The Global South disagree with UN Millenium Development Goals

With the UN Millenium Development Goals Summit convening in less than a month in New York, anti-poverty advocates say that the Goals still do not adquately address the needs of the world's poor. The World Development Movement (WDM) released a report yesterday showing the demands of developing countries are either being ignored or significantly diminished in the draft declaration for the Summit.

"The policies being pursued by rich countries are failing to tackle poverty, especially in Africa," said Peter Hardstaff, WDM's Head of Policy. "In fact in many cases they are contributing to it."

The G77 group of developing countries along with China submitted proposed changes to an early draft declaration for the UN Millennium Development Goals summit in June 2005. WDM has compared the G77's proposals on key development issues of debt, trade and aid, with the draft declaration released on 5 August.

The G77 group (so-named because of its original membership) consists of 132 developing country members of the UN. With China, which usually works with the G77 in the UN, their combined population is 4.75 billion - 76 per cent of the world's population.

According to WDM, the draft declaration represents "business as usual," with no change on issues of free trade, unfair economic policy relief foisted upon poor countries in return for aid, loans and debt relief. Hardstaff also points out that the draft declaration makes no reference to the UN's World Summit on Sustainable Development's agreement to develop rules for corporate accountability.

"This plan has some soft edges, but at its heart lies the cold hard reality that benefiting multinational companies is seen by rich countries as being more important than providing a route out of poverty for the poorest people in the world, said Hardstaff."