Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect: Africa’s Development Beyond 2015

336 Pages·2015·5.52 MB·English

by  Nathan Andrews

Social Indicators Research Series 58
Nathan Andrews
Nene Ernest Khalema
N'Dri T. Assié-Lumumba Editors
Millennium
Development
Goals (MDGs)
in Retrospect
Africa’s Development Beyond 2015
Social Indicators Research Series
Volume 58
Series Editor
Alex C. Michalos , Faculty of Arts Offi ce , Brandon University ,
Brandon , Manitoba , Canada
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Ed Diener, University of Illinois, Champaign, USA
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Joachim Vogel, Central Bureau of Statistics, Stockholm, Sweden
Ruut Veenhoven, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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University of Oslo, Norway; Mirjam A.G. Sprangers, University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands; Joachim Vogel, Central Bureau of Statistics, Stockholm, Sweden;
Ruut Veenhoven, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6548
Nathan Andrews • Nene Ernest Khalema
N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba
Editors
Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect
Africa’s Development Beyond 2015
Editors
Nathan Andrews Nene Ernest Khalema
Department of Political Science Human Sciences Research Council
University of Alberta Human and Social Development
Edmonton , AB , Canada Durban , South Africa
N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba Department of Political Science
Cornell University University of Alberta
Ithaca , NY , USA Edmonton , AB , Canada
ISSN 1387-6570 ISSN 2215-0099 (electronic)
Social Indicators Research Series
ISBN 978-3-319-16165-5 ISBN 978-3-319-16166-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-16166-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015907561
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
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Pref ace

