President Obama and the MDGs

By Amanda Jackson, Micah Challenge International

President Obama highlighted global poverty as a major issue when he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 23. He spoke of four areas of US foreign policy - the first was the limitation of nuclear weapons, the second was the pursuit of peace especially in the Middle East, the third was preservation of the planet and the fourth he described thus: the world must have “a global economy that advances opportunity for all people.” He noted the importance of ensuring that while the world is still recovering from economic crisis, it must “put an end to the greed and the excess and the abuse that led us into this disaster.”

Most importantly, Obama said, “far too many people in far too many places live through the daily crises that challenge our humanity.” He pledged that the US would “support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year's summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.”

As a network of Christians in over 40 nations around the globe Micah Challenge is working to increase awareness of poverty issues and the Millennium Development Goals as we believe the Goals represent a unique opportunity to halve absolute poverty and put in place partnerships for development that will ensure just outcomes for rich and poor nations alike. We urge national governments to spare no effort to achieve the Goals and fully support the United States in its fresh resolve to eradicate extreme poverty.

The action of the United States is vital. Already nine years have passed since the Millennium Development Goals were agreed but America’s level of aid to developing countries remains the lowest among OECD donor nations. The UN recommends that aid for the MDGs should be 0.7% of GNI for all donor nations. The United States gave $26 billion in 2008 (which is by far the largest amount) but as a % of GNI it is the lowest of all donor nations at around 0.19% GNI.

Quality of aid is also an issue: 70 percent of US aid is spent on US goods and services. And more than half is spent in middle income countries in the Middle East.

Since the eight Goals were agreed there has been encouraging progress in some areas and we celebrate that the mortality rate for under-5s has fallen below nine million per annum. Yet the statistics also show that we have much to strive for: maternal mortality remains shockingly high almost everywhere in poor nations and progress on sanitation, hunger and health delivery is patchy.

The threat of changing climate patterns coupled with the economic crisis means that more people at the bottom of the economic ladder will slip into absolute poverty. Without the full support of the world's largest economy, the United States, the success of the Goals is threatened. That is why it is so heartening to see that President Obama has acknowledged that the greed and excess that led to the current economic crisis should not be repeated and the poor should not be ignored in the rush to restore economic growth.

We pray that you will pass on our support for the President's announcement and we urge that the plans devised by the United States address not only the quantity and quality of aid, but also the structural issues that deny justice to poor nations - fair trade rules, an end to crippling debt burdens for poor nations and attention to good governance.

Micah Challenge and millions of citizens around the world will pay watchful attention to the plans and actions of the United States on global poverty. We are ready to encourage, pray and contribute to the achievement of the noble goal to halve absolute poverty by 2015.