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Google set to display books 

California (AP) -- Google Inc.'s Internet-leading search engine will begin serving up the entire contents of books and government documents that aren't entangled in a copyright battle over how much material can be scanned and indexed from five major libraries.

 The list of Google's so-called "public domain" works -- volumes no longer protected by copyright -- include Henry James novels, Civil War histories, Congressional acts and biographies of wealthy New Yorkers.

 Google said the material represents the first large batch of public domain books and documents to be indexed in its search engine since the Mountain View-based company announced an ambitious library-scanning project late last year.

 The program is designed to make more library material available through a few clicks of a computer mouse and attract more people to click on the highly profitable ads that Google displays on its Web site.

 During the next several years, Google wants to create digital versions of millions of books stacked in the New York Public Library and four university libraries -- Stanford, Harvard, Michigan and Oxford. Google declined to disclose how many books have been scanned from the libraries so far. The project is expected to require years to complete. But a bitter copyright dispute is threatening to crimp Google's plans.  

The Authors Guild and five major publishers are suing to prevent Google from scanning copyrighted material in the libraries without explicit permission. Because it plans to show only snippets from copyrighted books, Google argues its scanning project constitutes "fair use" of the material. 

 Google postponed the scanning of copyrighted books in August to give writers and publishers more time to opt out of the program. The scanning of copyrighted material resumed with an emphasis on books no longer in print’                                                g     

Zimbabwe finds uranum, to make electricity, Mugabe

 HARARE, Zimbabwe has discovered uranium but intends to mine the commodity only to generate electricity, not for use in making nuclear weapons, President Robert Mugabe said in remarks broadcast.  

“We have found uranium, which is used to make electricity (and) the bombs that you hear about … but when we mine it we would not want it to be used in bomb making … We would use it to give us electricity,” Mugabe said on state television. 

The television said Mugabe spoke at a function at a plant owned by state power utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority.  It did not give details.

 Zimbabwe imports 35 percent of its electricity from South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and DRC to augment domestic supplies but ZESA has battled to pay for imports in recent years as a result of biting foreign currency shortages.                               g

 Fuel crisis disrupts Air Zimbabwe 

Flights on Zim-babwe's national airline are not yet back to normal, a day after all its seven aircraft were grounded when the airline ran out of fuel. The authorities said services resumed after a shipment of fuel arrived, but some domestic services were still not operating.

 A foreign exchange crisis has led to a severe fuel shortage in Zimbabwe. State media said hundreds of passengers were stranded, and airline officials had been suspended from their jobs. Air Zimbabwe has suffered cancellations in the past, but Monday was the first time the airline was forced to ground all its planes.

Fuel for motor vehicles has long been in short supply. Motorists have to contend with long fuel queues, and petrol trades on the black market at premium prices.

Investigation The state-owned Herald newspaper said Air Zimbabwe's board had suspended chief executive Tendai Mahachi and company secretary Tendai Mujuru "pending investigations into serious disruptions of the national airliner's operations and services".  

Air Zimbabwe serves the country's main cities and tourist centres as well as southern African destinations, and long-haul routes to London, China, Singapore and Dubai. "All planes have been grounded because there is no adequate foreign currency to buy fuel and flights have been suspended until further notice," an Air Zimbabwe official told Reuters news agency on November 21. 

Government critics blame Zimbabwe's foreign exchange shortage on economic mismanagement and the near-collapse of commercial agriculture following a hasty land reform programme. The government says sanctions are responsible for the country's economic problems.                       

 Air Zimbabwe's fleet includes two MA60 aircraft obtained this year from China as part of President Robert Mugabe's "Look East" policy. Mr. Mugabe has in the past been accused of compounding the airline's problems by commandeering planes for his personal use.                                                        g 

Islamists build strength in Egyptian parliament

 CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood built up its strength as the largest opposition bloc in parliament in Egyptian elections, winning 13 seats despite a crackdown by the authorities, results showed.  Police arrested about 470 activists from the Brotherhood before and during voting on November 20, in the second stage of the elections.  Police and armed gangs blocked polling stations in some Brotherhood strongholds, witnesses said.  

