Promises aplenty, world’s poor need action, Sachs says

Wealthy nations must replace promises and consultants with fertiliser and anti-malaria medicines if they are to fulfill commitments to help the world’s poor, a senior UN advisor said. What is needed to transform the lives of the world’s poorest people, leading economist Jeffrey Sachs told reporters on Tuesday, is: concentrated investment - in growing more food, improving health and building basic infrastructure - backed by increased financial aid, properly managed. “That’s the trick. It’s not a miracle, but it’s not what we are doing right now.” Sachs - special advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan - said while world leaders have said the right things about reducing poverty, talk has not translated into real improvement for enough people on the ground. He spoke in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, where he met with government officials, donors, UN agencies and other development players, as part of a six-nation Africa tour. The deadline for the UN millennium development goals is nine years off, but the challenges are vast: halving the number of people living on one dollar a day, halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, and providing access to essential drugs in developing countries, to name a few. “As the special advisor to [Kofi Annan] on the millennium development goals I’m watching the timetable with a lot of concern,” Sachs said. “We have nine years to 2015 and the world has promised time and again that these goals will be achieved by 2015. That will not happen unless we change dramatically how we’re doing things." The UN says the world has seen some progress on the development goals, but sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind, making it “the epicenter of crisis.” Food insecurity, extreme poverty, child and maternal mortality all remain high, a UN website on the project says. Donors have promised to double aid to Africa - to US $50 billion - by 2010, Sachs said. He urged people to watch donors closely to see that they stick to their word and that aid truly goes to the those who need it. “What are they spending the money on? On their own consultants, or on real investments in Africa?” His message to donors, he said, is: “Help [rural communities] practically. Don’t send advisors. Send improved seeds, fertiliser, bed nets. “About half of what is needed has to take place right within the villages - clinics, schools, boreholes, fertiliser, a grinding mill for the women….Aid should be practical things right for the villages.” One of 10 rural African communities where the UN plans to test the practical approach to development is Potou in the Louga region of northwest Senegal. Under the millennium villages project the UN team is working with 10 rural communities in Africa to show how their populations can achieve food security, commercial agriculture and control of disease in a short time, Sachs said. War is the single biggest obstacle to development, followed by dictatorship, Sachs added. But, he said, it is not for the outside world to solve a nation’s governance problems. The international community can help African countries grow more food and tackle preventable diseases, he said. “The rest of the world can play its role but not in determining your political future…The rest of the world cannot deliver democracy to you. Only Africans can deliver democracy for Africans.”