The role of parliamentary leadership

Parliaments are structures of the modern State in which parliamentarians serve as the political and moral agents of democratic society. As an institution, parliament charts the public agenda while members are expected to press for conditions that are conducive to the needs of those whom they represent. At the core of the public agenda in most developing countries is the role and responsibility of parliaments in pushing back the frontiers of poverty and ensuring accountability in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in 2000.

These Goals aimed at reducing poverty and alleviating adverse education, health and environmental factors for the most vulnerable women and children were set in the year 2000 to be met by 2015. It is important to assess what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. The results are mixed. Global poverty rates are falling, led by Asia. Since 2000, three million more children now survive annually, two million more people are being treated for AIDS, and millions more children are in school. This is in global terms. Individual countries and regions have witnessed remarkable progress in certain Goals at the local and regional levels. Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are just a few of the countries where public school enrolment is on the rise. And Senegal is making major strides toward meeting the water and sanitation MDGs. On health, Malawi has drastically reduced child mortality rates. And across South Asia child survival rates have been raised through the implementation of massive vaccination campaigns. In addition, countries around the world are demonstrating how the HIV epidemic can be contained.

Strides have also been made in malaria control thanks to free bed nets for families in Niger, Togo and Zambia. One of the most striking advances is the 91 per cent reduction in deaths caused by measles across Africa as well as the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus in Viet Nam with the support of UNICEF and WHO.

Progress is possible

Progress is possible. The ingredients for success are well-known. Strong government often means a strong parliamentary leadership with committed egislators who not only frame laws and policies that give priority to these socio-economic programmes but through an active – often personal engagement - at the grass-roots and national level to ensure implementation through good governance and popular mobilization.

Such policies inspire and support public-private partnerships. Sound strategies enable research and understanding of problems in the health, education and social fields in the broader context of rural and urban development. Identifying vulnerable areas and groups in the country allow timely public investments at the appropriate level. Related economic and administrative policies, the laying of infrastructure, fiscal incentives, and targeted budgetary allocations empowering affected communities – particularly women - can play a critical role in mobilizing civil society institutions and private sector participation.

These successes should be nurtured and reinforced by the international community with financial/technical assistance and compatible trade policies at the earliest. This has become urgent in view of the current food crisis that has begun to affect more people all over the world. The consequences are severe - riots in over 30 countries, 100 million people worldwide at risk and 30 million Africans likely to fall into poverty. According to the World Bank, rocketing food prices have set back the fight against poverty by almost seven years! Poor children are more susceptible to suffer on account of hunger leading to malnutrition and learning disabilities pre-empting a full and productive life. A weak child does not make a strong citizen.

Economic slowdown, climate change and natural disasters are further challenges to the realization of programmes associated with MDGs competing for resources and attention of governments. As the latest Human Development Report notes, 40 per cent of the world's population lives in poverty and are unable to meet their daily basic needs. And these 2.6 billion people are at risk to face first-hand the impacts of dangerous climate change and human development reversals. The maintenance and enhancement of the world's ecological infrastructure is fundamental to advance the quality of life for the poor – urban or rural - as they directly depend and subsist on land, water and air. This is especially true in the least developed countries. Africa and even some of the fast-growing South-Asian economies face serious challenges in improving nutrition and reaching certain other Goals. Parliamentarians as agents of change must be sensitive not only to the domestic inter-connectedness between health, education and broader environment/development vectors, but should be also increasingly cognizant of the reality that scarce resources flow mostly to credible and accountable projects.

Opening up access to land and markets for the poorest

Despite hurdles, the MDGs remain attainable. This places a heavier burden on all States – developed and developing - to follow through on their commitments. In the developed countries of the North, parliaments should honour their national commitment to allocate 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) to official development assistance (ODA) which, according to latest figures, is in steep decline. Besides the quantum of international assistance, equally important is its quality. Domestic and international assistance should empower vulnerable populations and women, encouraging self-sufficiency in coping with core needs and sustainable livelihoods. This means opening up access to land and markets for the poorest, including a trading system that levels the playing field for agricultural products from the least developed countries. Parliamentarians can serve as facilitators of responsible governance at the interface of national and local policies, and national and international policies that affect the substance and pace of implementing MDGs.

To scale up efforts towards the implementation of the MDGs the UN Secretary-General has launched the MDG Africa Steering Group, which brings together an unprecedented group of Principals of the leading inter- governmental bodies dedicated to Africa's development. This group has recently endorsed a set of concrete measures aimed to advance the MDGs in Africa and support the mobilization of financial resources to address the impact of food price increase affecting a number of countries in Africa.

Secretary-General Ban, working together with the President of the General Assembly, has also decided to convene world leaders at an MDG high-level event on 25 September in New York to raise global awareness and maintain the momentum in support of the achievement of the Goals. Here it would be necessary to reinforce the momentum by a consensus on approaches to deal with emerging challenges and enhancing resource mobilization for an accelerated implementation of MDGs – at least in areas most affected by the current food crisis. Good governance would require parliamentarians to convene similar MDG groups consisting of local stakeholders in the communities they serve to track implementation of MDG goals.

Good governance is a value in its own right. This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This timeless document has a great deal in common with the Millennium Declaration. Advances in human development and efforts to overcome poverty will be stunted unless these declarations are seen as two sides of the same coin. The realization of the values and objectives in these documents can only be achieved through a constant dialogue between a civil State and civic society.

The IPU is an important partner of the United Nations in the historic effort to reach the MDGs. Joint initiatives such as the online International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics (iKNOW Politics) connect women candidates and leaders worldwide with the advice they need to be effective in office on this and other issues are an example of imaginative collaboration.

In many respects, parliamentarians are on the frontline of the quest to bring practical meaning to Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that all humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights. As representatives of their citizens, they must be seen to be the conscience of their constituencies and countries in the efforts to bring life to the Millennium Development Goals in service of the less fortunate.