In September 2000, the United Nations met to deliberate on its pivotal role as the
world propels into the twenty-fi rst century. The major outcome of this UN Summit
was the ratifi cation of the UN Millennium Declaration which reiterated the obser-
vance of the International Human Rights and Humanitarian law according to the
principles of the UN Charter as well as the Treaties of Sustainable Development.
Following this Declaration, the UN came up with eight millennium development
goals (MDGs) set out as targets which the international community must commit to
achieving by 2015. Endorsed by 198 United Nations Member States and over 20
international organizations including the World Bank, World Health Organization,
and International Monetary Fund, the MDGs were outlined to address the following
eight goals: extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; gender
equality and empowering women; child mortality; maternal health; HIV/AIDS,
malaria, and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and global partnership for
development.
Since their inception in 2000, the MDGs have attracted numerous debates and
controversies. This volume is an important contribution to the debates. It refl ects
the trend in the fi eld—a growing concern regarding MDGs as achievement targets
and the various ways they are being evaluated, in particular (Easterly 2007). Over
the past decade, debates on MDGs have rested both on what has been achieved as
well as on the slow progress of reaching the targets (Birdsall et al. 2005; Lawn
2010). Some scholars question the viability of the MDGs as achievement targets
and consider them incongruous with the realities of life, especially in the develop-
ing world (Clemens et al. 2006). Others see them as a “faulty yardstick for judging
whether country- or region-specifi c performances are on track” (Vandemoortele
2009, 356).
This volume focuses mostly on the manner of the centrality of Africa’s develop-
ment in the broader analyses of the MGDs’ success. There is an increasing concern
about Africa, the poorest continent, which has a sizeable population whose future
appears to hold, as of the present, little chance of improving. Africa, for instance,
represents 11% of the world’s population but is responsible for “more than half of
all maternal and child deaths, two thirds of the global AIDS burden, and 90% of
v
vi Preface
deaths from malaria” (Lawn 2010, 566). Access to Universal Primary Education
(UPE), the pace of the HIV/AIDS spread, and response to violence against women
have not met expected targets (UN 2011). With the approach of 2015, these chal-
lenges increasingly provoke public and scholarly discussions.
T his volume is yet another contribution to the debate—but a unique one in many
respects. The parties involved as well as the nature of the debate not only introduces
new knowledge but also invites responses from readers. This volume is the result of
a critical, in-depth deliberation among a group of interested parties whose scholar-
ship not only intersects with the challenges embraced by the MDGs but also fore-
grounds their future as stakeholders. On January 30, 2014, close to a hundred
participants arrived at the University of Alberta main campus to begin a 2-day ret-
rospective look at the MDGs with a special focus on the African continent. Among
the attendees were seasoned academics from Canadian universities, NGO and civil
society representatives, and emerging scholars from both the continent and its new
diasporas. The development of a forum to deliberate on Africa’s future was the
vision of the University of Alberta’s African Students’ Association. This vision was
spearheaded notably by Nathan Andrews and supported by a diverse team of stu-
dents, alumni, and faculty members. While a number of scholars, including myself,
bought into the initiative, it was these emerging scholars that worked tirelessly to
bring the relevant stakeholders together, engaged funding agencies, and propelled
the process into a highly successful conference.
T he conference was planned to coincide with the University of Alberta’s
International Week, an annual event which brings academia and the surrounding
community into dialogue. It also attracts internationally renowned scholars and
development practitioners at the cutting edge of their fi elds to the campus to share
new knowledge and pressing issues of global importance. The conference revolved
around the eight MDGs with critical questions raised about Democracy, Leadership
and Governance, Gender Policies, Politics and Practices, Health Challenges, the
Post-MDGs Era, Poverty Eradication, External Partnerships and Encountering
Marginalized Populations, Climate Change, Food Security, and Environmental
Sustainability. The contributions came from a wide range of disciplines including
Political Science, History Sociology, International Relations, African Studies,
Anthropology, and Women and Gender Studies. Their analyses provide a critical,
retrospective look at the MDGs not simply as targets to be achieved but as a set of
guidelines for tracking development priorities in a globalizing world. As many
scholars remind us, “The MDGs are global goals which are a policy instrument used
by the UN to draw attention to urgent but neglected global priorities” (Fukuda-Parr
et al. 2013, 20). These scholars enjoin us to avoid holding on to them as clearly set
out goals to be technically measured periodically. MDGs, they argue, should remain
as “benchmarks in monitoring progress toward important objectives” as well as
policy statements “to communicate an important normative objective based on
shared value” (Ibid.).
T hese directions, in my view, were the “normative” tenets which guided our
discussions at the conference. They also strongly resonate in this volume. The edi-
tors have worked hard to capture the scholarly discourse which engaged African and
Preface vii
Africanist graduate students; University of Alberta scholars; visiting experts, aca-
demics, and practitioners in various areas of development; and community repre-
sentatives. The volume is aimed at a wide audience including students, academics,
and practitioners in the fi eld. It draws from a broad range of historical, contempo-
rary, and emerging discourses on African and global development. Its contributors
were also mindful of intersectional cleavages such forums must invade and stressed
the implications of gender, class, and race, making Africa’s postcolonial develop-
ment conditions in sociocultural, political, and economic contexts central. Both
those involved in the discussion on the MDGs as well as those seeking to learn more
about them will fi nd in this volume a comfortable level ground. It represents not
only an important contribution to the MDG debates but also a strategic resource as
we approach “the year of reckoning,” 2015.
Department of Women’s and Gender Studies Phil Okeke-Ihejirika
University of Alberta
Edmonton , Alberta , Canada
References
Birdsall, N., Levine, R., & Ibrahim, A. (2005). Towards universal primary education: Investments,
incentives, and institutions. European Journal of Education, 40 (3), 337–349.
C lemens, M., Kenny, C., & Moss, T. (2007). The trouble with the MDGs: Confronting UN United
Nations. 2011. Progress of the world’s women 2011–2012: In pursuit of justice . h ttp://progress.
unwomen.org/pdfs/EN-Report-Progress.pdf .
Easterly, W. (2009). How the millennium development goals are unfair to Africa. World
Development, 37 (1), 26–35.
F ukuda-Parr, S., Greenstein, J., & Stewart, D. (2013). How should MDG success and failure be
judged: Faster progress or achieving the targets? World Development, 41 , 19–30.
L awn, J. (2010). Are them Millennium Development Goals on target? Successes and shortfalls so
far make 2010 a tipping point especially for maternal and neonatal survival. B ritish Medical
Journal, 341 (7773), 566–567.
Vandemoortele, J. (2009). MDGs conundrum: Meeting the targets without missing the point.
Development Policy Review, 27 (4), 355–337.
U N Women. (2011). Progress of the world’s women: In pursuit of justice, 2011–2012. http://www.
unrol.org/fi les/Progress%20of%20the%20Worlds%20Women%202011-2012.pdf

Contents

1 Introduction: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
in Retrospect in Africa ............................................................................ 1
Nene Ernest Khalema , Nathan Andrews ,
and N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba
2 Are We Able to Lift the Downtrodden? The MDGs
and Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Ghana ................................ 17
Patricia Serwaa Afrifa
3 Urbanization and Poverty in Kinshasa: Thinking
Beyond 2015 Millennium Development Goals ...................................... 31
Clement Longondjo
4 Women’s Access to Land and Economic Empowerment
in Selected Nigerian Communities ........................................................ 45
Tayo O. George , Felicia O. Olokoyo , Evans S. Osabuohien ,
Uchenna Efobi , and Ibukun Beecroft
5 Trusting the Coalface: Public Trust in South African
Local Government and the Millennium Development Goals .............. 63
Steven Lawrence Gordon , Benjamin J. Roberts , and Jarè Struwig
6 Millennium Development in Retrospect: Higher Education
and the Gender Factor in Africa’s Development Beyond 2015 ........... 81
N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba
7 Beyond Millennium Development Goals: Funding Quality
Education Through Building Local Capacity: A Sample
from Tanzania .......................................................................................... 99
Serena Koissaba
8 African Gender Development Gap: Rethinking Strategies
to Achieve MDGs ..................................................................................... 111
Stephen M. Magu
ix