The Brotherhood, banned since 1954 but whose candidates are standing as independents, had more than doubled its strength in parliament in the first stage of voting, making the most of unprecedented leeway from the government. 

The group has now won 47 seats, showing the weight of political Islam as Egypt’s strongest opposition force.  It is contesting only one third of the chamber’s 444 elected places, not posing a threat to the ruling National Democratic Party’s (NDP) control of parliament. Official results for half of the 144 seats contested on Sunday showed the NDP won three outright.  A second round of voting will be held for most of the seats where no candidate won a majority and the NDP will contest most of the run-offs. 

Brotherhood deputy leader Mohamed Habib told Reuters 13 of his candidates had won outright and another 35 would take part in run-offs.  In stage two, the Brotherhood had fielded 60 candidates. 

“If the elections had taken place in a good way, like the first stage, 35 of those would have won,” Habib said.                                                               g 

New Darfur clashes as US envoy mounts peace drive 

Sudanese troops and rebels clashed in the western Darfur region clashed and a rebel group said 14 civilians and eight insurgents had been killed in the past 48 hours. 

A senior U.S. envoy, Jendayi Frazer, made an unannounced visit to Darfur in a peace drive, meeting two leaders of the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), who have been squabbling over ht SLA’s presidency.  

Sudanese forces said they had attacked Chadian rebels who had crossed the border to the mountainous Jabel group said this was untrue and that the government was attacking its bases. “Again we were attacked today, as we were,” Khalil Abdallah, political leader of the National Movement for Reform and Development, told Reuters.  

In a statement, the Sudanese army said 120 dissident Chadian troops had crossed the border and made a base in Jabel Moun.  “The armed forces have undertaken operations in Jabal Moun … to expel the Chadian dissident forces,” the army said, adding one Chadian had been arrested. The African Union (AU), which has ceasefire monitors in Darfur, said there had been heavy fighting in the area and reported causalities but did not have any figures. Tens of thousands have been killed since a revolt in Darfur began in early 2003.

 Non-Arah rebels took up arms because they said the central government monopolized wealth and power.  The United Nations says Khartoum then armed Arab militias who stand accused of a campaign of killing, rape and looting that forced more than 2 million to flee their homes. The United States has called the violence genocide, a charge Khartoum denies.

Earlier this month, the SLA elected a new president.  Minni Arcua Minnawi, at a congress after incumbent Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur refused to attend.  But some factions disagreed with the vote and the group has since.                                               g 

Ghana MP in US 'heroin' arrest

 The government in Ghana has confirmed that a member of parliament has been arrested in the United States for alleged involvement in drug smuggling.  

Eric Amoateng was detained by the US authorities in connection with the alleged trafficking of 136 pounds of heroin, worth some $6m, a minister said.

The BBC's Kwaku Sakyi-Addo in the capital, Accra, says Ghanaians are shocked at the news. The ruling New Patriotic Party has moved to distance itself from the MP.  

Our correspondent says Mr Amoeteng is known to his constituents in Nkoranza North as a generous man, who helped finance road-building projects. When arrested, he claimed immunity as an MP, but the FBI said there was no such protection in the US.                                                                        g

 Bio-terror strike 'is inevitable'

The world must face the inevitability of a bio-terror attack by al-Qaeda, the head of Interpol has warned.

 Police and health authorities around the world were underprepared for such an attack, Ron Noble told a bio-terror conference in Cape Town, South Africa. An attack could see smallpox, anthrax, botulism or Ebola-style viruses released into Western cities.

 The Cape Town event is the first of three sessions to train medics and police how to deal with attacks. Further sessions will be held in Chile and Singapore during 2006.

 Patient but deadly

 Addressing delegates from 41 African nations, Mr Noble said al-Qaeda's track record of deadly, unexpected terror attacks put the threat into focus.

Evidence collected from sympathetic websites also pointed to an avowed intention to stage bio-terror attacks if operatives gained the capability, he added.

"Al-Qaeda has openly claimed the right to kill four million people using biological and chemical weapons," he said.

 "Al-Qaeda is willing, able and patient enough to plan and prepare to execute terrorists acts that [once] would have been considered unrealistic or fantasy."

Interpol says several pathogens and viruses most likely to be used in any bio-terror attack, Mr Noble told delegates.

