Introduction

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With only five years to go until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on Heads of State from around the world to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010. Officially entitled “High-Level Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly”, the event aims to accelerate progress towards achieving the MDGs.

This is a crucial summit for all organisations that work in the area of human development and human rights. Coming amid mixed progress and new crises that threaten the global effort to halve extreme poverty among others, it should provide the international community with an important opportunity to redouble global efforts to meet the goals. The devastation and human suffering caused by the recent rains and floods in Pakistan and China are horrific examples of how global efforts to reduce poverty and hunger can be undermined.

As well as natural disasters, the world has also been rocked by disasters of a man-made nature. The global economic crisis has revealed the level of human folly, irresponsibility and greed that drove the economic boom forward. Countries all over the world are now suffering the consequences as unemployment soars and severe austerity measures are being put in place, slashing public sector spending and cutting back on vital public services, such as education, health, social protection and rural development. These services are crucial for the poor, the marginalised and those in rural and remote areas – the communities and areas where child labour thrives and the downward cycle of poverty continues to affect generation after generation.

In direct contrast to the public sector cuts, governments of developed nations have invested billions of dollars in trying to shore up the very financial services sector which must shoulder the bulk of the responsibility for the global economic crisis in the first place. Irresponsible, sometimes unethical, business and lending practices and activities contributed to the creation of an unsustainable economic boom, underpinned by property market bubbles that nobody ever thought would burst. In addition, economic stimulus packages, again in the billions of dollars, were put together to protect large industrial players and avoid their demise in an attempt to avoid further economic challenges.

These multi-billion dollar bail-outs have happened at the same time as the financial commitments made by these same governments to achieving the MDGs, particularly on education and poverty, have not been met and, as the UN monitoring reports and the Global Monitoring Report on Education For All have shown, the world is not on target to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

“Unlimited funds appear to be available to support banks and big business during this devastating economic crisis,” said Global March Chair Kailash Satyarthi. “But, it is a totally different story when it comes to protecting vital public services and supporting human development around the world. Public services, especially education and health, and international development aid are easy targets for austerity measures, but the international community runs the risk of taking a major step backwards and undermining a lot of the progress that has been made towards the MDGs. The cost of trying to catch up what is being lost could be far greater in the future and it is crucial that this short-term vision is seen for what it is very soon and that children, education, health and development are prioritised.”
 
He continued: “We call on the UN, international financial institutions, governments and donor agencies to pay close attention to the important statements from key organisations in the context of the MDG Summit, including the Global Campaign for Education, the International Trade Union Confederation and the Global Unions, the Global Campaign Against Poverty, the climate change and environmental lobbies, and others.”

“We are only five short years away from 2015 and we know we are off track on achieving the MDGs. In addition, if we fail to achieve them, then inevitably we will fail to achieve the goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016. Roadmap 2016 sets out an agenda to accelerate action towards 2016 and we call on the international community to heed the words of the UN Secretary-General ‘Our world possesses the knowledge and the resources to achieve the MDGs’. Now we need the translation of political commitment into tangible resources and concrete action to achieve these goals.”