Former President John Agyekum Kufour has called for the adoption of family planning methods in order to curb over population and reduce poverty on the African continent.

He said despite concerted efforts over the years to reduce poverty, very little has been achieved.

Calls for global collaboration, capitalism, and enhanced philanthropy, Mr Kufour said, will have an opportunity to strike root only when population increases do not outstrip economic efforts.

He said this at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) frontiers in development forum on “Ending Extreme Poverty” in Washington, DC.

He noted that over population also contributes to the lack of adequate access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation, access to adequate healthcare and lack of education.

According to the former president, with the rapidly evolving scientific, technological and innovation era in the history of mankind, humanity should be able to take many giant steps ahead of the curve of poverty, hunger, disease and disasters of all sorts in all its communities.

Below is the speech delivered by H.E. Agyekum Kufour

 

Speech by H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor, Former President of the Republic of Ghana as the Opening Keynote Speaker at the USAID Frontiers in Development Forum on “Ending Extreme Poverty” at USAID Headquarters (Ronald Reagan Building) in Washington, DC at the from 18^th – 19^th September, 2014

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of United States Agency for International Development,

Distinguished Guests. Ladies and Gentlemen:

I feel honored to be part of this dialogue in search of ending extreme poverty in the world.

Among the many ugly flaws afflicting the dignity of mankind in current times, like repressive governmental regimes, tribal and racial conflicts, violent religious bigotry, gender abuse and child exploitation, perhaps, the most degrading of all is extreme poverty.

In our current world the statistics on extreme poverty are so daunting:  i) 1.4 billion people in developing countries live on 1.25 dollars a day or less and are considered extremely poor; ii) 22,000 people die each day due to conditions of poverty, iii) People living in rural areas in developing countries account for three out of every four persons classified as extremely poor.

Poverty begets hunger –the poor are therefore hungry, but the statistics about hunger are equally harrowing and it has been scientifically established that not all food is nourishing.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), estimates that nearly 870 million out of the 7.1 billion or one in eight of the world population from 2010 – 2012 were suffering from under-nourishment.

The sad reality is that almost all of these hungry people live in the developing countries.

In Africa from 1990 –1992; and from 2010 – 2012, the number of hungry people increased from 175 million to 239 million according to the FAO

Poor nutrition, we are told, causes five million child deaths annually around the world, but mostly in developing countries.

Under-nourishment among children magnifies the effect of every disease including measles and malaria. Stunted growth in children caused by malnutrition result in low IQs, affecting 32.5% that is one in every three children in developing countries.

Again under-nourishment among pregnant women in developing countries, leads to one out of every six infants born with low birth weights which is a risk factor for neo-natal deaths and causes learning disabilities, mental retardation, poor health, blindness as well pre-mature deaths.  Without adequate nutrition, women risk death during childbirth.

Ladies and Gentlemen, other social statistics are not kind to the poor either:

The poor lack adequate access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation; they have no access to adequate healthcare and are unschooled or not adequately schooled.

It has been reported that nearly 1 billion people entered the 21^st Century unable to read a book or sign their names.

The poor also mostly live without electricity. These inadequacies reinforce each other and keep the poor perpetually poor.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: a ‘hungry man,’ it has be said, ‘is an angry man’

We therefore live in a world where 12.5% of us are chronically hungry and poor and as such could be classified as habitually angry.

Over the past several decades the international community has been showing concern for the global up- up-liftment of humanity both socially and economically.

However, until the concerted launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a decade-and-a-half ago by the United Nations (UN), the effort tended to be based on bilateral, group or bloc relations, among nations perceived to be sharing common values and perspectives

That development tended to reflect the exclusive geopolitical ambitions of the donor and therefore left out wide swathes of the developing and vulnerable communities of the word which were not perceived as strategic.

With the launch of the MDGs however, the UN assumed leadership making morality and humanism the main rational for stretching out a helping hand to the needy in developing parts of the world.

Thus the eight-point MDGs kicked-of with the declaration of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 as a its topmost agenda

The others included achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV Aids and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability and last but not the least, developing a global partnership for development.

The premise for achieving all these goals was that governments were required to practice good and inclusive governance.

Further the goals constituted support from the international community on the basis of global partnership with the recipient nations and did not come condescendingly to the needy.

Rather the stress was on the concern growing among the human community everywhere to make our world a better place for everybody regardless of race, gender, religion or age.

However, as much as both the giver and the receiver have been trying, it has been found that the targets may not be fully met in many places by the deadline, due in part to inadequate capacity in the recipient communities to absorb and apply the assistance.

Also, serious lapses in governance, contribute to the missing of the targets. Further in many parts of the developing world, the private sector has not been nurtured to assume a partnership with the public sector to tackle the challenges of development facing their communities.

This in turn has tended to block the needed investments both from within and without, to facilitate economic growth, employment generation and competitive participation in the market.

Ladies and gentlemen, ordinarily the extremely poor tend to be fatalistic and suffer gripping inertia, but the current times are not ordinary. 

Populations are exploding around the world, especially in the developing parts; the information communication technology revolution is also shattering the chains and cocoons cladding knowledge everywhere, especially in the developing world.

