From Ebola to ISIS, from earthquakes in Nepal to civil war in South Sudan and Syria, the headlines provide ample fodder for pessimism about the state of the world.
Combined with economic stagnation in rich countries from Europe to Japan, slowdowns in the previously ascendant emerging market "BRIC" economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China—and in many resource-dependent poor nations now buffeted by the down-winds of the commodity cycle—the prospects for the future appear even grimmer.
All this at just at the moment the world is expected to come together at the United Nations in September to agree upon an ambitious new set of global goals for the world we would like to see by 2030. These goals will seek to largely eliminate extreme poverty; successfully address climate change; and build the foundations for a peaceful and prosperous world.
Under the present global circumstances, such an agenda invites skepticism at best and cynicism at worst.
In practice, however, the glass is more than half-full. The past 15 years have arguably seen the greatest improvements in lives and livelihoods for the largest number of people in human history—and a significant part of this progress can be attributable to the last attempt by the UN to set out such a vision in the form of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed in 2000.
That plan set out a vision with clear, time-bound targets to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people reducing extreme poverty, hunger, disease, and child mortality, among other priorities—all with a deadline of 2015.
While the MDGs were initially viewed in many quarters as overly ambitious (and in others as pure fantasy), in practice they galvanised an unprecedented mobilization of governments, donors, the private sector, nongovernmental organisations, and community groups to accomplish such feats as vaccinating half a billion children against infectious diseases; detecting and treating 11m cases of TB; and providing antiretroviral therapy to 6m people infected with HIV.
As a result, here we are at the end of the MDGs, and child mortality has fallen by half since 1990—from one in five children dying before their fifth birthday to one in 10. Deaths from tuberculosis have fallen by nearly 50 per cent over the same period, an achievement attributable in no small part to a 40 per cent drop in HIV infections.
The goal of cutting extreme poverty in half worldwide was achieved in 2010, five years ahead of schedule. This reflects not just economic growth in China and India, impressive though that has been. Ethiopia, for example, has met every single one of the MDGs, and such nations as Ghana, Bangladesh, and Tanzania have seen dramatic progress on multiple indicators.
According to a study by the Brookings Institution, at least 7.5m children’s lives have been saved thanks to the MDGs, the majority of these in sub-Saharan Africa. Remember that the next time you read that aid and development never work.
Britain’s Commitment to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development
In order for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to be at least as successful as the MDGs, the world will need continued leadership from Great Britain. This nation has played a vital role in international health and development, both in providing resources and in championing aid effectiveness.
The British commitment throughout the MDG era to steadily increase aid to the globally agreed target of 0.7 per cent of GDP is an incredible example of this.
Notwithstanding the sometimes strident criticism in the press, this is money that has been largely well spent, often leveraging the private sector and other partners in innovative ways to get results.
For example, the UK has been a leader in both the Global Fund to fight HIV, TB and Malaria and in Gavi, the global alliance that ensures that children everywhere get the vaccines they need against life-threatening infectious diseases.
These two innovative partnerships pool global-aid financing, and use those resources to bring about significant price discounts from pharmaceutical manufacturers. From there they obtain secure co-financing from the recipient nations themselves—ensuring that these countries become more self-sufficient over time.
The UK is also a leader in supporting maternal and child health, including nutrition and family planning. Prime Minister David Cameron and Melinda Gates co-hosted a landmark Family Planning Summit in London in 2012 which led to a $2.6bn commitment from the developed world and a comparable commitment from developing countries. This investment is bringing access to contraceptives and family planning services to an additional 120m women in the poorest countries by 2020, a target we are largely on track to meet.
Finishing the job
This is not to say that all aid is good, or that it is always well spent. At the Gates Foundation we often find that some of our investments have failed to meet their original goals, and this is true for every major donor. That is not too surprising: by definition, aid is spent in the most difficult environments.
But we are constantly seeking to learn from our failures as well as our successes. Just like with any other private- or public-sector project, finding better and smarter ways to make aid work is part of the job. We have found that in this work, too, the UK is a global leader. Its focus on aid transparency and accountability has set an example for other nations.
The world still has a long way to go in reducing human suffering. More than a billion people remain in extreme poverty, and 6m children under age five are still dying every year—mostly in poor countries and mostly from preventable causes. But with the success of the MDGs, we now have a proven global model for achieving progress. We know what works, and what doesn’t.
As we seek to solve these remaining challenges, the SDGs are far from a perfect vehicle. Inevitably, as the result of a multi-year intergovernmental process, they reflect a mixture of compromises and—as the 17 goals and 169 targets attest—tend toward inclusion rather than focus.
Nevertheless, with their stronger emphasis on addressing climate change, gender inequality, agricultural production, and sustainable growth, they will help developing countries create the conditions for their most vulnerable people to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex and interconnected world and lift themselves out of poverty.
The primary responsibility lies with the developing countries themselves, and even in the poorest countries domestic and private resources will greatly exceed aid. But well-spent and well-targeted aid will remain indispensable, especially in areas like education and health.
Britain’s commitment to smart, accountable aid is vital to such efforts. Thanks to such leadership, we are on the path to a world without extreme poverty.
