Minister of International Development Hilde F. Johnson

Reaching the Millennium Development Goals – together

Broadcasters’ Conference,
Cologne, 19 March 2005

As delivered

A few years ago, the World Bank published Voices of the Poor – a study of 60 000 people in 60 countries. They were asked what they most wished for. You might expect that the answer would be money – but no. What they most wanted was a voice – a voice to convey their thoughts and concerns to the people in power. They wanted to express themselves, they wanted to draw attention to the inequalities that surrounded them, they wanted to elect their own representatives and gain access to the decision-making process.

The press is one of their best hopes for fulfilling this wish.

The role and responsibility of the press

You, the press, can be a voice for the poor, an ally in the fight against inequality and injustice.

The press is a powerful force in the fight against poverty. In fact, a free press may be the most powerful force in a society.

We know that media attention is essential to keep the world focused on the Millennium Development Goals. Politicians may give stirring speeches, governments may publish brilliant reports, researchers may offer insightful analyses on the whys and hows of poverty reduction. But if newspapers, TV and radio do not report on MDG-related issues regularly, in ways that speak to the general public, the MDGs will not be met. They will become just another set of abbreviations in the graveyard of well-intentioned development initiatives. They will be reduced to a special-interest issue, and the public support needed to fulfil our promises to the developing world will be lost.

I believe the press has a responsibility to report on issues related to the MDGs. And I believe you agree with me.

In most countries, the press is guided by ethical rules – some legislated, some established by your own organisations. Many of these ethical guidelines list the values the media are to promote, such as respect for human rights, economic, social and humanitarian justice, and lasting and sustainable peace.

In Norway, journalists have – or are supposed to have – memorised the code of ethics for the media. The first paragraph of this document states that “a free and independent press is one of the most important institutions in a democratic society”. And further: “The press has a particular responsibility to ensure that different views can be expressed”.

I believe this means that the press has a particular responsibility to make sure that the voices of the weak, the poor and the needy are included. We know the press can do a superb job in focusing the world’s attention on an earthquake, a war or a tsunami. We know that as long as there are journalists and TV cameras around, the world is listening.

But we also know that the attention of the public can evaporate overnight, when the CNNs and BBCs of this world move on to new disasters.

The situation

The challenge for you, me and everybody else who cares about the poor, is to keep the world’s attention focused on why the MDGs are so unique, why they are so necessary, and how we are to go about reaching them. We cannot allow ourselves to get tired of other people’s despair, to turn to what’s closer to home or less depressing or more entertaining. Because when we take a closer look at the world population as a whole, what we see is this:

• 1.2 billion people are living on less than a dollar a day.
• The same number of people lack access to safe drinking water. Twice as many have no access to adequate sanitation.
• Poverty, hunger and disease kill a child every three seconds.
• At the current rate of progress, it will take 130 years to eradicate hunger in the world.

Indeed, this is the silent tsunami. But: We want a world without these figures, a world that is fair, with dignity for all. We want justice, for everybody.

The Millennium Development Goals

It can be done – if we uphold our joint commitment to the UN Millennium Development Goals. These are the promises we have made:

The main responsibility to act on them will always lie with the national governments, the developing countries.

But they cannot act alone. The rich countries have to deliver. In Monterrey in 2002 we all agreed on a global partnership, a global bargain, on Millennium Goal 8. We, the rich countries of the world, committed ourselves to changing our ways and our policies, to developing a more open trade and investment system. We committed ourselves to dealing comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems, and to providing access to affordable essential drugs. We committed ourselves to increasing and improving development assistance. We committed ourselves to more coherent policies. And the poor countries committed themselves to improving their performance.

We have made a bargain. We both have to deliver. We both have to act. The bargain is a compact to act.

World poverty is now at the top of the agenda wherever and whenever decision-makers meet. This is new. For the first time, commitments from a series of UN conferences have become the basis for discussions and decisions among the “high and mighty” of the world. The goals are at the core of the work of the World Bank. The IMF, the WTO and other economic powerhouses have signed on.

They are cited frequently by heads of state, not least the G-8 leaders, 70 per cent of the G-8-agenda. For the first time, the interests of the poor and underprivileged have risen to the top of the international agenda.

Pledges to fight poverty are frequently being made at high-level meetings everywhere. These are promises to combat poverty through co-operation and financial assistance, and through policies that are more coherent and consistent with the fight against poverty. They are promises of concrete actions, and concrete results. This is reason for optimism.

But declarations are not the same as deeds. It is a long way from words to action.

Some of you may question the motives behind this commitment. You may say that this is not about pure idealism. This is about strategic self-interest. This may be true in some cases. But for those of us who are more concerned about achieving results, this is secondary. Action is what counts. We must take advantage of this situation, and hold the world’s leaders to their promises. You, ladies and gentlemen of the press, are a vital force in keeping up the pressure on governments, and acting as a watchdog – exposing discrepancies between what is promised and what is done.

