That this year’s United Nations General Assembly slotted into the agenda discussions on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) speaks volumes about the commitment of the 192 member-countries to the “we can end poverty by 2015” mantra. Whether the deliberations on past, present and future of the visionary, if ambitious, targets against poverty will bear fruit across the member nations in the next five years is another kettleful of fish of altogether.

As things stand now most of the regions of the world for which the UN fashioned the eight overarching goals in 2001 are falling behind expectations. No single nation in the eastern Africa region has eradicated extreme poverty and hunger while universal primary education remains a dream. While attempts have been made to achieve gender equality and empower women, the region is yet to attain the desirable figures.

Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda have made laudable steps towards reducing child mortality rates and improving maternal health but UN figures indicate that Burundi, Sudan and Somalia are anywhere but close to these targets. Fluctuations in combating HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases in the region are a veritable two steps ahead, one backwards.

While development of global partnerships has been hailed as one of the MDGs that are on track, doubts have been raised about Africa’s benefit in the partnerships.  The rising spate of environmental disasters such as floods and droughts mean achieving sustainability on this score will be a herculean task.

Whereas the achievability of the MDGs a short five years from now is in doubt, the concept has been hailed as one of former Secretary General Kofi Annan’s most important contribution to the wellbeing of a world saddled by debilitating challenges.

For the Millennium Declaration provides a framework against which leadership at local, national, regional and global levels can be judged against policy commitments that affect a sea of humanity, specifically in the developing world, mostly located in the geographical south. To the extent that the MDGs provide a scorecard against which leadership can be appraised, it provides benchmarks that countries can use to raise the bar of performance.

Many viewpoints have been posited for the lagging behind of much of Africa in relation to the multiplicity of ‘kick out poverty’ campaigns and initiatives. Perhaps the most potent is that African nations have been detained into a beggars’ mindset, always waiting, begging bowl in hand, for alms from the so-called development partners and donors.

It is therefore gratifying that Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and the Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi all advocated Africa’s taking up the challenge rather than looking North for help that might never come or that will come with strings attached.

We are not advocating for a severing of ties between developed and developing nations. This is indeed inconceivable given that global partnership, as MDG’s anticipate, is the natural way to go since we inhabit one meshed and interconnected world. As a matter of fact, Western funds such as the William F Clinton Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to mention but two, are doing a great deal of good work in poverty stricken parts of Africa. This is not to mention other bilateral and multilateral sources of funding that remain the lifeblood for vast swathes on the continent.

Our point of departure is that, speaking with President Kagame, despite the forward looking intentions of donor funding for MDGs, “their perspective is often predicated on paternalism rather than partnership, on charity not self reliance, and on promises unfulfilled rather than real change on the ground”. Our considered opinion is that reliance on donor funding is unsustainable to the extent that it does not empower countries to create homegrown solutions including the raising of resources. It is with this in mind that we concur with UN Secretary General’s words to the effect that “the MDGs were never meant to be a one-way street – something that rich countries do for poor ones”.