 'Suicide bio-weapon'

 Tactics could vary - as well as a traditional detonation, attackers could turn themselves into a "suicide bio-weapon", Mr. Noble said, travelling around while highly infectious.

Postal services could also be used to spread disease as shown by anthrax attacks in the US in 2001. "The potential consequences of such an attack could be so far-reaching that a lack of action in preventing bio-terrorism poses an unacceptable risk to the safety of societies around the world," he said.

 The Cape Town meeting follows a conference in Lyons, France, in March, in which Interpol urged governments to back a drive against bio-terror.

 Africa's HIV rate still highest

HIV prevalence appears to be declining in a few African countries, but sub-Saharan Africa is still the area worst affected by HIV, the UN says.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 25.8m people living with HIV: over 60% of the number of people with HIV worldwide. The update, published by the Joint UN Programme on HIV-Aids (UNAids), also says the number of people living with HIV throughout the world is at its highest yet. HIV prevalence remains particularly high in Southern Africa, and is continuing to expand, notably in Mozambique and Swaziland.

In Zimbabwe, HIV prevalence among pregnant women declined from 26% in 2002 to 21% in 2004, the UNAids update says, citing data from the

national surveillance system. Reduction in reported number of sexual partners "However, with over one in five pregnant women still testing HIV-positive in Zimbabwe," infection levels remain among the highest in the world," UNAids says.  

In Swaziland, HIV prevalence among pregnant women rose to 43%, up from 34% four years earlier. HIV infection levels in west and central Africa remain the same, other than a decline in prevalence in urban areas of Burkina Faso.  Botswana and Uganda are leading the way in rolling out anti-retroviral treatment, with at least one-third of those who need ARVs now receiving them in those countries.  

But in South Africa, where ARV provision has become a burning political issue in the last few years, at least 85% of people in need of ARVs - almost 900,000 people - were still not receiving the drugs by mid-2005, UNAids says.                              g

A report by Human Rights Watch says South African officials cannot cope with the numbers of refugees coming into the country, with the result that thousands spend years in a twilight legal status. The BBC's Justin Pearce spoke to some asylum seekers in Johannesburg.  

Noel Maluka says he decided to leave the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo after he was stabbed in the face by Congolese security forces - losing the sight in his left eye during the assault. He says he was attacked in April during an anti-government demonstration in Kinshasa by his party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS).  

A relative paid for him to fly to South Africa, where he hoped to gain refugee status on the grounds of political persecution. When he went to the Pretoria office of Home Affairs - the government department that deals with immigration - a man he describes as "security" demanded a payment of R200 ($30) to be allowed in to have his application processed.  

He didn't have the money. After receiving some money from relatives back in Kinshasa, he decided instead to try another office. "I went to Durban - there it was free, even if you had to spend the night outside the office."  

The Durban office also offered the services of a translator, something that was absent in Pretoria - like many asylum seekers in South Africa, Mr Maluka does not speak English.

Mr Maluka now has to travel the 600km to Durban every time he needs to renew his permit. This is usually once every two months, though other asylum seekers say they have had their permits renewed sometimes for three months and sometimes only for one month.  

Sleeping in queues  

"Who are we to tell them what to do?" says another Congolese asylum seeker, who gave her name as Mamie. "If they want to, they can give you only five days or a week." On one occasion when she went to renew her permit, Mamie says she once spent a week sleeping outside the Home Affairs office in Johannesburg to try to get to the front of the queue.

Noel and Mamie are among the 142,000 refugees and asylum seekers currently in South Africa, many of them still struggling to confirm their legal status.

South Africa's image of a prosperous and peaceful place on a troubled continent has made it the first choice for many of those fleeing war or persecution elsewhere. The asylum seekers' predicament is highlighted in a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which concludes that while South Africa's system for processing asylum claims is fine in theory, it is flawed in practice.  

The report tells of people waiting in legal limbo for five years, constantly renewing the temporary asylum seeker permits - even though the system is designed for asylum claims to be finalised in six months. It tells of "helpers" who hang around on the pavement extorting money from asylum seekers in exchange for speeding up their claims.

 Asylum seekers suspect that these "helpers" are colluding with government officials, and exploiting refugees' desperation to find their way through an overloaded system.

