What are the Millennium Development Goals
(MDG)?
These commit 189 countries to reach eight development goals by
2015. Heads of state made this commitment, under the auspices of
the United Nations, in September 2000.
Why are these goals relevant to trade
development?
First, what is important is that governments committed
themselves at the highest level. The voting public in their
countries can hold them accountable.
Second, achieving these goals is either a precondition for trade
or directly affects trade development. Reducing poverty (goal 1)
concerns business, because development won't come about through
handouts. Entrepreneurship will make the difference, through jobs
and income. Tackling primary education, gender equality,
environmental sustainability and health issues (goals 2 to 7)
creates the conditions for private sector development and
trade.
Commitment to an open trading system (part of goal 8) is most
directly relevant. Two things to focus on are the percentage of aid
given for trade capacity building (progress indicator 41) and
untying aid (indicator 35).
Aid for trade can help poor producers meet market standards, for
example, while untying aid can double its impact, by allowing
developing country suppliers to bid. We also need to bind market
access initiatives like the EBA (Everything but Arms) or AGOA
(African Growth and Opportunity Act), which have short horizons, in
WTO, because investors need longer guarantees before they commit.
Harmonization is also important - market access agreements are a
spaghetti bowl of rules.
Why should business get involved to achieve trade
development goals?
One of the reasons that developing countries got a bad deal in
the Uruguay Round was because there was not enough private sector
presence in the delegations. Even now, I am amazed at how little
the private sector is getting involved in business advocacy.
It's not for nothing that governments are advised by business in
OECD countries. If the system is skewed in their favour, in part
it's because developing countries have not organized themselves
sufficiently, and they have not invested enough. Businesses in
developing countries should give governments a wake-up call on the
importance of investing time and money to boost exports.
What are some areas developing countries should
focus on?
To cite a few areas: developing countries have not participated
enough in meetings where standards are set. Many didn't have an
ambassadorial presence at the WTO, while they were present in
countries where it made less of a difference. On TRIPS
(trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights), businesses
should call for a provision to protect or remunerate traditional
knowledge. In the recent Trade
Forum magazine issue on trade law, you cited
the case of Antonio Meucci, a poor immigrant to the US, who has
just been recognized as the real inventor of the telephone - not
Alexander Graham Bell, who acquired the patent and became rich from
it. Meucci's case is being repeated in developing countries
today.
What can business groups do?
In developing countries, business groups should work more
closely with their own governments, and hold them accountable. They
should also use their channels to contact their peers in rich
countries to advocate with their governments for an open trading
system. Governments don't readily listen to suggestions from a
foreign source - they act because their own electorate wants them
to.
In developed countries, any major business that exports to
developing countries has a stake in their growth. Business groups
in developing countries should also speak out more. I was
pleasantly surprised when CEOs of big British transnational
corporations teamed up with Oxfam to let their voices be heard on
the need for the Doha Development Agenda to produce market
opportunities and put an end to agricultural subsidies. But alas,
it's a unique example of political advocacy.
Eveline Herfkens is the UN Secretary-General's Executive
Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals Campaign. Ms
Herfkens formerly served as a Member of Parliament of the
Netherlands, Ambassador to the United Nations and WTO, and Minister
of Development Cooperation.
UN Millennium Development
Goals1. Eradicate extreme poverty and
hunger- Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a
dollar a day
- Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger
2. Achieve universal primary
education
- Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of
primary schooling
3. Promote gender equality and empower
women
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education
preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
4. Reduce child mortality
- Reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under
five
5. Improve maternal health
- Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases
- Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
- Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other
major diseases
7. Ensure environmental
sustainability
- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into
country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental
resources
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable
access to safe drinking water
- Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100
million slum dwellers, by 2020
8. Develop a global partnership for
development
- Develop further an open trading and financial system that is
rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a
commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction -
nationally and internationally
- Address the least developed countries' special needs. This
includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced
debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of
official bilateral debt; and more generous official development
assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction
- Address the special needs of landlocked and small island
developing states
- Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems
through national and international measures to make debt
sustainable in the long term
- In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent
and productive work for youth
- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access
to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
- In cooperation with the private sector, make available the
benefits of new technologies - especially information and
communications technologies
For more information, see http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
Natalie Domeisen (domeisen@intracen.org), ITC
Senior Public Information Officer, interviewed Ms. Herfkens for
Trade Forum.