MDGs - a Gift to Journalists?

By Farai Samhungu

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review season is upon us again. The last time a similar review was undertaken was in 2007, which was halfway to the target year of 2015. At that time, the then Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, said it was quite apparent that the promise to collectively protect the vulnerable and meet the special needs of the poor especially in Africa, continued to elude many leaders.

Eveline Herfkens, Executive Coordinator of the Millennium Campaign, said progress in Africa has generally been vey slow and patchy. While acknowledging the shortcomings, she highlighted some achievements from which leaders could draw inspiration to do more. She noted progress made in Uganda to reverse the spread of AIDS; Mozambique had recorded significant success in its drive to curb child mortality; and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa had more children going to school than before. She also noted the growing commitment towards good governance in many countries, which set the stage to make real progress towards achieving the MDGs.

With only five years left to 2015, world leaders will converge in New York in September for another huge summit to take stock of progress made so far, renew commitments and step up efforts to achieve MDGs. Preceding this global summit is a meeting of African Union leaders to be held in Uganda in July. At this meeting, leaders are expected to use this platform to highlight how they have collectively and as individual countries advanced the MDG agenda on the continent. More importantly they are expected to come up with action plans and strategies to mobilize resources needed to achieve the MDGs.

Patchy progress

A look through some of the review reports paints a mixed picture of how the African continent has fared. Primary school enrolment has increased with countries like Tanzania enrolling a million more kids in school. Mozambique continues to improve on their child mortality rate and indicators are that the country is well on its way to meeting MDG goals 1 and 4 on poverty and child mortality. Labour productivity is said to be increasing, but unfortunately this has not translated into employment as many countries still register unacceptably high unemployment rates.

Despite these positive indicators, signals on the ground are that most countries will miss their targets. The G20 meeting in Toronto earlier this year, which also reviewed progress on the MDGs, cited the lack of financial support as one the impediments to attaining the goals. The leaders at this meeting, while acknowledging the financial constrains, also felt that Africa’s biggest obstacles were corruption, continued violation of human rights as well as barriers to gender equality.

Public buy-in equals accountability

As the MDG project moves closer its target, it is worrying that awareness of MDGs has not trickled down to the public and little is known about accountability mechanisms, if any. How can African women demand more action from their leaders especially when evidence on the ground shows that many women continue to die giving birth and due to pregnancy-related complications? Yet through Goal 5, leaders pledged to improve maternal health. Although, the number of girls in schools has increased marginally, girls in their majority are still kept out of school because of poverty and in some cases sexual violence. Promoting awareness and understanding of MDGs is central to the attainment of the goals. This is critical because awareness and knowledge bolsters people’s ability to demand accountability from their leaders.

During the 2007 mid-term review, along with some colleagues we pondered as media, what role we could play to raise awareness and create knowledge about the MDGs. At that time, it was quite clear that the majority of African media had not actively engaged in understanding and communicating MDGs as they should. Journalists, to a large extent, have shied away from giving information other than the bare minimum as well as insightful analysis linking their countries’ development agendas to such global commitments and action plans. This has resulted in largely uninformed publics, who lack critical information to assist them in making decisions and taking action.

A rare “gift to journalists”

This dearth of MDG information in the media was lamentable because, according to a colleague, the MDGs were a rare “gift to journalists”. They offer journalists “the chance of breaking down the welter of information about under-development into a convenient eight point “to do list”. But unfortunately the reality has not been so, communicating MDGs remains a challenge for the media in Africa. Journalists cite the lack of resources to cover such stories as well as competing agendas as some of their biggest challenges.

Perhaps, MDGs could still be a gift to journalists. As the target fast approaches, both media and development organizations could begin to look at some of the following strategies to give impetus to the different processes aimed at attaining the goals.

- Eight-point to-do list

Journalists should embrace the challenge presented by MDGs to look critically at development through the framework of MDGs and perceive them as a convenient eight point ‘to do list’. The eight point plan is an effective strategy to deal with the fatigue or disinterest that sets in when readers are presented with development stories. The MDGs still offer journalists a convenient framework to breakdown their development coverage. This will also help journalists make linkages with national, regional as well as global development ambitions and targets.

- Questions nobody is asking

While recognizing achievements and continuing to look out for those ‘feel good’ stories, journalists should be challenged to flag warning signs by asking questions that need to be asked. Why are people still going hungry when others continue to enjoy growing wealth? Why should children be denied the opportunity to go to school when education is their right? Why should women in Africa continue to die while giving birth and bear the disproportionate HIV/AIDS burden when leaders have committed themselves to improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases through goals 5 and 6, respectively.

- At the tips of your fingers

All countries that committed to the MDG agenda produce reports. Journalists should get hold of such reports and use them as the basis for their editorial agendas at national level. Critical analysis and coverage of such reports will begin to provide citizens with information to enable them to take action as well as reflect progress in the eyes of ordinary people. By doing this, the media would create space to enable people to tell their stories and put a spotlight on the manifestation of international policies on people’s lives – especially on how they are being empowered or disempowered.

- Critique and partner

Strategies to harness the power of the media by the development sector have up till now been inconsistent. But this has to change if the media is to play a critical role in continuously critiquing the process towards the achievement of MDGs. Partnering with media in awareness raising and building knowledge through joint programmes, training and mentorship of journalists as well financing of media programmes should be explored. Journalists need skills and resources to deal with new challenges.