 Staff shortage

 Nobuntu Mbelle, one of the researchers of the HRW report, believes that staffing at the Home Affairs offices is at the root of the problem. "The Johannesburg office is poorly staffed and can't deal with the cases coming in on a daily basis. Then when you have an increase in arrivals, then obviously you have a backlog."  

"Home Affairs is aware of this and are dealing with it, but they need to do more." The uncertainty over their status has left asylum seekers dependent on the charity of churches or eking out a living in informal trade. "I have an MSc in sustainable agriculture but I'm working selling things in the street," says Lavee, an Eritrean who came to South Africa to study, and then realised that the political situation in his country had deteriorated to the point where he could not go home.  Charity  

South Africa recently brought its law into line with international standards, so as to give asylum seekers the right to study and to be employed. But employers are still reluctant to take on migrants who lack permanent South African residence.  

"It [the asylum seeker document] says I can study and work, but when you go for work they don't recognise that," Lavee says. Mamie from DR Congo sells handbags and shoes on the street.  

She says the Rhema Church of which she is a member helped her when her child needed hospital treatment, and the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) have money for education, and loans to help her buy goods to sell on the street. "We have run away from our countries because of war," she says. "Now we are having our own war with Home Affairs."

Regionalism in the context of globalization

This paper is based on a study on the progress and problems of the regional integration are Southern Africa.  As there are many suggestions that deny the feasibility of regional affects by developing countries facing globalization, the paper is to argue why regionalism is needed and how SADC is trying to make it a success in a rapidly globalized world economy.    

With the ending of the COLD WAR, a New World Order is being redefined and pursues by peoples and powers of influence.  The current globalization is capital motivated and big powers are setting the rules of the game.

 Underdeveloped countries are poorly prepared for such a challenge and are threatened to be more marginalized by the investors who are seeking marketplaces where they can easily gain and go.  As a World Bank Policy Research Report stated, “The world’s financial markets are rapidly integrating into a single global marketplace, and developing countries are being drawn in to this process starting from different point and moving at various speed ….  Developing countries may have little choice about whether to follow this path … But they may still choose the ways in which they proceed, choosing the policies tat benefits the economy and averting potential shocks.” ¹

Collective efforts for self-sustainable development might be a better choice than to merely rely on outside “generosity” which has often not friendly or reliable.  Even with the most seemingly advantageous trade terms offered to the poor countries, like the Lome Convention, the weak economies of the ACP countries have not gained much in changing their vulnerable position in the World economy. 

The recent US-Africa Growth and Opportunity Bill also proposes to allow sub-Sahara Africa unlimited and duty-free access to certain US markets, but it has received cautious responses from the continent suspecting that the US offer “Is motivated almost entirely by US interests”  in seeking to open African markets to US goods.  This “trade, not aid” formula was criticized by African leaders as the continent have little to export to the US other than raw materials.² 

Globalization is a crystal ball; people expect and see their own pictures in it.  So there has been no consensus of how the world should be globalized.  This paper argues that will the globalization of the world markets, there should be a globalized development.  So that the present knew round of economic globalization will not leave a more polarized world.  Facing this challenge, the developing nations themselves owe to find ways to get ready, the sooner the better, for the inevitable trend of globalized trade, investment and information, so that they would not fall victim to globalization.  

African needs new thinking.  The approach to sustainable development and to foster competitive economies should start from self-reliance collectively.  Southern Africa’s efforts might be of relevance to other parts of the continent in the pursuit of African renaissance.  

SADC’s Approach to Regional Integration 

1. From SADCC to SADC—Commitment to Regional Coopera-tion

 Southern African countries, since the 1970s, have embarked on the road of regional cooperation for survival and development.  In 1980, the nine Southern African majority-ruled states of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe decided to establish the Southern African Development Coordinated Conference (SADCC).  Their common goal was for economic liberation, mainly for the reduction of economic dependence, particularly on South Africa, and meanwhile for the “forging of links to create a genuine and equitable regional integration”.  However, due to the massive destabilization by South African apartheid regime, and the domestic economic problems in the SADCC member states, progress “has been modest”.³

 With the ending of apartheid in South Africa, the region for the first time has had the opportunity for peaceful development, to free resources from military to productive development activities.  The SADCC reorganized itself into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in 1992.  South Africa joined the SADC formally in August 1994.   

