Coleagues, I read the speech presented on our behalf by Dr. Isatou Njie  
Saidy, Ajaratou, at the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly. I will present  
the speech in its entirety (I will omit the first 3 Paragraphs of  
felicitations) interspersed with my review of it. I thank our representative at  the UN 
for her participation on our behalf.
 
The speech is relatively long so I will review it in its paragraphs and in  a 
numbered series. This therefore is the review of the 4th paragraph  and it is 
numbered Review 1.
 
[Mr. President, The mid-term review of the Millennium Declaration two years  
ago indicates that the Millennium Development Goals are far from being  
attained in most of the developing world. This notwithstanding, for us in The  
Gambia, our commitment to the MDGs is unwavering. The overarching policy  objective 
of the government, under the leadership of his Excellency the  President of 
the Republic of The Gambia Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh, is to reduce  poverty and 
achieve all the MGDs. We have just concluded a Second Poverty  Reduction 
Strategy Paper which clearly sets out our policy framework for  achieving growth and 
poverty reduction despite our meagre resources and  endowments, and despite 
the failure of several partners to fulfil their pledges  of aid, debt relief, 
and market access for African countries. The same mid-term  reviews showed that 
the commitments that were made in many fora by the  international community 
in support of the MGDs in poor countries have not  translated into real 
resource flows into these countries. We therefore call on  the international 
community to rededicate itself to the provisions of the  Monterey concensus, and the 
Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. In this  regard, my delegation welcomes 
the panel of eminent personalities established by  former British Prime 
Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, to monitor pledges made at the G8  summits including 
those made at the Gleneagles Summit. My Delegation considers  it particularly 
critical to take action to reverse the downward trend in  overseas development 
financing.]
 
I sit and wonder whether there is a gap in understandings between the  
developped countries and the developing countries when it comes to the UN. Or is  it 
that Gambian officials have not read or did not understand the Millennium  
Declaration. I had thought that my review of our speech at the UN would be on  
the premise that we understand the basic elements of the subject matter.  
However, our speech indicates there may be a deficit of critical information.  
Therefore, I present some relevant sources of information and I encourage all my  
coleagues to read these documents as we review our state:
_http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html_ 
(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html) 
_http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf_ 
(http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf) 
 
In September 2000, The UN Millennium Summit took place. 189 nations  
participated. 147 of those nations adopted some goals targeted to be  accomplished by 
the year 2015. It was then up to those nations to devise  policies and plans 
toward accomplishing those goals. The goals are 7 in number  and to assist less 
able nations, they added an eighth goal to form  development partnerships in 
their various journeys toward the common goals. The  UN promised to undertake 
monitoring and encouragement of these nations and  partnerships and so they 
produce reports every so often to track progress. A  report was completed in 
2003, 2005, and recently in 2007. The second URL  above is the 2005 Report. The 
Millennium Declaration does not place any  obligation on any participating 
nation to give anything to any other idiot. The  relevant development partnerships 
must be consulted to review promises and  contracts among nations. It is sort 
of like a Pair Effort where nations  associate themselves with other desiring 
nations and partner toward achieving  the Global Millennium Goals.
 
Now then, as you can see, the 8 goals are:
1. Eradicate extreme Poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce Child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
 
It is no accident that the goals appear in the order that they do. It means  
that goals 1 thru 7 must be achieved in tandem with goal 8 or perhaps better  
before goal 8 can harness values. For example; you would not expect Gambia  to 
participate in trade anywhere on an equal footing with Senegal if Gambia does 
 not make any meaningful effort toward eradicating extreme poverty and 
hunger,  achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and the  
empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and  
malaria, in an environmentally sustainable manner. Nor would you ask Spain to  
absorb Gambia's diseased and ill-prepared children. In effect, instead of 
lament  Gambia's lack of Millennium Development partners or donations from more  
developed countries, I think the Vice President ought to have shared what  
concrete steps her administration has taken in achieving any of the goals  of the 
MDG. In fairness to her, Ajaratou, the vice president has shared that her  
administration has just (in 2007), concluded their second Poverty Reduction  
Strategy Paper. And she shares that burden with her delegation to the UN. A  
question then arises: Why since 2000 when the MDGs were adopted, that The Gambia  
government has only embarked on the production of policy papers? How  many 
strategic policy papers do they intend to produce before they begin  implementing 
any one of them? And are those strategy papers dependent on gifts,  grants, and 
circumstance from generous countries? How do they intend to find  those 
generous countries therefore? I remembered an opportunity they squandered  in 
receiving aid from the US based on the Millennium Project. That aid went to  Ghana 
instead and Ghana is putting it to good use. I recommend Gambia take a  look 
at Ghana's representative's speech on this issue of beggars and  spoilers.
 
I will give you an opportunity to digest the 2005 Millennium Development  
Progress Report by the UN before we review Gambia's performance in detail. I  
caution good study and that this review process could take a week or two.
 
Thank you coleagues for your audience. Haroun Masoud. MQDT.  Darbo.    
 
 



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