Some of you may have doubts about the MDGs. Are they for real? Are they achievable? You have seen goals and development strategies come and go, you have watched as they are discussed and discarded, largely unnoticed by the poor. What, you might ask, is different this time?

Let me point out two things.

The unprecedented political support is one. There is consensus. Not on everything, not on every step, but on some important core issues. This has not happened before. Rather than expending energy on fruitless development debates, we can now focus on accountability, on peer pressure, on delivery and on action.

And this is my second point: that the goals have a timetable, they are monitored. A global monitoring system makes it possible for us to hold governments accountable. We know where we are making progress and where we are falling behind. We know who is delivering and who is not. And they are reported. Regularly.

This is good stuff for the media. We can hold governments to their promises – with your help. The public needs to know what’s being done, and what’s not being done. You are the people to tell them.

Millennium Development Goals - status

Let me say a few words on the current status of the MDGs. Will we reach our goals? Are we on track?

Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news is that the first goal – halving extreme poverty and hunger – is likely to be met, thanks to significant growth in key Asian countries.

The bad news is that there are dramatic regional and national differences. While China, India and Thailand are making terrific progress, sub-Saharan Africa and the Least Developed Countries are lagging behind. Almost half the population in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty.

In 1990, there were almost five times as many people living in extreme poverty in Asia than in Africa. Unless there is a change for the better, 2015 will see a dramatic shift. For the first time in history, there will be more people living in extreme poverty – in absolute numbers – in Africa than in Asia.

We cannot afford to leave any region, any country, behind.

Asia shows that the Millennium Goals can be reached. But we must make sure that sub-Saharan Africa and the Least Developed Countries follow suit.

How can we do this?

We need a global reform agenda. And this reform agenda needs to be implemented.

The Norwegian government recently presented a white paper setting out this reform agenda.

We have based this agenda on human rights – all human rights: social, economic, cultural, civil and political.

These are the principles for our efforts – a rights-based approach. Combating poverty is in itself a means of promoting human rights, of ensuring the social and economic rights of the poor. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals will help us to realise these rights.

In order to safeguard the rights of every person and reach the goals worldwide, we need global reform in four key areas:

Global reform agenda

1. International framework conditions

No country develops in isolation. Development calls for international co-operation, trade and access to markets. If we in the developed world do not allow easier access to markets and reduce the debt burden of the poorest countries, we will fail.

So our first area of reform is international framework conditions – debt cancellation, and trade and investment regimes. This would mean more for many of the developing countries than development aid. There are many statistics that illustrate this and prove the injustice of the current system. We must ensure consistency and coherence between the goals we have set and the framework in which they are to be achieved. We must make sure that we are not taking away with one hand what we are giving with the other. In other words, a bad trade policy can undermine a good development policy.

For our part, we are currently addressing the situation of market access for the poorest countries. Still, we have to improve our performance. We have presented a new and revised action plan, Debt Relief for Development. Now we have to deliver on it.

2. More and better aid

However, even if we do the right thing in these areas, this alone will not be sufficient to reach the Millennium Development Goals. We need more and better aid. This is the second area of reform.

If we are to achieve the Millennium Goals, we need an additional 50 billion dollars in aid per year. We know the resources are out there. Just take a look at the military budgets.

But we don’t just need more aid, we need better aid. We need to change the way we work. Many poor countries are forced to spend scarce resources on preparing thousands of reports to the numerous different donors and to keep a dizzying number of accounts. I call this the “donor circus”. And it must be stopped. We have to get rid of the flags and the fanfares, we have to be less concerned with our own glory and more concerned about results on the ground. Results for the poor.

Scarce government resources are spent on satisfying donors rather than developing the country concerned. Donor-initiated and donor-managed projects are detrimental to national ownership and to development. The recipient country itself is not in control of its development, and this is undermining our partners’ efforts. In other words,we need to improve the way we deliver aid. We need donor reform.

The partner country must be in the driver’s seat – setting priorities, making sure policies and programmes go hand in hand, ensuring consistency and co-ordination. All donors and organisations in the field have to work in line with this.

For us this means working together, through joint programmes, joint reporting and joint missions, and pooling resources, or simply just delegating responsibilities to each other. In this way we will become more effective, and we will get more value for the poor for every dollar, every euro, every krone. Without donor reform, without ownership and leadership, we will not reach the Millennium Goals.

We also have to focus more on results. Are people better off? Have we helped as many as we could? Have we maximised our total output?

Donors must make sure that the focus stays on what is achieved – not on whose flag is on it. But that means the press must do so, too! If the press primarily looks for the home country angle, and highlights national contributions rather than the total result, donors will not change. Visibility will continue to take precedence over results.

We all have room for improvement here. People in need don’t care who is behind the efforts. They don’t care about flags. They only care about what is done. In the words of South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

“The good news to the hungry person is bread.”

