On 5 April this year, the countdown began for the final 1,000 days of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the most ambitious group of targets ever set to reduce global poverty. Launched in September 2000, the MDGs encompass a range of aims including halving global poverty, reducing child mortality by two-thirds, combating HIV/AIDS and malaria, and achieving universal primary education. Now, with the 2015 deadline fast approaching, the global community must focus on measuring the progress to date and highlighting those areas that are most off track.
ONE's 2013 DATA Report, released today, tracks the recent progress of all developing countries, and particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, against the eight core MDG targets using the 'MDG Progress Index'. The report also examines to what extent sub-Saharan African governments as well as donors are investing in three crucial poverty-reducing sectors - health, education and agriculture - and compares this level of financing with progress on the related MDG targets.
Trailblazers and laggards
Since 2006, the DATA Report has tried to hold world leaders accountable to promises they have made to the world's poorest people, such as at the Gleneagles G8 Summit in 2005, and has tracked development spending by donor countries. In this year's report - 'Financing the Fight for Africa's Transformation' - ONE focuses on some remarkable advances in sub-Saharan Africa and shows that many countries are on track to meet key MDG targets by 2015.
Some countries - "MDG trailblazers" - have made truly exceptional progress, ten of which are in sub-Sahara Africa, including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi and Burkina Faso. Overall, dozens of countries have improved their performance over the last three years, since the first MDG Progress Index was published.
The report also reveals that sub-Saharan African resource flows have quadrupled since 2000, including domestic government expenditures, which account for almost 80% of all available finance across the region. Furthermore, countries making a concerted effort to allocate more of their budgets towards health, agriculture and education are, on average, progressing faster on the MDGs. For example, in the last decade, Burkina Faso channelled 52% of its national budget on these three sectors combined and is currently on track to achieve four of eight MDG targets, and is partially on track for another two.
But unfortunately the news is not all good. Some countries are falling behind on the MDG targets and slowing down regional progress. Nine of the fourteen "laggard" countries worldwide are in sub-Saharan Africa, and countries such as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo have either stalled or regressed in the past three years.
Frustratingly, most African governments and donors are also falling short of meeting their spending commitments. Donor aid flows have declined for the last two years and most major donors are still off-track to deliver pledged aid levels of 0.7% of gross national income by 2015.
African governments meanwhile are falling short of their own spending targets in health, agriculture and education. For example, if the Nigerian government met its health-spending target - 15% of its budget - over the next three years, the additional resources could amount to $22.5 billion. This would be enough to pay for vaccinations for every child, anti-malarial bednets for every citizen, and antiretroviral treatment for every HIV-positive person in the country.
1,000 days to go
The report recommends that both donor and African governments use the remaining two-and-a-half years to urgently meet their spending commitments, and to prioritise funding to mechanisms that best serve the MDGs, such as the Global Fund and the African Development Fund (both of which have significant replenishments later this year). Importantly, resource flows must also be effective, transparent and accountable, which is why ONE is pushing hard for budget transparency by African governments and aid transparency by donors.
It is critical not to lose sight of the need to achieve the MDGs by 2015, and to bear in mind that the structures for achieving the goals already exist. Success however, cannot be achieved unless governments, donors and other partners firmly stick to their commitments and enable progress to be accelerated.
There are more reasons than ever to be optimistic about African development. It is useful to remember that despite a sluggish global economy, African countries have generally seen significant economic growth, with many growing faster than 5% annually over the last few years. African countries regularly appear on lists of the fastest-growing economies. ONE is neither "Afro-euphoric" nor "Afro-pessimistic", and the DATA Report tries to deal singularly in facts - it sets out to remind the world just how much is at stake in the final 1,000 days of the Millennium Development Goals, and what could be achieved if leaders around the world fulfilled their commitments.
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Click here to see the ONE 2013 DATA Report, including a shareable infographic. For further reading around the subject see: Post-MDGs: "Put Children at the Centre of Development"Experts Weekly: What Should be in the Post-2015 Development Goals?Post-MDGs: It's Time to Listen to the People
Francesca Washtell is Campaigns Intern at ONE.org. She is president of the Development Society, and editor of the London Globalist, a student international affairs magazine.