The youth here, even in the midst of poverty, are nevertheless, getting some education and are becoming restless with the limited opportunities for gainful employment, and refuse to submit to the fatalism of their elders.

Indeed, they are inadvertently becoming the vanguard of the poor.  With their education however limited and aroused awareness: they constitute an ever-growing time-bomb.

Already, in many places, they are becoming fertile recruitment grounds for misguided causes for destabilization around the world.

So ladies and gentlemen, this is why global leadership must rise to the occasion to find global solutions against poverty in all its forms. 

Thankfully, the UN has again risen to the occasion showing the way.

As perceived by the Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon the year 2015 is a “unique juncture of opportunity” to address both the challenges of development confronting the world as well as to achieve the critical legal agreements among the nations of the world to arrest the catastrophic impact of climate change on life as we have known it.

This “unique juncture of opportunity” should present an unprecedented occasion to limit global temperature rise, to below two degrees Celsius, to safeguard life as we have known it; eradicate extreme poverty through the development of renewable sources of energy; pursue green economies like afforestation and practice of climate smart agriculture; the planning and development of urban areas to minimize carbon and other gaseous emissions.

The combination of these developments should give rise to new investment opportunities which in turn will generate employment for our youth and unleash fresh sources of wealth creation for humanity, without exacerbating the already threatened ecosystems and the over-heating of our climate.

If ever there was a paradigm shift in socio-economic development then this is it.

To exploit this unique juncture of opportunity to effect, the chief instruments to be employed must be science, technology and innovation.

The availability of raw materials in the world is not in doubt. For example Africa abounds in renewable sources of energy such as hydro, solar and geo-thermal.  And, there are also lands.

Africa is said to have as much as 60% of all unfarmed arable land in the world. It could become the bread basket for itself and the rest of the world; this can be said of the other continents such as Asia and the Americas and Europe.

The issue however is the lack of the regulatory mechanisms and fair negotiations among the global community which should be established under the auspices of a body like the UN.

The other issue is that science and technology which are the main agencies for the conversion of these raw materials into productive ventures for the benefit of all people, are virtually in the exclusive domain of the developed countries. 

The UN must oversee its harnessing to benefit the whole of humanity. This should come by the acceptance of the developed world accepting the responsibility to share the know-how with the rest of the world and also to avail the rest of the world with the necessary financial outlays and investments under the collective institutional guidance of the UN.

This is how the developing world will be empowered to play its role competently to engender a stable world of plenty for the inclusive benefits of all humanity.

These proposals might sound utopian but confronted with the challenges of climate change, rising unemployment and a world in which, by far the majority of the people remain extremely poor and hungry, there might not be a feasible alternative to accepting to work under them.

Indeed, the community of the corporate world of industry and commerce within the new arrangements might be facilitated to step up with the requisite investments considering that the whole world has become a global market with the chief principle of competitiveness.

Similarly, agriculture might be done at levels including commercial and small out-grower farms with the best scientific and technological guidance gainfully.

The collective interests of the new world order of developed and developing nations might be deployed to cut down on corruption, lack of transparency and accountability among governments and businesses. Social and economic interests will join to compel quick learning and skills development to support industry, agriculture and commerce even in the developing world.

With these developments should come the entrepreneurial spirit that will be kindled and fanned at all levels of enterprise with government over-seeing the adoption of best sustainable practices through enlightened regulatory mechanisms.

Through the rapidly evolving principle of public-private-partnerships, both domestic and foreign investment would become cross-border and engender economies of scale and uniform market practices and outlooks.

Another principle for assurance of feasible partnership between the developed and developing world must be the joint over-sightship of programmes and projects jointly adopted and implemented by them.

A practical example is with the US Millennium Challenge compact which is jointly managed by the US and the recipient nations.

Ghana’s compact as an example was executed within the contractual period   so efficiently that it has become a point of emulation among other compact nations.

Such joint over-sightship ensures minimal corruption in procurement and management practices and helps to achieve the objectives as intended.

Ladies and gentlemen, to conclude, multilateral donors and agencies have increased funding for poverty reduction, as are non-governmental organizations and global philanthropic organizations. There have been movements in this struggle which use such catalytic mantra as “education for all,” “sustainable energy for all’.

In spite of these laudable efforts however, the ominous reality is the global galloping population increases.

Family planning should therefore become the order of the day and all concerned must vigorously Advocate it.

Calls for global citizenship inclusive, capitalism, enhanced philanthropy will have an opportunity to strike root only when population increases do not out- strip the economic effort.

In 1998 the UN estimated that it will require $40 billion annually to offer basic education, clean water and sanitation, reproductive health and basic health nutrition to every person in every developing country.

In today’s values the amount is about $58 billion.

This should not be an impossible amount for a determined global society to raise and disburse efficiently to help end extreme poverty.

The success of such a venture would eclipse any single human endeavour and would be more impressive to mankind, and also underpin, the long-range human security and democracy.

Its impact on the evolution of the global village for the good will be unparalleled.

With the rapidly evolving scientific, technological and innovation era in the history of history mankind, humanity, should be able to take many giant steps ahead of the curve of poverty, hunger, disease and disasters of all sorts in all its communities. We only have to accept that humanity is one and universal.