UNITED NATIONS – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has urged governments and international institutions to continue to strengthen global partnership for development ”so that we can usher in a more sustainable future”.
Ban made the call at the launch of a report, “The State of the Global Partnership for Development”, in New York on Thursday.
He urged leaders and citizens to “boldly step forward” to eradicate poverty, raise living standards and sustain the environment.
Statistics in the report show that many targets such as reducing poverty, increasing access to improved drinking water sources, improving the lives of slum dwellers and achieving gender parity in primary schools have been met.
The report, produced by the MDG Gap Force Task Force and co-chaired by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), tracks delivery on commitments listed under MDG 8.
That target focuses on the global partnership for development, including aid, trade, debt relief, access to essential medicines and access to technologies.
According to the report, in spite of a rebound in official development assistance (ODA), the gap between the Goal 8 targets and policy delivery remains wide.
The commitment of 0.7 per cent of donor country gross national income (GNI) is estimated at 315 billion U.S. dollars , but in 2013 an estimated 135 billion dollars was delivered, leaving a 180 billion dollars gap.
In market access, the authors reported that the Group of 20 (G20) major economies reaffirmed to refrain from protectionist measures, but created new trade restrictions in 2013 which “could undermine confidence” in their commitment to an open and liberal trading system.
“As the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDG approaches, the Task Force calls for a final push towards improving marked access for developing countries, and continuing efforts to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies, trade-distorting domestic support and protectionist policies.” [eap_ad_1] The authors noted that technological access for developing countries “is growing at a fast pace’’, especially among mobile phone usage, whose subscribers in the developing world will reach 78 per cent by the end of the year.
“While Internet use is spreading at a faster rate in developing countries than developed nations, more than four billion people are still unable to go online.’’
It added that while mobile-broadband penetration in 2014 was expected to reach 84 per cent in developed countries, it barely exceeded 21 per cent in the developing world.
The report also highlights the prices of essential medicines, which are three times more expensive in the public sector than international reference prices and five times higher in developing countries’ private sector.(NAN)
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