HON. BETHEL AMADI ADVOCATES PEOPLE CENTERED POST- 2015 MDG DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

The President of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) and member representing Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru Federal Constituency in the Nigerian House of Representatives, His Excellency Hon. Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi has stressed the need for future development agenda to be informed by democratic principles. Addressing a recently concluded African thematic consultation on governance and post 2015 development agenda held in Midrand, South Africa, sponsored by the UNDP and hosted by the Pan African Parliament, Hon Bethel N. Amadi extolled the significant gains in some of the key thematic areas of the millennium development goals.

H.E. Hon Amadi stated that the deficiencies manifested in sustainable development in Africa can in large measure be ascribed to a lack of representation, participation, transparency, effective decision-making and oversight. This in his opinion underscores the importance of underpinning post-2015 development framework on democratic principles, values and institutions. He also stated that a fully representative parliament that has the requisite powers and means to express the will of the people and that can legislate and hold government to account is a key institution of democracy. Hon Amadi reminded the participants which included several high level delegation from the United Nations, that the centrality of democracy and its institutions is recognized by states in many international instruments including the Millennium Declaration where deepening democratic institutions are seen as indispensable platform for development and the eradication of poverty.

Notwithstanding this declaration, Hon  Bethel Amadi regretted that the original MDG goals were not informed by democratic principles and as such devoid of input from Parliamentarians who are the true representatives of the people and are more properly positioned to articulate the wishes, needs and aspirations of grass-roots communities and their constituencies. Because most MDG’s were conceived without parliamentary participation, most parliaments lack the requisite knowledge and capacity integral to enacting tangible implementing legislation. This has created a huge vacuum and the resultant consequences are clearly manifested in the failure of most legislative houses to inculcate MDG agenda in their National Planning and Economic Development’s legislative appropriations.

As a further consequence of the absence of parliamentary input, Hon. Amadi stated that there is a clear lack of ownership of the process by the people.  He admonished that the next generation of development goals should not just be anchored on strengthening democratic governance processes but should equally include and embrace the enhancement of democratic principles, values and institutions. He pointed out that the success of MDG will be contingent on localization of the post 2015 agenda tempered against the backdrop of a people centered development principles. To do this will further require a strengthening of Africa’s legislative institutions bestowed with tangible legislative capacity and competence.

Continuing, His Excellency Hon. Amadi articulated the notions that continental integration and people centered post 2015 agenda are key necessities to achieving sustainable African economic development. “The integration process of our continent can only begin through economic integration and by creating legal and legislative frameworks for the free movement of people, labour, goods and services across our continent”.  Africa remains the most fragmented continent in the world with 54 countries with numerous border crossings and according to a report by the world trade organization, Intra Africa trade remains very low and as at last year stood at 10% while the European Union have achieved 70%, 52% for Asian Countries, 50% for North American Countries, and 26% for South American Countries. Currently, the biggest trading partner of every African Country is either in Asia, Europe or America and the low level of intra-African Trade is a missed growth and development opportunity. Recent studies have indicated that if only African Countries can increase their share of global trade by only 1%, this would represent an additional annual income of over 200 billion dollars which is approximately five times more than what the African continent receives as official development assistance from our donor partners annually and more than enough to actualize the MDG thematic principles.

Hon Amadi also indicated that Africans are off on a good start in terms of remedying Africa’s past developmental mistakes. At this thematic consultation, Hon Amadi invited several past leaders and heads of states and government. His reasoning was that in going back to stakeholders who have held the reign of power and have firsthand knowledge of Africa’s mistakes or where Africa went wrong, we will not only avoid a repeat of the same pitfall, “we will also have ensured that innovations, experiences and strengths of historical governance processes and architecture are critically considered as we design a post 2015 governance framework or mechanism”. “Our goal in this dialogue is to find practical solutions that will redress underlying challenges such as gender imbalances, economic development, peace, security, marginalization and disempowerment of youth. These factors have become antithetical to the consolidation of democracy and attainment of MDGs in Africa”.

Hon Amadi pointed out that progress has been made in scaling up health interventions through regional and inter governmental bodies, which have manifested itself in the reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combat of HIV/AIDS and other diseases. New HIV infections have declined by 20% between 2001 and 2011.  Also an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths occurred in 2010 worldwide, a decline of 47 percent from 1990.

He also indicated that Africa has witnessed an enhanced educational institution with the enrolment of nearly 9 million children in primary education. In the developing regions, the net enrolment rate for children of primary school age rose from 82 to 90 per cent between 1999 and 2010. “Through our efforts, we have also on record nearly 31 million households connected to better drinking water, 36 thousand kilometres of roads constructed and with more than 24 million people assisted through food security related social transfers. In the developing regions, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 47 per cent in 1990 to 24 per cent in 2008. In 2008, about 110 million fewer people than in 2005 lived in conditions of extreme poverty. The number of extreme poor in the developing regions fell from over 2 billion in 1990 to less than 1.4 billion in 2008”.

Despite the progress in these areas, H.E. Hon Amadi cautioned that the achievement of core MDG goals by 2015 remains a serious challenge but remained optimistically confident in our collective capacity to reverse the trend and set the path for Africa to realize its objectives. “This is a task that Africans must take the lead” he said. Hon Bethel Amadi acknowledged that while opinions and experts vary on why we have been failing to meet the MDG goals, there is a consensus on the fact that Africa’s development efforts have over the years been characterized by a lack of political will, continuity and consistency in policy implementation and lack of synergy to stay the course of a development strategy. This weakness in implementation and a concomitant lack of improvement in the overall welfare of Africans are factors necessitating the imperative of an immediate action.