|
|
|
|
| National |
| ‘African leaders failing to eradicate extreme poverty’ |
|
by
George Ntonya, 03 October 2006
-
06:21:10
|
A United Nations (UN) official has accused African leaders of spending tax payers’ money attending world summits which sometimes do not benefit the poor people.
Nairobi-based Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, who is UN Deputy Director (Africa) for the Millennium Campaign, expressed his concern last weekend at a two-day meeting held in Zimbabwe to discuss how southern African countries are going to participate in a Global Campaign Against Poverty (GCAP) which climaxes on October 17.
He said most African leaders attend almost every heads of state summit where they sign protocols aimed at improving living conditions of their people but fail to implement them.
World leaders agreed to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015 but the situation on the ground indicates this would be a far-fetched dream because of low political commitment. Most Africans continue living in abject poverty.
“When it comes to building schools or hospitals they expect donors to give them money. When they want to attend summits or declare war they do not wait for the donor,” said Raheem.
Raheem was speaking at a time when world leaders were attending a UN summit in New York.
Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika has not returned from the trip as he passed through Australia after the summit. Government has not provided information regarding the president’s engagements in Australia.
Reacting to Raheem’s concerns, government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati said that it is important for Malawi leaders to attend heads-of-government summits because for a long time before multiparty politics Malawi was cocooned.
She dismissed Raheem’s concerns that African leaders spend huge sums of money attending summits that have little benefit to the poor.
“Whoever said those words should tell me how he travelled to the meeting in Zimbabwe. Did he walk? Was he not paid allowances? If you checked, you would find that people who accuse us politicians of not doing enough to help the poor are doing the same,” Kaliati said.
During his 10-year rule, former president Bakili Muluzi also justified his numerous internal and external travels saying he needed to see people’s suffering in rural areas and present the problems to the international community for support.
However, at the time he left office in 2004, UNDP reports indicated that up to 65 percent of Malawians were poorer than they were in 1992.
Council for Non-governmental Organisations in Malawi (Congoma) is next week expected to host a social forum that will bring together representatives of civil society organisations in southern Africa and people of influence who have been selected to act as ambassadors in the global campaign against poverty.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
