WHO warns development goals off target
Progress toward ambitious targets that would improve health and living standards for hundreds of millions of people in the developing world will not be reached without urgent action, according to the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.
Eight Millennium Development Goals won the commitment of 189 countries at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, with demanding objectives set for 2015.
Half of the goals relate to health: to cut maternal mortality by three-quarters and child mortality by two-thirds; halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases; and improve access to safe drinking water and essential drugs.
Progress in tackling child mortality has so far been so slow, according to the World Bank. No sub-Saharan country in Africa is on target to reach that MDG. Only 17% of developing countries are likely to meet the maternal mortality goal.
Complacency is a real problem when approaching such a massive task, according to WHO director general Dr Lee Jong-wook. ‘When these kinds of targets are set, it seems too soon to take urgent action, and then, after a few short years, it seems too late.
‘Where the targets are the product of a large consensus there is also the hazard of everyone waiting for everyone else to risk making the first move.’
World Bank president Mr James Wolfensohn is calling for the commitment of increased resources to meeting the health-related MDGs, and using those resources more effectively in countries: ‘Donor harmonisation in resource mobilisation and use, strengthening human resources in the health sector and improving monitoring and evaluation . will be particularly important.’
A failure on these fronts will have a knock on effect, hampering progress on other MDGs, according to influential people in the development field, including representatives from concerned countries, development agencies and UN organisations meeting in Geneva this week.
Those working in development are particularly perplexed that many of the technologies needed to improve health are available and affordable. The difficult arises in building the infrastructure to deliver the services and products to the poorest people.
