 |
   |
«
|
|
| Sachs: Lets not absolve donors of responsibilities | |
13 Sep 2005
On the eve of the World Summit, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute and an adviser to Kofi Annan, talks of Africa’s special challenges and outlines three priority areas for her development:1) Growing more food 2) Fighting disease 3) Infrastructure development "Food outputs could triple in much of Africa with the requisite resources," Professor Sachs says. "Most farmers don’t have access to soil nutrients, their yields are therefore dramatically reduced. We need to raise their productivity through a ‘21st Century African Green Revolution’, by supplying them with soil nutrients and related technologies." On the subject of disease, Sachs emphasises the need to tackle HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, and calls for a scaling up of investments and policies for attracting and retaining health workers in the health system. "We need practical investments and policies for a functioning health system," he said. Sachs also underscores Africa’s basic infrastructure needs and calls for an investment programme that would end her economic isolation by providing rural communities with access to the world economy. "Most African governments cannot afford a basic infrastructure investment programme," he points out. They need support. "Donors aren’t following through on their own commitments," he said. Finally, Sachs says that all the African governments he has spoken with want to embed the MDGs into their poverty reduction strategies, but they need financing partners to do this. "The limiting factor is money," he said, "that is the nature of poverty.The private sector can’t lead the way out of poverty on its own, public sector investment is needed as a compliment." He debunks the suggestion that Africa does not have the capacity to absorb large sums of capital. "It is a cliché. It is nonsense. Let’s not absolve donors of their responsibilities," he says. In conclusion Sachs spoke of the United States’ efforts to expunge the word ‘MDG’ from the World Summit communiqué. The amendments were rejected. "The whole world gave a concrete demonstration of how central the Goals have become in the international effort to combat poverty." END bending the arc |
|
|
|