South Asia: Soul Searching On MDG Target

Yuba Nath Lamsal
Politicians, planners, policymakers, development workers and other stakeholders from the South Asian countries are converging in Kathmandu to discuss the progress made on their commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and developing a roadmap to eradicate extreme poverty. This regional conclave, being organised by the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank, is an opportunity for all the South Asian nations to share their knowledge and experiences on how best to ensure the minimum basic needs of the people. PovertySouth Asia is home to a fifth of the world's human resource - the main driving force of development if properly mobilised. The region has tremendous natural resources - from the mighty Himalaya to the vast expanse of the ocean. The Himalaya and the Hind Kush are the sources of the world's great rivers that have served as the lifeblood to more than a billion people in the region and elsewhere. The world's best fertile land lies in the Gangetic plain. This region has the most pleasant climatic conditions, although they vary depending upon the altitude, which is rare in other parts of the world. South Asia is the cradle of great civilisations. Unlike Europe, this region was never devastated by great wars.Despite these tremendous potentials and resources, South Asia is one of the poorest and most backward regions in the world. South Asia is home to half of the world's poor people. More than half a billion people are absolutely poor, illiterate and have no access to potable water, education and health care. These unfortunate South Asians have been deprived of adequate food, clothes, proper housing facilities and access to economic and social opportunities. They are secluded and alienated from the mainstream of development.In this era of human rights, the deprivation of the basic needs for survival is a denial of one's right to life, which is the most fundamental right of the people. The number of poor in South Asia is growing every year although huge funds are set aside for poverty eradication. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established almost 15 years ago with the objective and vision of tapping all available potentials, expediting cooperation and ridding the region of massive poverty and backwardness. However, things have not changed in the way they should have. We, the people of South Asia, continue to be the poorest of the poor. The reasons are manifold. First, we, South Asians, have not been able to change our mindset. We are entangled with lesser important issues. We are divided bitterly on the grounds of religion, language, caste and creed. This has given rise to distrust, communalism, fundamentalism, which have gobbled up development and sharply divided the societies and people. The entire region has been badly bruised by this menace of communalism and fundamentalism. Development and people's issues have been pushed back. Unless we can change our mindset, we will not make headway in any sector.The region is now plagued by the violent conflict - be it the hinterland of Nepal or in Jammu and Kashmir of India or in Jafna of Sri Lanka. Resources are being diverted for security purposes and dealing with the inter-country or inner country conflicts. When the security budget is increased, the development expenditure automatically goes down, resulting in low level of development. Thus, the condition of the poor and downtrodden people continues to be pathetic and substandard. As the problems of all the South Asian countries are identical, the solution can also be found collectively. We must fight poverty, disease and backwardness through coordination and collaboration. Although faced by numerous problems and resource crunch, South Asian nations have been struggling hard to achieve the minimum human conditions of the people by 2015 as called by the United Nations Millennium Summit. Given the lacklustre performance, none of the South Asian nation would be able to achieve the millennium development goals within the stipulated timeframe. However, sincere efforts are underway, and a new beginning has been made to work together in the front of delivering services to the people and raising their conditions.Some nations have made significant progress in some areas. Sri Lanka is a role model for the success in the literacy drive and education. Nepal's progress on reducing child mortality is encouraging. Bangladesh's rural credit scheme has been a model in the poor Third Word countries for economically empowering the absolute poor people in the rural areas and making them financially self-reliant. Other countries of the region can learn and benefit from India's democratic stability, economic growth and progress in the field of information technology, which can be an important tool in alleviating poverty. Pakistan has had rich experience and achievement in certain areas. Resources are the key to achieving these development goals. But resources alone are not sufficient. Several other factors play a crucial role in accelerating the development process. Development is a process, which cannot be measured in term of mere statistics. Moreover, the statistics are at times not reliable as they are manipulated to suit the interest of the ruling elite.Political commitment, peace, good governance, corruption control, transparency, democratic accountability, clarity in policy and programmes and security are other important requisites, without which the development process cannot be expedited in the desired manner. These elements, unfortunately, hardly exist in the region. As a result, none of the South Asian nations are on the right tract in achieving these goals. So far as Nepal is concerned, it is lagging behind on all social and economic fronts. Poverty alleviation is the single most priority, and all other programmes have been linked with poverty alleviation. Given the track record so far, Nepal is nowhere to achieving the MDG goals by 2015. There is, of course, a reason for this poor performance. The decade-long violent conflict seriously hindered the process of development, especially in the hinterland. ResponsibilityBut we cannot escape from our responsibility by blaming the conflict for the slow progress on the MDGs. Lack of commitment and strong will to pursue the development programmes and inability to set priorities in line with the commitment made in the UN Millennium Summit are a bigger stumbling block. The parties in power lack clarity in polices and programmes and a common approach, priority and vision for development. Similarly, a strong and credible mechanism for monitoring the progress and performances on the MDGs is also lacking. The regional meeting is, thus, expected to develop a clear roadmap for alleviating poverty, meeting the MDGs, creating an effective mechanism for monitoring and nudging the governments on their commitments.

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