The SADC at present has fourteen Member States after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire) and the Republic of Seychelles was accepted by the organization in September 1997.  The Community covers an area of 9.277 million sq.  Km, with a population of 180 million, and a total GDP of USD 17 billion.

 The emphasis of SADC now is more on medium and long-term regional economic integration than of project-oriented functional cooperation.  Regional collective and harmonizing approach is adopted because they recognize that “The economies of Southern African states are small and underdeveloped.  The countries of the region must, therefore, join together to strengthen themselves economically and politically, if the region is to become a serious player in international relations.”  And that “No single country of Southern Africa can achieve this status on its own.”⁴

 As in any other regional organizations, differences in national interests between member states exit in SADC.  The system of top-level dialogue and discussion of SADC head of states has been regarded as effective for preventing crisis and for peaceful solutions to conflicts in the region.  

2. Need for Economic Diversification and sustainable development 

The sub-continent of Southern Africa occupies a unique geographical situation with rich mineral resources are endowed by nature.  But Southern African countries only consume less than 10% of their mineral products currently.⁵ The principle role of the mining sector is that of a hard currency earner.  As the world’s unregenerate mineral resources are getting scare with the process of industrialization, international competition on the exploration and production of minerals is becoming tense in recent years. 

However, a challenge facing SADC countries is what will be left after a new round of “gold rush”.  The problem for many African countries is not lack of trade with developed countries, but the structure of trade with cheap raw materials in exchange for value added manufactured goods and sometimes evens for food supplies.  This pattern of trade has seen the industrial countries prosper with a very cheap price for raw materials while the developing nations exhausting their precious natural resources but left very little development.  

To link mining with the building of a self-sustainable and diversified economy is the strategic consideration of the SADC’s mining sector.  The private sector is encouraged to play a more important role in the commercial exploration of mineral resources, as well as in the value added downstream processing industries.

 3. Laying foundations for development 

Different from many regional economic blocs, SADC puts a strong emphasis on development, nationally and as a region.  It did not start as a trade block, although inter-regional trade is an important area for development.  It has been building form ground up.  For the purpose of socio-economic deve-lopment, policies were adopted for projects to be linked to job creation and training of skills and to promote local development. 

From Transport Corridors to Development Corridors 

Transport and communication has been the priority of regional development since the SADCC years.  The past few years have seen SADC’s efforts to upgrade and integrate the regional systems for surface transport, civil aviation, and telecommunication of the 400 and more development projects, nearly half of them are in the domain of transport and communications.  The region is currently forging ahead with at least ten development corridors many of them going east-west, in order to provide the inland countries with new transport routes other than going down through South African ports. 

Funding status of the projects has shown improvement.  The most successful of the spatial develop-ment initiatives under implement-tation or under consideration is the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC), linking the Gauteng area in South Africa with the Maputo Port in Mozambique.  It was reported that the value of projects completed recently and at commissioning, was about R7. 6bn and would result in more than 7000 jobs.⁶ 

Projects linking South Africa and its northern neighbors and railway links with African countries beyond SADC are also under construction or consideration.  It might make true the dream of a rail/road from Cape to Cairo in the process of African renaissance. 

The Southern African Power Pool

The SADC Energy Protocol has been signed by all member states on 24 August 1996.  The objective of SADC’s energy sector is to harmonize national and regional energy policies, and to cooperate in the development of energy and energy pooling to ensure security and reliability of energy supply and the minimization of costs.  For that purpose, a regional programme has started to link the 12 national utilities of member states into one electricity and grid, namely the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) which was signed in 1995.  

Electricity is the second largest source of commercial energy in the SADC region.  The abundant supply of hydroelectricity and relatively cheap prices give Southern Africa a competitive advantage in developing mineral, metallurgical, petrochemical and other industries.  

