South Asia may fall short on MDGs: WB

ISLAMABAD—A new World Bank-IMF report warns that most countries in South Asia will fall short on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight globally agreed development goals with a due date of 2015. Though much of the world, including South Asia, is set to cut extreme poverty in half by then, prospects are gravest for the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, with serious shortfalls also likely in primary school completion, nutrition, and sanitation goals, said the report.
“In this Year of Action on the MDGs, I am particularly concerned about the risks of failing to meet the goal of reducing hunger and malnutrition, the `forgotten MDG’,” said Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank. “As the report shows, reducing malnutrition has a `multiplier’ effect, contributing to success in other MDGs including maternal health, infant mortality, and education,” Robert added.
The Global Monitoring Report: MDGs and the Environment-Agenda for Inclusive and Sustainable Development stresses the link between environment and development and calls for urgent action on climate change. The report warns that developing countries stand to suffer the most from climate change and the degradation of natural resources, it added.
Arguably, few regions in the world are more at risk from climate change in terms of adverse impact on the poor than South Asia and the region faces a large potential health risk from climate change through increased malnutrition, diarrhea, and malaria. To build on hard-won gains, developing countries need support to address the links between growth, development and environmental sustainability.
“Developing countries need more foreign aid and domestic resources to reach the MDGs. High economic growth and a stable macroeconomic environment remain essential for reducing poverty and increasing investment in health and education.” said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF Managing Director. Progress toward the MDGs differs dramatically across countries, regions, and income groups, the report says. While most of the poverty reduction between 1990 and 2004 took place in East Asia and Pacific, South Asia would contribute the most to global poverty reduction in the next decade.
However, South Asia is likely to fall seriously short in some areas, including primary education, gender parity in tertiary education, and child mortality goals. South Asia will likely not reach the goal of halving malnutrition rates. In fact, South Asia has the world’s highest incidence of child malnutrition and the child malnutrition rate in India is double the African average.
“Given South Asia’s recent, rapid economic growth, the lack of progress in reducing child malnutrition is all the more troubling,” said Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist of the Bank’s South Asia Region. “It points to the need for a concerted effort to attack the problem at its roots-including better water, sanitation, pre-natal care for pregnant women, and nutrition and healthcare for newborns.”
With stronger efforts by the countries themselves and their development partners, most MDGs remain achievable for most countries, the report says. With this in mind, the report lays out an integrated six-point agenda, with strong, inclusive growth at the top. The agenda also calls for more effective aid; a successful outcome to the Doha round of trade talks; more emphasis on strengthening programs in health, education and nutrition; and financing and technology transfers to support climate change mitigation and adaptation.
“This year’s high level meetings in connection with the MDG halfway point provide an opportunity to agree on priorities for action and milestones for monitoring progress,” said Zia Qureshi, lead author of the report. —APP