Action by the UK Government

22. Lessons can be learned from countries that have made substantial progress in meeting the MDGs: Botswana, China, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda and South Korea.33 Political commitment is regarded as essential to this success, although concerns have been raised about the need to respect human rights as an integral part of the development agenda.

23. Many organisations have already begun to make contributions to the post-2015 agenda.34 ^, 35 In April 2012 the Organisation of European Cooperation Development (OECD) outlined seven key elements of the development framework36 and we are in full agreement with these and the proposed reassessment of goals: well-being, equity of income and opportunities; inclusive green growth; and security, governance and accountability, justice, social capital, voice, participation and empowerment.37

24. The UK government is well placed to advocate for human rights to be placed centre stage in the post-2015 agenda. This calls for renewed commitment to the 1988 UN Declaration on the Right to Development with its emphasis on the well-being of the entire population,38 ^, 39 as well as the 2000 Millennium Declaration, especially article 24.40

25. We call upon the UK government in its negotiations on the post-2015 agenda to:

25.1Support governments and civil society organisations from the south41 to play a more assertive role in shaping the post-2015 development agenda.42

25.2Strengthen coordination mechanisms such as the UN at global level and appropriate coordination mechanisms at country level to ensure a coherent response by many new partners in the rapidly changing aid environment.

26. We further call upon the UK government in its negotiations on the post-2015 agenda to ensure that the future agenda is based on universal rights with targets that include quality43 and are benchmarked and tailored to the realistic achievement of individual countries over defined timeframes and is:

26.1Consistent with past success, addressing shortcomings in the existing MDGs, rather than proposing a new agenda.44

26.2Committed to completing the unfinished business of the current MDGs (notably the slow progress in improving maternal health in SSA and Southern Asia and in reducing child under-nutrition in Southern Asia) and intensifying efforts in these areas45 if progress is still lagging at the time of agreement on the new global agenda.46

26.3Agreed by a range of partners at the global and national levels and sensitive to local contexts and the needs of otherwise socially excluded groups.

26.4Committed to a holistic response to human well-being, rather than single bullet approaches which have featured prominently of late.47

26.5Accountable and transparent with governance measures to ensure the legitimate ownership and distribution of natural resources and land and equitable use of renewable energy, food, shelter and water.

26.6Responsive to the vulnerability of countries and displaced populations affected by unexpected/unplanned changes (climate change, conflict and humanitarian situations) and contains mechanisms to ensure their development needs are fully met soon after the emergency response.

26.7Committed to security concerns (including social and human security) and prioritises the elimination of all forms of gender-based and conflict-related sexual violence and ensures justice for survivors of gender-based crimes.48

26.8Focused on quality of education at all levels (including vocational training) and intensifying efforts to attract out-of-school youth into meaningful skills development programmes.

26.9Committed to address the rural-urban divide, strengthen rural infrastructure and services49 and put measures in place to address energy poverty.

26.10Cognisant of the digital divide with measures to enable rural dwellers, women, elderly persons, people with disabilities and other socially excluded populations to have full access to appropriate ICTs and to increase the use of ICTs in education for skills development50 and entrepreneurship amongst unemployed youth.

26.11Able to collect, disaggregate and disseminate data at national and sub-national levels by age,51 gender (to act as a beacon for where ameliorative action needs to be taken), and diversity categories, including caste, disability (type and degree of impairment), displacement or migration status, indigenous or minority groups, rural or urban residence, and young people living or working on the street.

4 October 2012