Shared Water Course Systems 

Surface water is secure in many of the Southern African countries.  The SADC Water protocol and Shared Watercourse Systems Protocol were signed in 1995, aims to integrate the utilization and preservation of water resources in the region.  The utilization of a shared watercourse is a very sensitive issue related to national sovereignty rights of the respective countries.  So the Protocol emphasizes the respect and application of “the existing rules of general and customary international law”.  It is certainly important for nations within a shared watercourse system to maintain a proper balance between the development of water resources and the protection of environment to promote sustain-able development.  

Varies projects for the management of Major River systems are under construction or discussion.  The most successfully developed one of them is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), a water transfer scheme which is expected to export water to South Africa’s industrial area of Gauteng and to provide Lesotho for the major part of its electricity needs by the end of 1998. 

Agriculture – The Foundation

 Food shortage is a common problem for most of the African countries.  Southern Africa’s collective efforts in agriculture development and food security programmes have been the first regional initiatives as such in Africa.  Today Southern Africa has greater agricultural capacity and more adequate strategies for food security have shifted from referring almost exclusively to the amount of food.  It means, “Household coping strategies, income generation and safety nets are much more on the agenda,”⁷ 

The SADC Food Security programme currently consists projects of regional early warning system, database systems for food security information, training, research and marketing. 

4.  Integration of financial / trade market

 Improving Conditions for Investment

 Southern African countries have been undergoing economic liberalization.  The overall investment environment has been improving.  However, there are still some constrains.  Low levels of domestic saving, the dependence on foreign capital inflows, the weak local capital markets, the weakness of the banking system, the lack of managerial skills and inadequate statistical data, are among others regarded as problems facing the region. Progress in building regional competitiveness is demonstrated in the Sector of Finance and Investment, coordinated by South Africa, since its establishment in 1995.  Projects under implementation are those concerning the development of a monetary and financial statistical database; and information bank on the policies and structures of SADC central banks; national payment, clearing and settlement systems for SADC countries.  The SADC Committee of Central Bank Governors has established a statistical task force to improve the data availability and reliability for the sector.  Stock Exchanges in the region are also forgoing closer links.  

The region is increasingly seen by the international business as propitious for investment.  South African private sector also Africa is regarded as the key regional attraction for foreign investors.  South Africa alone attracted more than US$ 5 billion, about ½ of the sub-Saharan Africa in 1997, according to the World Bank.⁸   g

 Notes:

 1.       Private Capital Flows to Developing Countries, published for the World Bank by Oxford University Press.  A World Bank Policy Research Report, April 1997.

2.       SOWETAN 98/03/27; MAIL & GURDIAN 98/03/27.

3.       Declaration Treaty and Protocol of Southern African Development Community (1992), published by SADC, Gaborone, Bostwana 1993, P.4.

4.       SADC Declaration 1992, p.4.

5.       SADC Mining Sector Review 1997.

6.       Business Report (SA) 97/05/06; Business Day (SA) 97/04/03.

7.       Quoted by Mercedes Sayagues in “Southern Africa shifts food strategies”, in AFRAICA RECOVERY October 1997, United Nations Department of Public Information, pp. 16-17

8.       Saturday Independent (SA) 98/04/05. 

To be continued in the next issue

Why inequality matters 

uman development gaps within countries are as stark as the gaps between countries.  These gaps reflect unequal opportunity—people held back because of their gender, group identity, wealth or location.  Such inequalities are unjust.  They are also economically wasteful and socially destabilizing.  Overcoming the structural forces that create and perpetuate extreme inequality is one of the most efficient routes for overcoming extreme poverty, enhancing the welfare of society and accelerating progress towards the MDGs. 

The MDGs themselves are a vital statement of international purposes rooted in a commitment to basic human rights.  These rights—to education, to gender equality, to survival in childhood and to a decent standard of living—are universal in nature.  That is why progress towards the MDGs should be for all people, regardless of their household income, their gender or their location.  However, governments measure progress by reference to national averages.  These averages can obscure deep inequalities in progress rooted in disparities based on wealth, gender, group identity and other factors. 

As shown in this Report, failure to tackle extreme inequities is acting as a break on progress towards achieving the MDGs.  On many of the MDGs the poor and disadvantaged are falling behind.  Cross-country analysis suggests that child morality rates among the poorest 20% of the population are falling at less than one-half of the world average.  Because the poorest 20% account for a disproportionately large share of child morality, this is slowing the overall rate of progress towards achieving the MDGs.  Creating the conditions under which the poor can catch up as part of an overall human development advance would give a dynamic new imputes to the MDGs.  It would also address a cause of social injustice.  

