Eight exemplary women
24/03/2010
Yesterday I was sincerely impressed by the W8, a group of brave women brought together by Oxfam and MEP Michael Cashman from Central America, Africa, Europe and South East Asia, who testified at the European Parliament on their fight against poverty. Their stories help us to remember why it is so important to comply with Millennium Development Goals.
They told us about human daily lives, about the need for better education and health, but also about hope and will for self-improvement. We heard for instance the strong story of Elba Rivera Urbina from Nicaragua, who was illiterate when she was 18, and eventually succeeded to become a teacher and an activist for human development.
They focused on education, which is a paramount issue when trying to improve living conditions in developing countries. Professor Leonor Magtolis Briones, from the Philippines, specifically pointed out that “educating women is a priority because it is a way to educate a family, a village, a nation and to address health issues. “It was also important to Kadiatou Baby Maiga, from Mali, who was right to underline that “in my year at high school only two of the 80 pupils were girls. This made me realize that education was not as normal to other girls as it was to me.”
Education and health sectors are a priority for the EU development policy. We help the poorest countries by budget support and specific projects. But this is not enough: more resources are to be put on the table, as we all committed to. This is all the more important since “Maternal health” and “children mortality” are the MDGs where we are the most off-track. We therefore have to bridge the gap between current official development aid figures and our 0.7% commitment. The gap is substantial, but I am confident that by 2015 the European Union and the Member States will show that they stand up to global solidarity.
With only five years remaining to reach the Millennium Development Goals, progress is uneven and there is no time to waste. The question is not “if” Europe is going to do, but “how”. On April 21st, I will propose a concrete European Action plan in support of the MDGs, as a contribution to the High Level Event in New York in September. This ‘Spring Development Package’ will provide a credible pathway to delivering Europe’s aid commitment in 2015 and implementing it in a more efficient way.
I have already said it, and I will consistently repeat it: Millennium Development Goals are too big to fail. Faced with such stories, we realize quite bluntly that our credibility is at stake.
No comments:
Post a Comment