Yemen unlikely to reach MDGs: UNDP [Archives:2005/887/Front Page]

BY WALID AL-SAQQAF
MOHAMMED AL-JABRI
Sana'a, 17 Oct (YT) – The Human Development Report 2005 launched in Sana'a has criticized the slow pace of development in Yemen and ranked it among the poorest countries in the world. According to the report, Yemen is still one of the poorest countries in the world, even with ongoing efforts to reduce poverty. In a population of 19.7 million people, 43 percent are living under the poverty rate, which is US$2 per day.

Yemen is unlikely to reach most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015 in the current progress rate, according to the United Nations Development Program. Flavia Pansieri, Resident Representative of UNDP in Yemen, expressed her disappointment in Yemen's development pace during a ceremony held today in Sana'a to launch the Human Development Report 2005, which ranked Yemen at 151, two points lower than last year's ranking.

In the event, which also marked the International day for the Eradication of Poverty, a special emphasis was made on Yemen's need to catch up with other Least Developed Countries (LCDs) that have demonstrated a faster development rate in the last few years.

The Yemeni government however, indicated that is year's slower development pace of Yemen was partly blamed by several factors including insufficient donor support to the country.Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ahmed Mohammed Sofan said that despite the growing need to overcome many challenges facing Yemen since unification, donor support in the form of loans and donations was much lower than expected, resulting in a slower pace in development.

“In the 1980s, the total amount of annual donor support to former South and North Yemen ranged between 600 and 700 million US dollars. Today, and despite an ever growing need because of populations growth and many other factors, donor support fell drastically to about 350 million US Dollars.” he said.

This view was also shared by Flavia Pansieri, Resident Representative of UNDP in Yemen, who said that the per capita aid received by Yemen is just over a third of the average received by Least Developed Countries (LDCs). “Hence, even moving towards the international average would more than double the amount of aid Yemen receives.” Flavia said. She called upon donor representatives, who attended the ceremony launching this year's report, to increase their aid to Yemen towards developmental purposes.

However, Pansieri also criticized the Yemeni government's distribution of funds on different sectors, which in her view has contributed to the continuing decline in the developmental pace. She gave some key suggestions to improve performance such as the reduction of expenses on defense and other sectors that do not have a relevant affect on development and instead, and allocate more funding for social sectors related to development such as health and education. She said that by allocating only 1.3% of GDP to public health expenditures, while military expenditure accounts for over 7% of GDP, “Yemen is investing precious resources away from development.” But Deputy Prime Minister Sofan noted in his speech at the event that security comes hand in hand with development and should also be given priority, somewhat implicitly denying any excessive spending on security or inefficient allocation of donors' funds.

The government of Yemen is fully aware of the challenges that remain ahead and it has issued Millennium Development Goals Report (MDGR) in 2003 and PRSP progress report in 2005 highlighting openly these constraints. These reports detail the gap between intentions and results on the ground. The MDGR states that Yemen is unlikely to reach most MDGs based on recent rates of progress. Ms. Flavia Pansieri said that the report correctly highlights the importance of reducing inequality in order to ensure that the benefits of growth indeed reach the poor The issue of Yemeni workers in the region was also noted by Pansieri who encouraged the free movement of labor from Yemen, which “would be most helpful in absorbing an ever increasing pool of surplus labour, as well as providing the country with remittances”. Pansieri expressed the need to not interpret those results as a reverse of the development in the country. However, she underlined the fact that progress in Yemen is getting slower by the year compared to many other low development countries. She noted that Yemen's “pace of improvement in HDI has declined from an average annual rate of 2.2% in the 1990-1995 period to 1.6% between 95 and 2000 and to only 1.3% per year from 2000 to 2003.”

The Human Development Report for 2005, which was officially released last month, ranked Yemen at the 151st position from 177 countries, two points lower than last year's rank. This decline was not salvaged by efforts that were mentioned in the official media and were supposedly exerted by the Yemeni government to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals, which were centered on the reduction of poverty. With a per capita GDP of USD 800, Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East and is one of the poorest in the world. It has suffered from tremendous socio-economic challenges that intensified after unification in 1990 and has more than 40% of its fast growing population below the poverty line and suffers from high malnutrition, unemployment and lack of adequate basic services in vast parts of the country. Despite some efforts in economic and political reforms, the living standard in Yemen, which has the highest population growth rate (3.45%) in the world after Gaza strip, has also been dropping slowly in the last few years.

The launch of the report coincided with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, under the theme of “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Empowering the poorest of the Poor.”

On this occasion of Ms. Flavia said, “Today is the international day for the eradication of poverty. It is therefore a good opportunity to launch the UNDP Human Development report 2005(HDR), because poverty has a major impact in preventing progress in human development. Poverty affects people in its various forms, from income poverty to poverty of opportunities, and robs them of the chance to lead a fruitful and fulfilling life.”

Launched prior to the World Summit in New York last month, this UNDP report was presented to a large number of world leaders to assess the human costs as a result of the failure to achieve the goals of combating extreme poverty and the avoidance of deaths that can be prevented during the following ten years.

The report called for swift and dramatic changes in global aid, trade and security policies to fulfill the promises made by the international community when world leaders gathered in New York to address these problems five years ago.

The report also stressed the need for international cooperation to achieve the MDGs by 2015, address inequalities in both policies and priorities, and promote international aid, trade and security as interconnected pillars for progress to be made at all development and humanitarian fronts. The report warned that incomplete provisions would not be sufficient to make a real difference in people's lives.
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