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I was looking into the Lebanese case and I saw that 48% of expenditure goes into debt services. Of course it’s not all external debt servicing because most of the debt is domestic, but once you service the debt what is left goes into social services like health and education which are ingrained in the MDGs. Therefore, the more you cut out from the budget for debt servicing the less you have for social development. These countries need all the help they can get. I think the countries that have funding will be able to achieve the MDGs. It is those with no money to build educational systems or achieve gender equality or youth employment, such as Yemen, Mauritania, Somalis Djibouti, Comoros and so on, who will probably fail to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
TIG: The achievement of the MDGs necessitates the cooperation of both developed and developing countries, especially if Goal 8 is to be met. While developing counties are urged to open up, developed counties are required to provide aid and support. However, poverty in certain counties is the result of bad economic policies and tariff barriers on exports of poor countries. What do you think is the most viable solution to allow poor countries’ exports flow into the markets of industrialized ones while still protecting the latter’s local industry?
F. Mahdi: I agree. This is the core issue. Market access is one of the means of development of developing countries. Under various stipulations, LDCs which are landlocked are allowed to export unhindered to the market of the developed counties. On the other hand, we find that the sector where the developing countries can export best, which is agriculture, is exactly the sector which is highly subsidized in developed counties. Until recently, the total subsidies of the OECD countries have amounted to 300 billion and came down to 250 billion. With this kind of subsidy, how can developing countries compete? They cannot. Once I went to Darfur in the 1990s and found Nestle dried milk on the market, knowing that they have lots of cows. This indicates that it was subsidized and competing with a local product. Developing counties are not getting enough reciprocity on the reduction of subsidies on agricultural production of developed countries and this is an area that needs to be focused upon.
TIG: There has been a stress on global development assistance. Each developed country should establish a timetable to achieve a 0.7 % target of gross national income for official development assistance no later than 2015. What can you tell us about this? How serious and effective is it?
F. Mahdi: Currently, the ratio is about 1/3 of the estimated figure. The 0.7 % of domestic income is not achieved. Should those countries decide to raise their commitment to 0.7, of course, this means there will be a lot of financial flows to developing countries, and that would translate into higher rates of consumption on investment.
TIG: We know that the Millennium Declaration is not a legally binding document. Therefore, states have only a moral commitment to secure a safe and sustainable world. However, violations are constantly taking place and problems of desertification and climate change are on the rise. How can the international community, in your opinion, who is led by major powers who are main emitters of CO2, handle the issue of environmental sustainability?
F. Mahdi: This should be approached by adherence to the Kyoto Protocols and others that are viable to sustainability. But it’s not only the green house gases one should be worried about. It is here where the MDGs need to be more specific. For instance, in our region, desertification is a major problem. In Sudan for instance, the desert encroaches on arable land by about 10 km a year. In 10 years time, that’s 100 km. This means huge loss of productive capacity in arable land and agriculture. In other countries of the region, the water issue is a serious problem. Our region is the most water parched of the world and we’re consuming more than we have. Much of this consumption goes to agriculture, which is sometimes subsidized, in the case of the subsidized wheat in one of the ESCWA countries, whose production necessitated a lot of drilling of water wells and depleting lots of water. Sustainability requires more than looking at the green house gas effect. We have to look also at soil erosion, water and energy depletion. This is a region that lives on oil and gas and we now realize that this is also depleting. There are very few finds of major oil fields worldwide and this is an indication of depletion.
TIG: What are the most pressing concerns in the MENA region today? Are there any countries on their way to meeting the MDG target? Could you name a few?
F. Mahdi: I would not like to name countries because it could be sensitive, but LDCs and countries in conflict are the ones that will find it more difficult to achieve the MDGs. The GCC with its significant financial resources will not find it great difficulty in achieving most MDGs. This part of the world; ie: Syria, Jordan Lebanon, would probably achieve many of the Goals if the region remains stable. However, if we go into turbulence, I will not be so optimistic. As regards the North African region, well it’s difficult to say. I mean Tunisia was growing fast as an economy and opening to Europe.
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May Fawaz
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Comments
Poverty Reduction Patricia Sudi | Mar 7th, 2007
Its is apparent from this interview that tribalism does not only affect african countries.Thanks for that insight but what i would like to know is what is the way forward in fighting tribalism in countries affected by it?Its obvious that tribalism is directly linked to poverty.Is coming up with a common mode of communication and abolishing all other languages based on tribal lines a solution?
Updated? Ilan Tsekhman | Jun 19th, 2008
Thank you so much for this fascinating look at the MDGs. I'd be interested to hear what, if any, progress has been made towards accomplishing those goals since 2008.
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