In September 2015, Heads of States will agree to a new global development agenda to take over from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), indicated the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on its website. This new framework will guide billions of dollars of aid and investment to 2030.
In fact, the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-which range from having extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIVAIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015- form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.
In Tunisia, two of these goals are reached while for the rest, “the country is on the right track”, according to representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Tunisia Maria Louiza Fornana.
This includes reducing by half the number of persons living below extreme poverty and limiting, in 2015, the number of people who lack drinking water and basic heath services.
However, Tunisia will have to increase efforts concerning the environmental aspects and those related to the preservation of natural resources. As part, of the new programme, measures providing for the environmental concerns will be better integrated and will have “deep consequences for the efforts conservation and sustainable development in the world and on the WWF mission,” underlines the largest Non governmental organisation (NGO) of environment in the world. The MDGs focused public and private attention on a core set of development objectives, helped stimulate Official Development Assistance and resulted in major progress in many areas, including poverty reduction, health, education and access to potable water.
Unfortunately, the MDGs failed to aance environmental issues, with MDG7 targets on reducing biodiversity loss and reversing loss of environmental resources among the most off-track.
The theme by theme approach of the MDGs ignored the important links between goals, including between the sustainable management of natural resources and human well-being and development.
As the largest environment NGO with the broadest reach, WWF is working to ensure that environmental considerations are embedded throughout the post-2015 development framework.
WWF considers the post-2015 development agenda to be a unique opportunity to better value natural resources and healthy ecosystems as a foundation for poverty eradication, equitable and inclusive growth and sustainable development, the WWF website reads.
Source : Tunis Afrique Presse