By IPS Correspondents
HELSINKI, Sep 9 2005 (IPS)

Ahead of the United Nations summit on the Millennium Development Goals in New York next week, participants in the international Helsinki Conference voiced their concerns here Friday about the slow progress being made on the MDGs.

“There is consensus that the Millennium Development Goals have been very useful in focusing the world’s attention on a number of targets, but when it comes to reaching these targets it does not look good,” said Hans Hofmeijer, the International Labour Organisation’s deputy regional director for Africa.

Hofmeijer’s words echoed those of Mary Robinson, director of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative and former president of Ireland. Speaking at the Helsinki Conference on Thursday, Robinson said at current rates the MDGs are unlikely to be met by the 2015 deadline.

The three-day Helsinki Conference 2005, entitled “Mobilising Political Will”, was an effort to assess and build on the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy, which aims to bridge the gap between the developing South and the industrialised North through inclusive “action-oriented” dialogue.

Hofmeijer noted that actions addressing deforestation, gender equality in the workplace and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS are well behind schedule, with progress in sub-Saharan Africa particularly slow. These problems are just a few of those targeted by the eight MDGs, agreed at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit.

The ILO official said providing employment is a crucial component in the alleviation of poverty, the first of the MDGs.

Governments are not listing employment as a policy priority. The African Union hosted an extraordinary summit on employment and poverty reduction last year. Hofmeijer commended this, but said he sees it as an exception.

“There was an almost general conclusion (among panellists at the Helsinki Conference) that few governments have employment as a priority in their policy,” said Hofmeijer.

David Tipping, a civil and environmental engineer from Australia, said the problems and risks of not addressing environmental degradation have been known for over 30 years. However, there are gaps in efforts to reverse the trend.

Tipping listed policy, information availability, stakeholder participation, technology and finance as problem areas in addressing environmental degradation in a sustainable way.

Referring to concerns that Hurricane Katerina can be linked to climate change, Tipping noted that environmental issues tend to only receive attention after a crisis.

“Water is the best example for portraying the power of sustainable development,” Tipping added. “Water is really never free. If it is not paid for, it is carried on the backs of women. That is sweat capital.”

More than 1.1 billion people lack access to safe, clean water. People living in urban slums are particularly affected.

“People move to cities because they want to be better off, but there cannot be good health with people living in slums. Access to water and sanitation is not so much a technical issue, but a political issue of who derives what benefit,” said Tipping.

Ari Rahkonen, responsible for the IBM corporation’s operations in Finland, agrees, “The successful operation of strategy can only be achieved with the will to do so. There has to be a strategy at a national level, but problems do not stop at borders, so regional cooperation is critical.”

Rahkonen cited the Internal Arms Trade Treaty, aimed at small arms control, as an example of successful regional strategy. “It was originally driven by civil society, but today many governments support it.”

Knut Sørlie, assistant director of the international department in the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry, said corruption had to be addressed effectively, as it changes the mindset of whole societies.

“The anti-corruption effort underlies good governance in both rich and poor countries. It increases the ability of governments to act,” said Ann Florini, a senior fellow in the foreign policy studies programme of the Brookings Institution in the United States.

Sørlie said more companies should sign the principles of Transparency International – an anti-corruption watchdog – and raised the controversial suggestion that previous deals on export credits should be open up to conduct corruption checks.

He also presented the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that all parliamentary candidates should have photographs taken of their houses and cars before the election and again after they had been in power for two years.

Sergio Spinaci, a senior public health expert with the World Health Organisation in Geneva, said the shortfall in achieving the health MDGs is staggering, especially in some regions like Africa and South-east Asia.

“We have to produce better access to health systems,” said Spinaci. “Ministers of Health are often buried in the day-to-day routine and not linked with other levels (of government) like the Minister of Finance. These linkages must be much more visible.”

Spinaci announced the World Health Organisation would be willing to host a follow-up discussion on the health issues raised at the Helsinki Conference.

Gunvor Kronman, chair of the development policy committee of Finland, expressed concerns that women’s rights have slipped off the agenda after the UN Conference on the Rights of Women in Beijing a decade ago.

“Criminal justice systems are not friendly. We need more women-friendly police stations and courts,” said Kronman. “Next week we have the UN meeting in New York. From a gender perspective this is very important. The UN resolution on women’s peace and security is very good, but it is too little known and too little used.”

Although not formally linked to the UN World Summit on development, the Helsinki Conference, organised by the Finnish government in cooperation with Tanzania (the two founders of the Helsinki Process), provided a curtain-raiser to the discussions expected in New York, Sep. 14-16.

More than 600 participants from non-governmental organisations from 70 countries gathered for the Helsinki Conference to discuss ways to achieve a more inclusive and equitable globalisation.

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