FOREWARD Henry R. Jackelen – UN Resident Coordinator (the report)
Heads of state and government of the UN member states will come together at a high-level event in New York in September 2008 to review the status of the Millennium Development Goals. On the brink of the summit – and in preparation for it – the Bulgarian Government and the UN agencies in Bulgaria have put together this report in collaboration with civil society organizations, members of the academia and business.
For the world the year 2008 is a midway point in the global effort to reach the Millennium Development Goals. For Bulgaria this report is the last that covers its achievement prior to joining the European Union. As such it is a social baseline in the universal language of MDGs which celebrates the significant accomplishments of the country. In the future, Bulgaria’s progress will be assessed in a different way according to its status of a EU member state.
Accordingly, the country will have the potential to participate in shaping the EU common development policy and to contribute to the achievement of the Global Development Goals.
The Millennium Development Goals – 2008 is the second report Bulgaria has produced to honor the country’s commitment as a signatory of the Millennium Declaration, whereby all UN member states pledged to make global efforts until 2015 to reduce poverty, respect human rights, promote peace, strengthen democracy, and ensure environmental sustainability.
In addition, Bulgaria offers this report as a new donor of development assistance who can share with other regions of the world a wealth of experience the country has gained during the transition to market economy and democratic institutions. Now Bulgaria is willing to contribute even more actively to the achievement of the global development agenda.
Bulgaria’s first report on the Millennium Development Goals was published in March 2003. The report adapted the eight global goals to the country’s development levels at the time of preparation for accession to the European Union and formulated progress monitoring indicators and targets corresponding to the respective development levels in the EU member states. This report reviews progress made against the goals defined in 2003 in the context of Bulgaria’s membership in the European Union and redefines some national goals and indicators.
New progress monitoring indicators have been introduced to track Bulgaria’s progress under Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development. Whereas in 2003 that goal was interpreted from Bulgaria’s position as a beneficiary of international aid, the current report looks at it from the position of a donor country.
Therefore new targets have been formulated under this goal:
1) Complete the transition from a recipient of international aid to a donor of official development assistance (ODA); and
2) Ensure Bulgaria’s active and effective participation in the common EU development cooperation policy. Bulgaria has already elaborated its national policy and will soon have in place institutions and rules for provision of official development assistance. Along with the other new EU members, Bulgaria has set itself the ambitious aim to be part of EU development policies by contributing ODA funds at 0.17% of GNI (gross national income) until 2010 and 0.33% of GNI until 2015.
Today, Bulgaria can be optimistic about its efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The country is on track to achieve a number of Millennium Development Goals targets, or even deliver better than expected results on some of them. For instance, Bulgaria aspired to reach average monthly income levels of 280 euros in 2015 compared to a 91 euro benchmark in 2001. The average monthly income in the country in 2007 was already gaining on 165 euros. The planned target for long-term unemployment by 2015 was 7 per cent, but unemployment levels fell down to 3.9 per cent already in June 2007. The numbers of long-term unemployed people halved from 513,700 in December 2001 to 208,200 in June 2007.
While most of the indicators for education and unemployment are close to the EU average, other indicators are significantly lower. Such are the indicators for average and minimum monthly income, child mortality, maternal mortality, incidence of tuberculosis and syphilis.
At the same time Bulgaria continues to set a successful example for effective government policies and efficient measures at the national and the local level to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. In June 2008 it received excellent appraisal for the implementation of the National Program for Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS and was able to secure continued financing of 32.4 million euros for 2009 – 2014 from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Although the indicators under the educational targets are comparable to the EU levels, the report notes that the quality of education is declining and urgent reforms are needed to support the adjustment of the educational system in an economy that must be innovative and competitive within the EU single market. Major issues are still persistent in the healthcare sector where the management, efficiency and effectiveness of health services fail to meet the needs and expectations of the people. Access to healthcare is not universal and – when coupled with poor income and educational levels among some groups of the population – it leads to social, regional and ethnic disparities.
By highlighting certain drawbacks of the implemented approaches and institutional solutions, and by recognizing accomplishments in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, the report identifies policies and measures that can accelerate Bulgaria’s progress and can bring the country closer to its targets for 2015. Furthermore, with this report Bulgaria declares its firm commitment to undertake its new responsibility: to help overcome global poverty and contrasts in the world by acting as a ‘creative donor’ of development assistance.
Although there has been progress against poverty, illiteracy, epidemics, disease and malnourishment in many regions of the world, development challenges will remain intractable without joint efforts and partnership between national governments, business, the nongovernmental sector and international organizations. These challenges can now be met with the participation of Bulgaria and with the remarkable resources available hrough the EU membership.
I hope the report will incite stronger public interest in Bulgaria towards the global development agenda, and will encourage civic action and institutional commitments to participate more actively and more productively in the joint effort to create a better world for all.
Henry R. Jackelen
UN Resident Coordinator
UNDP Resident Representative
StrongMindBlog 