Hon Chairperson, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, the Millennium Development Goals, commonly referred to as MDGs, commit the international community to an expanded vision of development, one that promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries. In his speech to the United Nations in June 2010, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, stated that:
The goals represent human needs and basic rights that every individual around the world should be able to enjoy - freedom from extreme poverty and hunger; quality education, productive and decent employment, good health and shelter; the right of women to give birth without risking their lives; and a world where environmental sustainability is a priority, and men and women live equally.
Countries such as our own that have committed themselves to these goals are expected to report periodically on progress made towards achieving these goals. The 2010 country report on MDGs indicates that, in some cases, South Africa has achieved its MDGs more than five years before 2015, while in others a lot more work needs to be done. The report also highlights that:
As a middle-income country, South Africa is less dependent on foreign aid, and improvements in the MDGs ...
... will depend on how well government and other stakeholders including Parliament -
... mobilise domestic resources to achieve these targets.
During the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held in Geneva last year to discuss, among other things, the progress on MDGs, the Speakers agreed that parliaments must use their legislative and oversight powers to assist their governments in the attainment of the MDGs. The declaration adopted by the conference stated:
Our parliaments can do more to ensure that development goals are taken into account in our daily work and translated into national programmes and laws. Likewise, we encourage our parliaments, when they examine draft budgets and Bills, to assess their impact on the fulfilment of the goals. We pledge to support these efforts, monitor progress closely and do our part in meeting the targets by 2015.
In direct response to the challenge highlighted in the 2010 UN report on MDGs, our own country report and the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held in Geneva in 2010, the South African Speakers' Forum hosted, in March this year, an international consultative seminar for presiding officers which initiated a discussion on MDGs across the legislative sector in our country and our continent.
Subsequently, from 5 to 6 September 2011, Parliament, in partnership with the UN Development Programme, UNDP, hosted a national consultative seminar in order to mobilise all stakeholders towards the attainment of the MDGs. This seminar was attended by 225 participants, including the Members of Parliament and of the provincial legislatures, government Ministers, representatives from the SA Local Government Association, the SADC-PF, the Pan-African Parliament, the UN Development Programme, civil society organisations and institutions of higher learning.
Keynote speakers included the Minister in the Presidency, the hon Trevor Manuel, and the Minister for the Public Service and Administration, the hon Richard Baloyi, as well as Dr Zacarias, the UN resident co-ordinator and UNDP resident representative in South Africa. The objectives of this consultative seminar were to engage with external role-players and stakeholders on MDG reports that were developed by relevant committees within the legislative sector. Furthermore, they were to obtain inputs from invited participants on progress with regard to attaining the MDGs and, more importantly, to produce a comprehensive South African legislative sector MDG oversight report, with recommendations on how the South African legislative sector could improve and co-ordinate the oversight activities aimed at attaining the MDGs.
In preparation for the seminar, committees that have an important role to play in this regard were requested to exercise more explicit and regular oversight over departments and relevant entities and to report on their findings and recommendations. The same was done at the level of the provincial legislatures.
It is for Parliament to ensure that commitments to the MDGs are truly reflected in national, provincial and local government plans, policies and budgets. Each government department is required to indicate in its strategic plans, which are submitted annually, how its activities will respond to the MDGs. The departments' annual reports also have to reflect this.
Gender equality and the empowerment of women are at the heart of the MDGs and are preconditions for overcoming hunger, poverty and diseases. The Multiparty Women's Caucus in Parliament started looking at progress in this regard from a gender perspective and participated in a number of workshops focusing on female Members of Parliament and members of the provincial legislatures. Furthermore, the Multiparty Women's Caucus also visited the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to interact with our provincial colleagues.
The Millennium Development Goals speak to the basic right of every citizen to equality and human dignity, as stipulated in the Constitution of our country. It is thus a constitutional obligation for all public representatives to ask tough questions of the executive and to exercise effective oversight over departments to ensure that budgets allocated to achieve the intended objectives - to improve the lives of our people - actually achieve these objectives.
Oversight must be a proactive process aimed at detecting problems early and must work with the executive to find solutions to the challenges that confront us. During the discussions at the seminar, it became evident that the MDGs do not necessarily tell us of the quality of the services that our people receive. They also do not tell us how efficient we are in measuring our own performance and that of departments in terms of the attainment of the MDGs.
Commissions that participated in the seminar were subsequently requested to focus on the following areas: Focusing on and identifying the good practices, as well as areas for improvement and where, in the legislative sector, focus and co-ordinated oversight is indeed possible. They also had to focus on the question of what recommendations could be made for the sector to work together to achieve the MDGs within the four years that are remaining.
Based on the reports that were considered during the seminar, we also had to assess the involvement of other sectors of society, including civil society and institutions of higher learning, in the work that has been done and how this could be improved. Furthermore, we had to answer the critical question of how we can ensure, not only in Parliament but also in provincial legislatures, that we mainstream the MDGs in our daily oversight work.
Following the discussions during the plenary session, a set of resolutions was adopted and other participants in this debate will reflect on these resolutions. The reports that served before the seminar - the actual report of the seminar that we are adopting today, as well as any other recommendations emanating from this debate - will be consolidated into a final report that not only reflects on the role of Parliament, the provincial legislatures and local government with regard to the MDGs, but also comments to some extent on the status and perceived challenges in this regard. It is envisaged that Members of Parliament and the provincial legislatures would use this final report as a tool of reference when participating at regional and international forums dealing with the Millennium Development Goals.
In conclusion, as public representatives we must continuously maintain a close link with our communities to ensure that we articulate the needs of the most vulnerable in society. We must interact proactively with the executive to oversee the design and implementation of policies and interventions that are needed to eliminate the persistent inequalities between the rich and the poor; between those living in urban and those in rural areas; and for those who are disadvantaged by geographic location, sex, age, disability and ethnicity. We owe this to all our people; we dare not fail. I thank you. [Applause.]