Topic: Steps needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Country: United Kingdom
Delegate Name: Michelle Bowers
School: Vicksburg High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All United Kingdom position papers GLIMUN 2013 committees
Britain is very close to reaching the required MDGs if not, has met them all by the 2015 deadline. The UK has met the MDG 1 goal of reducing extreme poverty by half and was reached five years ahead of the deadline in 2015. The number of boys enrolling in primary school is now the same number of girls who are enrolling reaching both MDG2&3. There was progress recently reducing the number of children who die from preventable causes as well as their mothers meeting/making progress on the 4th and 5th MDG. Concerning MDG 6 the number of people dying around the world from diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis has dropped and there is wider treatment available for people with HIV. Britain has met the MDG of cutting the number of people without a safe and clean source of drinking water in half and also people who live in the slums with bad living conditions have improved for more than 200 million people which is double the target that has been set for 2020 meeting the 7th MDG.
Although the target has been met, there are still 780 million people with out a clean source of water. Challenging the UK to achieve all these MDGs and all thr progress made could be climate change, natural disasters, and the global financial crisis but the Britain goverment will still achieve these goals and stay committed to reaching them by 2015. If we turn our attention more towards the people who need it them most, it can get done.
In order to accomplish these MDGs, we passed laws that would help us reach some of these goals. For example, the International Develpment Act (June 2002) set legal basis for UK development assistance. This helped with reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development. This helps other nations because with the International Development Act, "aid cannot be 'tied' to the purchase of British goods or services." This allows partnering countries to spend development funds on the most competitive sevices and goods to make Britians aid more effective, giving them a better deal. Also the DfiD's Public Service Agreement are set to focus of meeting the MDGs and the targets of trade, debt relief, confllict prevention and post conflict reconstruction &sustainable development. In order for the UK to achieve poverty reduction they will • work with other development partners to ensure development assistance reflects country owned priorities; • support development of country systems to ensure ambitious poverty reduction targets can be realized; • use government systems to deliver development assistance; • harmonize donor support to reduce the high transaction costs of aid; and • assess progress on the basis of targets and indicators agreed at country level ~Consulation paper made (October 2004) on the issue of ‘Partnerships for poverty reduction: changing aid conditionality’ clarifying how the UK takes the position of how partnerships approach successful poverty reduction. Some points in the paper are • Aid terms and conditions must not ‘buy’ reform. The terms and conditions of aid will be strongly linked to benchmarks, which both partners agree are critical for tracking progress on poverty reduction.
• A major purpose of setting terms and conditions will be to demonstrate to UK citizens and parliament that overseas aid is well spent.
• In sensitive policy areas such as privatisation, the UK will only use conditions to back reforms where partner governments have been able to debate the full range of policy options, and have made their own decision informed by clear evidence of the benefits to poor people. The UK strongly supports the use of poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA) for such purposes. • The UK will continue to attach ‘process conditions’ to improve the quality and effectiveness of aid. For example, we will use conditions that strengthen participation by poor people in decision-making. • The UK will seek to make aid more predictable by being clear about the basis on which funds might be reduced or stopped.
• The UK will work with other donors to improve harmonisation and limit the burden of ‘conditionality’.
I believe the international community can meet all these 8 MDGs by 2015 if we use our methods to achieve our goals and to help other countries if necessary. Depending on how much your country needs it, priority should be give to certain goals or to the people/situations that need it the most.