Multiple and interlocking layers of inequality create disadvantages for people throughout their lives.  Income inequality is increasing in countries that account for more than 80% of the world’s population.  Inequality in this dimension matters partly because of the link between distribution patterns and poverty levels.  Average income is three times higher in high-inequality and middle-income Brazil than in low-incomes of the poorest 10% in Viet Nam.  High levels of income inequality are bad for growth is converted into poverty reduction:  they reduce the size of the economic pie and the size of the slice captured by the poor. 

Income inequalities interact with other life chance inequalities.  Being born into a poor household diminishes life chances, in some cases in a literal sense.  Children born into the poorest 20% of households in Ghana or Senegal are two to three times more likely to die before age 5 than children born into the richest 20% of households.  Disadvantage tracks people thought their lives.  Poor women are less likely to be educated and less likely to receive antenatal care when they are pregnant.  Their children are less likely to survive and less likely to complete school, perpetuating a cycle of deprivation that is transmitted across generations.  Basic life chance inequalities are not restricted to poor countries.  Health outcomes in the United States, the world’s richest country, reflect deep inequalities based on wealth and race.  Regional disparities are another source of inequality.  Human development fault lines separate rural from urban and poor from rich regions of the same country.  In Mexico literacy rates in some states are comparable to those in high-income countries.  In the predominantly rural indigenous municipalities of southern poverty belt states like Gurrero literacy rates for women approximate those in Mali. 

Gender is one of the world’s strongest markers for disadvantage.  This is especially the case in South Asia.  The large number of “missing women” in the region bears testimony to the scale of the problem.  Disadvantage starts at birth.  In India the death rate for children ages 1-5 is 50% higher for girls than for boys.  Expressed differently, 130,000 young lives are lost each year because of the disadvantage associated with two X chromosomes.  In Pakistan gender parity in school attendance would give 2 million more girls the chance of an education. Reducing inequality in the distribution of human development opportunities is a public policy priority in its own right: it matters for intrinsic reasons.  It would also be instrumental in accelerating progress towards the MDGs.  Closing the gap in child mortality between the riches and poorest 20% would cut child deaths by almost two-thirds, saving more than 6 million lives a year-and putting the world back on track for achieving the MDG target of a two-thirds reduction in child death rates. 

More equitable income distribution would act as a strong catalyst for accelerated poverty reduction.  We use household income and expenditure surveys to simulate the effect of a growth pattern in which people in poverty capture twice the share of future growth as their current share in national income.  For Brazil this version of pro-poor growth shortens the time horizon for halving poverty by 19 years; for Kenya, by 17 years.  The conclusion: when it comes to income poverty reduction, distribution matters as well as growth.  That conclusion holds as much for low-income countries as for middle-income countries.  Without improved income distribution Sub-Saharan Africa would require implausibly high growth rates to halve poverty by 2015.  it might be added to this consideration that a demonstrated commitment to reduce inequality as part of a wider poverty reduction strategy would enhance the case for aid among the public in donor countries. 

Scaling up national simulation exercises using a global income distribution model highlights the potential benefits of reduced inequality for global poverty reduction.  Using such a model, we ask what would happen if people living on less than $1 a day were to double their share of growth.  The result: a decline of one-third or 258 million people—in the projected number of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015. 

Exercises such as these describe what outcomes are possible.  Working towards these outcomes will require new directions in public policy.  Far more weight should be attached to improving the availability, accessibility and affordability of public services and to increasing poor people’s share of the growth.  There is no single blueprint for achieving improved outcomes on income distribution.  For many countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, measures are needed to unlock the productive potential of smallholder agriculture and rural areas.  More universally, education is one of the keys to greater equity.  Socially transformative fiscal policies that provide security and equip the poor with the assets needed to escape poverty are also vital. 

None of this implies that achieving greater equity in human development is easy.  Extreme inequalities are rooted in power structures that deprive poor people of market opportunities, limit their access to services and—crucially—deny them a political voice.  These pathologies of power are bad for market-based development and political stability—and a barrier to achieving the MDGs. 

