MDGs: Thoughts on ways to achieve them

Status of Banglades's achievement
Bangladesh is a signatory to the Millennium compact and hence committed to implement the MDGs. The table below shows the status of Bangladesh's implementation of MDGs. The table is compiled based on a simple regression analysis using data contained in the Millennium Project's database.

The data in the table show that on the whole Bangladesh is not in real good shape with respect to implementation of the MDGs. The first two targets relating to poverty and hunger are most critically important and Bangladesh is not doing well in achieving them. With the present rate of poverty reduction, the proportion of people below the dollar-a-day poverty threshold, an indicator about which many have serious reservations, will hardly change in 2015. In fact, given the present rate, it will be in 2648 after nearly 650 years when the target will be fulfilled. Similarly, at the present rate, Bangladesh will seriously miss the target of eliminating hunger. Bangladesh is also expected to fail to achieve the targets relating to environmental sustainability except for improved sanitation.

Bangladesh appears to be doing well with respect to the goals on universal primary education, gender equality in education, under-five mortality, maternal mortality and death from tuberculosis. However, the progress in education is to some extent misleading in that the expansion of educational opportunities for both boys and girls has been accompanied by sharp deterioration in their quality. Human development obviously requires enrollment, but more importantly the quality of instructions. Same argument is applicable to health services.

Need to empower people's initiatives
It is clear that if Bangladesh is to fully achieve the MDGs and become truly hunger-free and poverty-free, then the common people, including the women, will have to be empowered. Empowerment encompasses mental empowerment to unleash their human spirit, social empowerment to ensure their freedom of movement, information empowerment to get them the necessary information, organizational empowerment to ensure their freedom to form own organisations, economic empowerment to ensure that they receive the necessary skills and financial support for creating self-employment, and political empowerment to make sure that they receive their rightful entitlements. Such empowerment must be intended to help people take responsibility for their own future and ensure that they succeed.

In order to help people, especially the poor succeed in becoming authors of their own future, their capabilities need to enhanced, local democracy established and a social movement fomented. Their capabilities may be enhanced by ensuring their human development and creating opportunities for them to form self-help groups. A social movement is necessary because many of the social problems can be solved by awakening and mobilizing people and creating campaigns under the catlaystic leadership of elected local leaders. When people are mobilized, a type of "social capaital" is created, which can be used to solve many of the social problems without external financial support. With the social problems resolved by using social capital, opportunities are created for the solution of difficult economic problems as people can form self-help groups and catalyse savings for self-employment activities. For that to happen, a people's centred development approach need to be introduced, which will require among others to strengthen the UPs and transform their role to that of catalysts.

Need decentralisation and improved governance
Once people take responsibility for their own future and begin the journey to create a better future, they need an enabling environment to move forward. Such an environment requires transformation of policies leading to decentralisation and devolution. Decentralisation is the means to create local accountability for many of the basic services such as health, education, law and order, and devolve power and resources to local bodies. It is also the means to taking government to the door steps of the people and ensuring their effective parcipation in the affairs of the state, causing the democracy to deepen.

Good governance is also an essential prerequisite for creating an enabling environment and is critically important for those who are disadvantaged in the society. Good governance requires rule of law, social justice, and effective participation of the people in the decisions that affect them. It also requires the practice of transparency and accountability to ensure a corruption-free environment, which is most important for the poor as they are hurt most by corruption. It is clear that whatever achievements that have been made in human development areas Bangladesh is viwed to have made tremendous achievements so far relative to its neighbours cannot be sustained without accountability in the delivery of many of the services such as health and education by public authorities. There must also be corruption-free and accountable conomic governance. That is, resources must be allocated based on considerations of merit and social justice rather than to provide patronage to powerful vested interest groups.

In order to bring about decentralization and good governance, truly people's rule need to be established. For that to happen, honest, competent and committed individuals committed to people's welfare rather than to self-interest need to be given the opportunity to go to state power. Many national level institutions need to be transformed through major reforms for creating such opportunities.

Independent judiciary, strong and independent Election Commission, neutral government during elections, effective Anti-corruption Commission, efficient civil administration, and honest and transparent internal governance of political parties are now urgently needed to help achieve people's rule. Honest intentions of the government are needed to make progress in these areas and in the area of decentralisation. However, despite making unequivocal commitment otherwise, the government does not appear to be at all serious about any major reform initiative. A case in point is the issue of decentralisation and strong local governance, which is an essential pillar of the recently formulated Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). Despite commitments on paper, government has not made any significant shift in its policy decisions and resource allocations. For example, Upazila and Zila Parshad elections are not yet held despite consitutional obligations and Supreme Court order, and no increases are made for the allocations for three elected local bodies (i.e., are only about 2% of ADP, which no way reflect government's priority.

Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar is Vice President and Country Director of The Hunger Project-Bangladesh