Equality, decent jobs in focus

The post-MDG framework should target creating decent jobs and reducing inequality along with making efforts to cut poverty, provide quality education and ensure human rights as the backbone of the new universal agenda, analysts said yesterday.They also called for ensuring more voice for the least developed countries in setting the next development goals.“The post-2015 agenda will be a universal one in nature. It is also to be seen how a universal framework will accommodate the specific concerns and interests of the countries,” said Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.He spoke at a dialogue — delivery of the MDGs in LDCs and reflections on post-2015 issues — at Brac Centre Inn in Dhaka.The CPD and Friedrich-Ebert-  Stiftung (FES), a foundation of Social Democratic Party of Germany, co-organised the dialogue.As the terminal year of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) draws near, the state of actual delivery regarding these targets has become a matter of renewed and intense debate, Debapriya said.“An explicit understanding seems to have emerged that the MDGs are going to continue beyond 2015 in one form or other. The particular aspect has created enhanced demand on the lessons to be learnt for the future from the MDG implementation experience.”He said the post-2015 international development framework should put due emphasis on goals and targets on employment and income and quality of outcome for helping the LDCs achieve better results.Bhattacharya said like the MDGs, whose deadline ends in 2015, the post-2015 agenda would be non-binding and voluntary targets.He said private involvement in achieving the post-2015 agenda would be critical. “We will also have to better use the existing resources and mobilise more domestic resources.”The economist also called for reforming global rules that are holding back fuller market access for the LDCs.CPD Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan said the LDCs have achieved encouraging results in the MDGs, banking on the private sector efforts, remittance flows and domestic resources mobilisation, as international aid was not available as committed.So, when it comes to setting the post-2015 agenda, the developed world will have to give explanation for its failure to honour its aid commitments to the developing countries, he said.The economist said the post-2015 agenda should set measurable targets that would ensure a transformed and better world in 2030 when the deprived and disadvantaged would live in a different condition.
“2030 can’t look like as the improved version of the current world,” he said, calling for a closer look at whether the MDGs have changed the lives of the people targeted.Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, a former caretaker government adviser, said Bangladesh should consolidate its gains on the MDGs so the achievement does not slip.He also said Bangladesh spent less on healthcare and education but achieved higher results in the two areas due to some homemade solutions, which are culturally adaptable and low-cost. “This is a remarkable achievement in Bangladesh.”“The next phase will be costlier if Bangladesh wants to reduce child mortality by making hospital-based healthcare facilities affordable, and ensure quality education in the secondary level,” said Mahmud, also a member of UN Committee for Development Policy.
Shahidul Haque, foreign affairs secretary, said Bangladesh will get opportunities to reflect some of its concerns about the post-2015 agenda during the upcoming United Nations General Assembly as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been invited to speak in at least three high-level discussions.“So, Bangladesh will have a say how the creation of the agenda will look like,” he said.Neal Walker, UN resident coordinator, termed Bangladesh’s achievement in the MDGs “clearly awesome”.“As a result, Bangladesh has a legitimate voice and position in the global debate on the next paradigm,” he said.But the hardest job is yet to come, Walker said.“Bangladesh will have to look at whether the current education system is providing quality education to students. I do not think the quality is there.”Walker said the next phase should not leave the agenda only at the hands of governments and civil society organisations. Private sector must be involved, he added.Rasheda K Chowdhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education, said the ever-increasing military expenditure by all the countries following the 9/11 attack on the US dealt a blow to the MDGs, as less money was available for achieving the development results.Nurunnabi Khan of the International Labour Organisation in Dhaka said the post-2015 agenda must provide special focus on job creation.Badiul Alam Majumdar, country director of the Hunger Project, said many MDGs do not require much money to achieve higher results. They, however, require proper awareness raising initiatives.M Shamsul Alam, a member of the Planning Commission, said the developed world should keep their aid commitments to help the LDCs achieve their development results.Henrik Maihack, country representative of the FES, said the issue of decent jobs has to be included in the next phase, as it is missing in the current one.CPD Executive Director Prof Mustafizur Rahman called for inclusion of the LDCs while devising the next development targets, as their voices were not taken into account when the current targets were finalised.“The LDCs should participate in the global debate on equal footing with developed countries,” he said.