International aid—increasing the quantity, improving the equality 

nternational aid is one of the most effective weapons in the war against poverty.  Today, that weapon is underused, inefficiently targeted and in need of repair. Reforming the international aid system is a fundamental requirement for getting back on track for the MDGs. 

Aid is sometimes thought of in rich countries as a one-way act of charity.  That view is misplaced.  In a world of interconnected threats and opportunities aid is an investment as well as a moral imperative—an investment as well as well as a moral imperative—an investment in shared prosperity, collective security and a common future.  Failure to invest on a sufficient scale today will generate costs tomorrow. 

Development assistance is at the heart of the new partnership for development set out in the Millennium Declaration.  As in any partnership there are responsibilities and obligations on both sides.  Developing countries have a responsibility to create an environment in which aid can yield optimal results.  Rich countries, for their part, have an obligation to act on their commitments.  

There are three conditions for effective aid.  First, it has to be delivered in sufficient quantity to support human developments with a resources for making the multiple investments in health, education and economic infrastructure needed to break cycles of deprivation and support economic recovery—and the resource needs to be commensurate with the scale of the financing gap.  Second, aid has to be delivered on a predictable, low transaction cost, value for money basis.  Third, effective aid requires “country ownership”.  Developing countries have primary responsibility for creating the conditions under which aid can yield optimal results.  While there has been progress in increasing the quantity and improving the quality of aid, none of these conditions has yet been met. 

When the Millennium Declaration was signed, the development assistance glass was three-quarters empty-and leaking.  During the 1990s aid budgets were subject to deep cuts, with per capita assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa falling by one-third.  Today, the aid financing glass is approaching half full.  The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development in 2001 marked the beginning of a recovery in aid.  Since Monterrey, aid has increased by 4% a year in real terms, or $12 billion (in constant 2003 dollars).  Rich countries collectively now send 0.25% of their gross national income (GNI) on aid—lower than in 1990 but on an upward trend since 1997.  The European Union’s commitment to reach a 0.51% threshold by 2010 is especially encouraging.  

However, even if projected increases are delivered in full, there remains a large aid shortfall for financing the MDGs.  That shortfall will increase from $46 billion in 2006 to $52 billion in 2010.  The Sub-Saharan Africa, where aid flows need to double over five years to meet the estimated costs of achieving the MDGs. Failure to close the financing gap through a step increase in aid will prevent governments from making the investments in health, education and infrastructure needed to improve welfare and support economic recovery on the scale required to achieve the MDGs. 

While rich countries publicly acknowledge the importance of aid, their actions so far have not matched their words.  The G-8 includes three countries—Italy, the United States and Japan—with the lowest shares of aid in GNI among the 22 countries on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee.  On a more positive note the United States, the world’s largest aid donor, has increased aid by $8 billion since 2000 and is now the world’s largest donor to Sub-Saharan Africa.  The setting of more ambitious targets is another welcome development.  However, donors do not have a good record in acting on aid targets—and some major donors have failed to move from setting targets to making concrete and binding budget commitments.  The next 10 years will have to mark a distinct break from the past 15 years if the MDGs are to be achieved.  Since 1990 increased prosperity in rich countries have done little to enhance generosity: per capita income has increased by $6,070, while per capita aid has fallen by $1.  Such figures suggest that the winners from globalization have not prioritized help for the losers, even though they would gain from doing so. 

The chronic underfinancing of aid reflects skewed priorities in public spending.  Collective security depends increasingly on tackling the underlying causes of poverty and inequality.  Yet for every $1 that rich countries spend on aid they allocate another $10 to military budgets.  Just the increase in military spending since 2000, if devoted to aid instead, would be sufficient to reach the long-standing UN target of spending 0.7% of GNI on aid.  Failure to look beyond military security to human security is reflected in under investments in addressing some of the greatest threats to human life.  Current spending on HIV/AIDS, a disease that claims 3 million lives a year, represents three day’s worth of military spending.  

Questions are sometimes raised about whether the MDGs are affordable.  Ultimately, what is affordable is a matter of political priorities.  But the investments needed are modest by the scale of wealth in rich countries.  The $7 billi