THE MDG AND POVERTY IN BURKINA FASO

We have approached the mid-point for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and progress to date varies according to the 2007 MDG report. Although some nations in Sub-Saharan Africa have witnessed positive improvements in specific areas, "the lack of any significant increase in official development assistance since 2004 makes it impossible, even for well-governed countries, to meet the Millennium Development Goals," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last Monday. The report further states that “donors should reduce the present unpredictability of aid by providing multi-year schedules of aid flows to each recipient country.” This report also urges the developed countries particularly the Group of the Eight most industrialized nations to meet their pledge to double aid to Africa by 2010.

One African nation desperately in need of this additional aid is Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world where the majority of the 13 million people live on less than $1 a day.

In an article entitled “A Century Behind” appearing in the January 16, 2006 issue of The National Catholic Weekly, Peter Donaldson, President of the Population Council, states, “Mortality rates in Burkina Faso are higher than they were in the United States in 1900. A baby born in Burkina can expect to live about 30 years less than a child born in the United States- 45 versus 77 years.” Donaldson goes on to discuss the pervasive poverty in Burkina Faso. There are many factors contributing to and stemming from the rampant poverty. These include an uneducated workforce, American and European cotton subsidies, food insecurity, deficient investment, poor infrastructure, scarce resources, illiteracy, and widespread disease.

Palms for Life Fund has selected Burkina Faso as one of our target countries. We are working to secure funding for the many wonderful projects and programs that cannot operate or expand without the necessary financial support.

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