Whether the bread is provided by Norway, the UN, an NGO or Santa Claus is of no interest to the receiver. What matters is results – and results only.

Having said that, our goal is not to provide the bread, but to help set the conditions right, so they can feed themselves. Dignity is to be able to feed your own children.

3.National governments must do better

Even if we do all the right things, in trade and debt-relief, in aid and aid reform, even if we keep our part of the bargain, we will still not reduce poverty if the developing countries themselves fail to play their part. If we are dealing with a completely corrupt government, if national policies only benefit the few, if government institutions don’t work, our efforts will be useless.

Therefore, we need a third area of reform:governance. Developing countries have committed themselves to improving their governance as part of the global partnership, the global bargain. Poor countries need to put their own house in order. Anti-corruption efforts, democracy building and respect for human rights must be the foundation for development everywhere. (Ex.: Auditor General, Rule of Law, “Publish as you pay”-principle)

No amount of development dollars can do much good if governance is not satisfactory. And civil society is the key to better governance.

The media can act as important advocates and watchdogs here. Knowing that the press is keeping a close eye on the workings of government is the best check on misuse of power – both in the developing and the developed part of the world.

The press is crucial for creating democratic societies and strengthening human rights. Free and independent media can play a unique role in promoting good governance in developing countries. However, establishing and nurturing a fledgling independent press in the developing world requires assistance from the international community.

We need to support free media and strengthen their ability to be the watchdog of society they are meant to be.

This is why the Norwegian government wishes to increase and intensify its support to the media as a fundamental element of our international development efforts.

4. Private sector and civil society

But even if the poor countries deliver on their part of the bargain, and we the rich countries do everything else right, it will still not be enough to reach the Millennium Goals.

We just need to look at global resource flows, and the incredible gap between the rich and the poor regions of the world. The most significant part of these resource flows are private, in the form of foreign direct investment. This should teach us one thing: the public sector alone can never lift the poor people of this world out of poverty, or bridge the gap between us. The challenge is too big. The private sector is a critical piece of the puzzle. Thus we need to mobilise actors in the private sector and in civil society.

Let me give you an example.

In Bangladesh in 2002, GrameenPhone, a company run by the Norwegian telecom company Telenor, contributed 662 million kroner to the country’s coffers – around six times as much as Norwegian aid to the country. GrameenPhone is now the second largest tax contributor in Bangladesh. It is estimated that more than 50 000 people are supported by the company’s activities of village telephone systems based on the Gramean Bank concept. The ripple effect is considerable.

The public sector cannot and should not do everything. The private sector is needed to spur economic development and growth. This is vital if we are to win over poverty. So here I am talking about a fourth area of reform: private sector engagement and civil society involvement at the grassroots level, empowering the poor and amplifying their voice. In both of these areas we need to examine whether we are doing the right things, and what we can do to mobilise more resources – to get better results for many more people.

End

The press is crucial to our ability to reach the Millennium Goals:

• as advocates – as the voice of the poor in developing and donor countries alike. The poor have a right to speak, and a right to be heard. You can amplify their message. You can make sure their rights are taken into account where decisions are made.

• as watchdogs – monitoring our policies, exposing any gaps between rhetoric in international forums and the realities on the ground, making sure the world’s attention stays focused on the MDGs.

In order to do so, we – people and politicians – need to be aware of the dangers of today’s trends in international media. It might be difficult to fulfil this role where share holders are looking for short term financial gains only – and where politicians don’t understand the financial needs of high quality public broadcasters. Nonetheless – for all it is a matter of priorities and I hope we will see broadcasters and other media set their priorities right in the time up till 2015. Maybe it is not even a priority of sacrifice. Done right, ratings may increase in the longer term. The Romans somewhat cynically said: “Give the people bread and circus.” People in the rich countries have bread, but I don’t think the only thing they want now is circus. This is to underestimate us all.

This means keeping the MDGs and MDG-related events in the news over a long period of time. It means looking for opportunities to check on progress, to report on and analyse key meetings and deadlines.

This year offers many opportunities.

We are only ten years away from the MDG deadline. This is not long. It is still possible to reach the goals, but only if we change gear now. In June a UN ministerial meeting of the development and finance ministers will be key. The G-8 Summit one week later too. We need to see new commitments on the table, in aid and debt relief. In September – at the 60 ^th> anniversary of the United Nations – world leaders will gather in New York for the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly to review our progress so far. At this meeting, we will have to reconfirm our commitment of five years ago. But more than that, we will have to admit and act on the fact that we have not done enough during these five years.

This will not be easy. The challenge for the press is to make governments keep their word. If we do not deliver, you must call our bluff. Don’t let us get away with it.

The role of journalism cannot be overestimated. In the words of Philip Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post, journalism is “the first rough draft of history”.

We cannot allow this rough draft of history to be written without listening to the voice of the millions living in poverty. This is why we are here. This is why we must get to work. We all have a job to do.

Thank you.