Dhaka denied promised MDG aid

Bangladesh has not received the promised aid from donors, despite making progress in several fields, a recent report on achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has said.

Chief Economics Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 7 Sept 2014, 02:40 PM
Updated : 7 Sept 2014, 02:40 PM

The report – ‘Bangladesh’s progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 2013’ -- was launched in Dhaka on Sunday.

The report says: “Bangladesh needs 78.2 billion dollars to achieve all MDG targets. For attaining a higher GDP rate, three billion dollars are need as foreign aid.

“But over the past 13 years, Bangladesh has got, on an average, 1.68 billion dollars annually. This is almost half the three billion dollars needed for higher growth.

“This figure shows that development partners must be more forthcoming in helping Bangladesh achieve its MDG targets.
“Bangladesh’s own resource mobilisation is playing the main role in achieving those goals.”
Economic Relations Department Secretary Mejbah Uddin said the donors had promised 0.7 percent of their Gross National Income (GNI) at the time the MDG targets were finalised in 2000. But the data of the past few years reveal that they have contributed merely 0.2 percent.
Finance and Planning State minister MA Mannan said, over the past 13 years, the country had received, on an average, 1.7 billion dollars as foreign aid, a sum that he said was just not enough to achieve the MDGs.
“In spite of that, we have succeeded in halving the rate of poverty ahead of the given time frame,” he added.
The industrially developed nations had promised an assistance of 0.7 percent of their GNI.
The countries that have partially met the commitment are Japan, US, South Korea, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Holland.
Planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told the representatives of Bangladesh’s development partners present at the function that it would be impossible to meet the MDGs “without your help”.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith and the prime minister’s economic adviser, Masiur Rahman, also spoke.
Samsul Alam, a member of the General Economic Wing highlighted various aspects of the report.
In 2000, the heads of governments of 189 countries had met under UN initiative and fixed eight development goals to bring the poor of the underdeveloped countries into the mainstream of development by 2015 of the new millennium.
These targets came to be known as the Millennium Development Goals.
The MDGs are eradication of hunger and poverty, universal primary education, gender equality and women’s empowerment, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, elimination of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental stability, and the building up of worldwide participation in overall development.
The report says Bangladesh has made commendable progress in eradicating hunger and poverty. The GDP has grown at more than six percent over the past few years, helping to bring down the poverty level.
Despite its high population density, Bangladesh has succeeded in raising the average income and cutting the fertility rate while pursuing sustainable development and balanced growth.
Inclusive growth had brought down the level of poverty from 56.7 percent in 1991-92 to 31.5 percent in 2000, says the report.
“The rate of poverty reduction has been quickened in the present decade compared to the previous one.”
The report cites the Bangladesh Statistical Bureau’s income-expenditure survey, 2010, to say that poverty had declined at the rate of 1.78 percent in the 2000-2010 period.
The report notes that Bangladesh needed poverty reduction at 1.20 percent to achieve the MDG target.
“According to this calculation, the poverty rate stood at 26.5 percent at the end of 2013.
Bangladesh is on the way to achieving several of the MDGs, including reduction of hunger, within 2015, the report has said.
But it has admitted that it would not be possible, within the next 500 days (2015), to ensure employment for all able-bodied persons, 100 percent retention of primary students up to Class-5, and 50 percent participation of women in non-agricultural sectors.
Bangladesh had won the UN MDG award, Digital Health for Digital Development South-South award and FAO Diploma in 2010.
The UN, in its report ‘The Rise of the South’, has ranked Bangladesh 18th among countries that have performed well in working towards the MDGs.