Woe to the MDGs

MDGs is an acronym for millennium development goals, which in turn as elucidated by Wikipedia, are the eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the UN in 2000, following the adoption of the UN Millennium Declaration. Pakistan was one of the 189 countries that averred to achieve the eight goals by 2015. These comprised eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, reduction in child morality, improving maternal health, combating diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and participating in a global partnership for development.
So, how did Pakistan fare? Ferreting out loud political claims, a weak performance at best and, at worst, a rancorous big fat nothing. Confessing last week’s efforts of a newspaper in analysing in detail the progress on MDGs in Pakistan is greatly appreciated; the report was an eye opener. On the other hand, the manner in which MDGs were ostracised altogether from a maelstrom of key performance indicators (KPIs) of democratic governments, no less, by the electronic media over the last many years, is obfuscating. Definitely power generation and infrastructure development were imperatives but so were MDGs. The complete apathy of successive governments in pursuing MDGs and the simultaneous blindness of the media in reporting thereon is quintessential of the prevalent decrepitude.
From a patriot’s point of view, the reasons for Pakistan being behind all others in the region except Afghanistan in meeting MDGs, according to the country director of the UNDP, were quite irksome and baffling. Quote “lack of capacity to plan, implement and deliver results”. This one liner, in essence, denuded tall claims over the 15-year period of successive governments, dictatorship and democracies included, of credibility. Seriously, the country lacks the capacity even to plan.
Irksome and baffling aside, the comment is extremely worrisome. Those deemed to be lacking the capacity to plan, implement and deliver on MDGS are also responsible for making perilous decisions on foreign policy, fiscal and monetary policy, and a lot more. To allay any inter-provincial rivalry, according to this particular report on MDGs, failures and excuses galore were a commonality amongst all provinces with some beginning well but only half done, while others “the back of beyond”.
Looking back, the disquisition on poverty alleviation by various political parties, the governments, the donors and the non-governmental organisations, was all but a canard. The poor are the constituency politicians play to, so how did the system fail, repeatedly? Recall that all the MDGs are directly or indirectly linked to the poor. Even environmental sustainability focuses upon clean drinking water, sanitation and slum dwellers.
And, yes, the donors and NGOs are most likely equally responsible, if for nothing else than not creating awareness amongst the citizenry about these MDGs. An informed civic society might have applied the necessary pressure on the media and the leadership to do more. This observation should not be classified as the platitude of a neophyte and ignored. Substantial funds have been collected in the name of charity and oodles more have been received in aid over this period of 15 years and failure to tick off even a single MDG is awfully disheartening. Why this deplorable state of affairs? Where are all the savants of development? To venture a guess, corruption may have been one of the factors.
Over the years, knowledge gained from publications of those blessed with wisdom has been a catalyst in modifying opinion on what should be the key priority for any government of Pakistan. Undeniably, education topped the list before and now. However, over time, eradicating big-ticket corruption has inch by inch come to share the top slot. Today, the irrevocable view favours education, eradication of corruption and alleviating poverty.
This conclusion is derived from a simple dialectic. Education is indispensable for economic growth. The abject poor, living under $ 1.25 per day, cannot be convinced that education is more important for their children compared with earning a few paisas more. And corruption will circumvent all efforts and programmes to help pull them out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
Notwithstanding, what came as a big surprise was that even at the derisory level of $ 1.25 per day, according to the UNDP, multi-dimensional poverty headcount for Pakistan was 45.6 percent. One can only imagine how many Pakistanis survive miserably under $ 2.50 per day and what exactly we as a nation have accomplished in so many years. This particular epiphany simultaneously exposes the fallacy innate in an ever increasing national per capita, which is slightly over $ 1,500; if more than 60 percent survive on less than $ 1,000, the former is hardly a national statistic.
The fact that nearly 15 percent Pakistanis live with hunger should be a reason for insomnia for those at the helm of affairs at the very top. And all this time when Pakistanis are sleeping hungry, the media has time to focus on the redoubtable efforts of the Punjab Food Authority in exposing the atrocities of restaurants catering to the affluent. The objective was not to belittle the efforts of the food inspectors, who are doing an awesome job; the point was that focusing on the hungry should always take precedence as breaking news before anything else. The poor protesting against load shedding deserve the camera’s eye but even in this case not before the hungry.
The objective today was not to build a case for fighting poverty, hunger, infant mortality and maternal health, gender equality or clean drinking water, that has already been signed, sealed and delivered. This effort was to support the great work by those showcasing the dismal performance of the nation in achieving these crucial MDGs. And, yes dear reader, a valid question can be why? Year 2015 has almost slipped away and it is not that anything can be done about the MDGs now.
The eight MDGs have now been replaced by 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a target date of 2030 and all the eight are included in the 17. Unless the nation gears up and unites in achieving these goals, history suggests that the SDGs will also go for a six.

The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. He can be reached at syed.bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail.com and on twitter @leaccountant