Low income countries may not meet MDGs on employment – UN official

The majority of low income economies, including Rwanda, are unlikely to meet the employment target set out in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, a senior UN official has said.“Rwanda’s economy has not transformed to offer enough jobs,” Charles Abugre, the UN Millennium Regional Director for Africa told The New Times in an interview last week. He added that the government may want to focus on development of small and medium enterprises as a way of creating employment for the youth.One of the principle pillars of MDGs is to end extreme poverty and hunger by halving the proportion of people who live on less than $1 per day by 2015, among other things.Drawing his observations from the 2010/2011 Rwanda Household Living Conditions Survey, the UN chief also suggested that expanded investments in social sectors such as health and education, do not only increase social protection, but also create employment. The survey, which was conducted between 2010 and 2011, put the country’s unemployment rate at 2.4 per cent. In reaction, the Director of Labour at the Ministry of Labour and Public Service, Ann Mugabo, dismissed the rating as unrealistic.“There are no social nets in Rwanda….such rating is not realistic...how could those unemployed survive?” Mugabo, posed dismissing the International Labour Organisation’s unemployment definition.Abugre cautioned the government against spending more than it can generate. “But IMF and World Bank will say, look, you are spending more than you can generate….but it pays in the long run”. He nonetheless applauded Rwanda for coming closer to reducing the maternal mortality rate as a key target towards the realisation of MDGs.Abugre noted that though there were considerable improvements in reducing maternal mortality rates in Ethiopia and Rwanda, there were serious challenges towards its total eradication, citing malnutrition as a key cause.“We need to ensure children are properly nourished in the first three years of their lives,” he added.The Regional Coordinator of UN Millennium Campaign for Africa, Nelson Muffuh, said achieving MDGs does not mean eradication of poverty, insisting that their target was to halve its extreme indicators.The two officials were in the country to attend a two day consultative forum organised by ACORD Rwanda chapter that aims at charting the way forward after the MDGs deadline in 2015.Speaking at the forum, the Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, said the government would carry out consultations on the next set of development targets.Speaking on condition of anonymity, a government official disclosed to The New Times that during the formulation of the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), sectors that perform poorly receive support in order to realise the MDGs deliverables.Through local councils, the government has in the past engaged residents in public works like the construction of bridges, schools, terracing among others as a form of mass employment strategy. In 2000, 189 countries collectively adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, which evolved into a set of targets, now known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The targets range from: a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, to a healthier environment and a world in which developed and developing countries worked in partnership for the betterment of all.

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Low income countries may not meet MDGs on employment – UN official