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Redoubled efforts needed if East Europe and CIS countries are to fulfil world development pledge and reduce poverty, says new report
The new EU member states are on their way to achieving nationally adapted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but some CIS countries suffer from the same levels of poverty found in Africa and need the same level of assistance from the world community, finds a new UNDP report. National Millennium Development Goals: A framework for action says that renewed commitment from governments and the international community is critical if Eastern Europe and CIS countries, particularly in Central Asia, are to achieve the MDGs by the global target of 2015,“In some countries of Central Asia, the challenges of meeting national MDG targets do not differ so dramatically from the development challenges facing low-income countries in Africa, South Asia or the Caribbean”, said Kalman Mizsei, UN Assistant Secretary General and Regional Director for UNDP’s Bureau for Europe and the CIS. “The international community should seek to engage in these countries with the same intensity that is apparent in its concern for development prospects in Africa”. National Millennium Development Goals: A framework for action charts countries’ progress towards achieving MDGs adapted to fit local circumstances in Eastern Europe and the CIS. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all UN member states at the 2000 Millennium Summit. The report is intended to serve as a platform for integrating the nationally adapted MDGs into country-level poverty alleviation frameworks. “The key question concerns how nationally adapted MDGs can be best used to promote sustainable development and eradicate inequalities in Eastern Europe and the CIS,” said Jacek Cukrowski, the report’s lead author. The report paints a mixed picture of development trends in the region. Among the success stories are the Czech Republic and Slovenia, which have eliminated absolute poverty altogether. For these and the other Central European states the challenge is to overcome economic inequality and to integrate vulnerable groups such as the Roma. Other countries face much starker challenges. The per-capita GDP (in purchasing-power-parity terms) of Tajikistan is lower than the per-capita GDPs of Rwanda, Uganda and Cote d’Ivoire. Uzbekistan’s per-capita GDP is lower than Sudan’s and Cameroon’s. Approximately half the population of Moldova and Georgia remain under the absolute poverty line of $2.15 in PPP terms. By the end of the 1990s, an estimated 23 million people (over 40 per cent of Central Asia’s population) lived on less than PPP $4.30 a day; 10 million experienced extreme deprivation (living on less than PPP $2.15 a day). The report also emphasizes the need for partnerships between the public and private sectors to promote the region’s development agenda. Experience from the new EU member states in particular shows that the private sector can be an important participant in alleviating many development problems. UNDP has taken the lead in working with private-sector firms - in Kazakhstan, Chevron Texaco, Citibank and UNDP have formed a partnership to promote small- and medium-sized enterprise development, while in Poland the oil refinery PKN has teamed up with Levi Strauss, the government and UNDP to fund projects promoting sustainable development. Please click here to download National Millennium Development Goals: A framework for action in Russian or English. Read the press release. Download report fact sheets: Central Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States, EU member states, Southeast Europe For further information please contact: Zoran Stevanovic Regional Communications Specialist + 421-2-59-337-428 zoran.stevanovic@undp.org Denisa Papayova Communications Associate + 421-2-59-337-162 denisa.papayova@undp.org |
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