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Momodou
Denmark
11744 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Jan 2007 : 16:59:34
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HALIFA ON THE MDGs
WE ARE MOVING FAR AWAY FROM ACHIEVEING IT!!!
The Minority Leader and Member for Serrekunda Central Hon. Halifa Sallah asserted that the Government is moving far away from achieving the Millenniums Development Goals due to the fact that the productive base of the economy is not expanding. Halifa made this assertion while making his contribution to the debate on the 2007 budget speech delivered by the Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs at the National Assembly which went thus:
“Hon. Speaker, we are told by the Secretary of State for Finance at page one paragraph two of his budget speech that “the overarching policy objective of the Gambia Government Gambia Government is to substantially reduce poverty and achieve all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, as well as the goals of vision 2020.” Hon. Speaker, when one look at the strategic objective, one would ask the following questions:
i) What is the stage of poverty in this country
ii) What visible things are been done to eradicate it?
iii) What are the Millennium Development Goals?
iv) What is its face in our current economic deposition?
v) What has been achieved so far to move us closer to the fundamental objective of vision
2020? Hon. Speaker, the Millennium Development Goals emerged from the UN Millennium Summit of September 2000. Their aim to give action to the eradication of poverty and the promotion of sustainable development. Chief among the objective Hon. Speaker, is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. First, by reducing by half the proportion of the people living on less than one dollar a day and reduce by half, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. These strategic objectives Hon. Speaker, could only be attain if there is a rise in income or the lowering of the cost of living. What is happening in The Gambia Hon. Speaker is that there is no rise in income and there is no lowering of the cost of living and that is why 69% of the population are living on less than one dollar a day. So I do not see any evidence that we are moving towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. what is interesting Hon. Speaker is that looking at the estimates, in particular what drivers, messengers and cleaners receive, one would discovered that they earn less than D600 to D700 per month which is less than one dollar a day. So, if government cannot free its servants from poverty, how can it free The Gambian population from poverty? A declaration would have to be made on that score.
Hon. Speaker, if one also look at the Joint Industrial Council which is responsible for determining the wages of technicians, one would discover that the minimum wage for most of the technicians is less than one dollar a day. I would expect that this National Assembly would urge the government that the low salaries and minimum wages must be increased in 2007 to more than one dollar a day as a sign of commitment towards meeting the fundamental objective of the Millennium Development Goals. If that is not done, than there would be a lot of declarations without action to back the declarations.
Hon. Speaker, looking at the other provision for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, one would discovered that it talks about achieving universal primary education; ensuring that all boys and girls complete the full course of primary education; promote gender disparity in primary and secondary education; preferably by 2005 and at all cost by 2015. Hon. Speaker, what needs to be given focus is the type of system that exists, because sometimes if we lose sight of the existing system, we believe we are achieving something when we are moving far away from it. What obtains in The Gambia Hon. Speaker, is that we have an educational system of double shift and multiple grade teaching and the fundamental questions we need to asked are:
i) Have we done any evaluation to see the impact of such a system?
ii) What type of quality education is it providing?
iii) What are it limitations?
Hon. Speaker, sometimes we play the game of numbers and lose essence. We lose sight of the individual tree because we focus on the forest, but it is the individual tree that is important because if we allow that individual tree to be cut one by one at the end of the day we will lose the forest. So Hon. Speaker, it is important that we focus on the system and focus not only on the issue of access but affordability and quality as well. Hon. Speaker, if one looks at the different levels of the educational system, one would discover that it is evolving like a pyramid. The educational system provides for 185,000 children in the Lower Basic, 67,000 in the Upper Basic and 27,000 in Senior Secondary Schools. This is a pyramid so if you talk about access, equality between boys and girls, yes you may have a number of boys and girls equal but what about the vast majority of children being deprived of that higher level of education.
Hon. Speaker, it is significant that we focus on the evolution of the educational system not only on general access at the primary level, but as the person goes up and up, then the person must be able to have access to quality education at the higher level. And what is also important Hon. Speaker, is that we are being told that 88% of the institutions providing Senior Secondary education are private; either being subsidised or non-subsidised. About 46% subsidised and 42% non-subsidised if my memory serves me right.
So Hon. Speaker, we are talking about private institutions providing this education and they are charging on the basis of cost recovery. Education should be a right but where it is based on cost recovery, either government subsidizing the process and lower the cost of education or otherwise, many people who are poor would be excluded from access. Where cost deprives people from access Hon. Speaker, we cannot consider education to be open to all nor can we say that the sky is the limit for those people. Hon. Speaker, if one looks at the Millennium Development Goals, one would discover that that its objective under health is to ensure affordability and access to essential drugs. But, Hon. Speaker, looking at the issue of health, you would discover that the Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs has mentioned the Bamako Initiative. The essence of the Bamako Initiative is cost recovery and that is why many people cannot afford drugs. If go to the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH) at the moment Hon. Speaker, you would discover that brain scanning is D1000 (one thousand dalasis). Just to scan the brain! There is a lady almost in comma that I visited at RVTH and the relative could not afford to provide that D1000 (one thousand dalasis) and they literally had to become beggars for that amount to be provided. I do not call that health for all and I do not call that ways and means of moving closer and closer to the Millennium Development Goals where it talked about government in association with pharmaceutical, ensured the affordability and access to essential drugs. That is one of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals.
If one looks at Vision 2020 Hon. Speaker, one would discover that it talks about Gambia becoming a middle income country; a country where the economy would be export oriented, and jobs would be created, and that most of the people will become enlightened under a democratic society which will assure them prosperity and general wellbeing. But clearly Hon. Speaker, if we look at the situation, we would discover that The Gambia is not achieving that export oriented economy that is envisaged in Vision 2020. Hon. Speaker, we are being told by the Secretary of State that exports have amounted to D3 billion, D2.6 billion of which is coming from re-exports. So clearly Hon. Speaker, we are not producing, we are re-exporting and that is why we are not generating employment.
Hon. Speaker, we are also being told that in terms of Government’s earnings which enable us to build our accounts, we have trade and remittances amounting to D1.8 billion and D1.8 billion respectively. So essentially Hon. Speaker, it is not the productive base that is generating the level of growth of foreign exchange that is in the country that is ensuring stability of The Gambia currency. I think we should bear that in mind! We are talking about sustainable development and not just any form of development. So essentially Hon. Speaker, we are not achieving the vision that is assured to us under the 2020 vision. And therefore, Hon. Speaker, I frankly feel that we must accept the seriousness of the situation that the economy is in and then try to come up with strategic objectives of how to deal with it!!!
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 004/2007, 3-4 January, 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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