SPEECH
2011 Consultative Seminar
The role of Legislatures in achieving the Millennium Development
Goals, Welcome and Opening Address delivered by M V Sisulu,
Speaker of the National Assembly
Honourable Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr M J Mahlangu
Honourable Speakers of the Provincial Legislatures
Honourable Trevor Manuel, Minister in the Presidency for National
Planning Commission
Mr R van de Geer, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the
European Union (EU) to South Africa
Members of Parliament
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the 2011
Consultative Seminar. Let me take this opportunity to thank you
for coming to participate in this important seminar which focuses
on the
Role
of
Legislatures
in achieving the Millennium
Development Goals.
When the World Leaders met in September 2000 at the United
Nations and declared their commitment to the Millennium
Development Goals, they did so with the purpose of giving
practical effect to basic human rights and to promote human
dignity the world over.
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The Millennium Development Goals, commonly known as MDGs,
are eight global time-bound targets for reducing all manifestations
of extreme poverty, including income poverty, hunger, disease,
lack of adequate shelter and exclusion, by the year 2015, while
promoting gender equality, basic education and environmental
sustainability.
The eight Millennium Development Goals are:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education;
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women;
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality;
Goal 5: Improve maternal health;
Goal 6: Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability; and
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development.
The other speakers will elaborate on them and give details on how
far we have progressed in meeting the deadline of the year 2015.
The world leaders set the target date of the year 2015 on the
understanding that MDGs will be achieved by all our combined
efforts working together for the benefit of mankind. It is our
collective responsibility and we should therefore work together to
ensure that human development reaches all our people.
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The Millennium Development Goals programme is a commitment for
nations to move towards greater equity and for people, both
individually and collectively, to achieve greater prosperity and
fulfilment. The MDGs define tangible, measurable indicators that
allow judgement on their achievement.
The indicators contained in the Millennium Declaration define a set of
goals and targets to which all countries must strive, either in terms of
reaching these goals for their own populations or assisting poorer
countries to achieve them.
Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Speakers and Distinguished
Guests
We meet here today just four years before the year 2015. This
gathering provides us with the opportunity as representatives of
the national and provincial parliaments to take stock of how far
South Africa has progressed in achieving the MDGs and more
importantly what we need to do as Parliament and provincial
legislatures to ensure and assist in accelerating the attainment of
these important goals for the benefit of our people.
The question that we need to ask ourselves at this gathering is
whether we can confidently say that by the year 2015 national
poverty levels will be cut by half, that of millions of lives will be
saved and that more people will have the opportunity to benefit
from the economy?
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The answer to this question lies in what we can do as the legislatures
to assist all of us to realise the MDGs. We recognise that the
responsibility to implement and achieve the MDGs and their
associated targets lie not only with government, but with all citizens
and organisations in our country. Parliament and provincial
legislatures have an important role to play in ensuring the
implementation and realisation of the MDGs.
As freely elected representatives of the people, Parliamentarians are
the link between the electorate and the government and this unique
position presents us as Parliamentarians with an opportunity to be
change agents through our representational, oversight and legislative
roles.
We must therefore use our oversight role to focus our assessment on
the following areas:
1. Whether and to what extent progress is being made towards
achieving the MDGs;
2. Whether government policy is being effectively implemented;
and
3. What impact these policies are having on achieving the targets
outlined in the MDGs.
One way in which engagement on the MDGs can be effected is
through the acquisition and articulation of information obtained from
the ground by MPs and MPLs in the course of their constituency
work.
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Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Speakers and Distinguished
Guests
During the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held in
Geneva last year to discuss, among others, 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 and I
quote:
“…The Millennium Development Goals will not be met without a
strong
sense
of
accountability
accompanying
all
efforts.
Democracy, security, development, human rights and gender
equality are inextricably linked. Our parliaments can do more to
ensure that development goals are taken into account in our daily
work and translated into national programs and laws. Likewise, we
encourage our parliaments, when they examine draft budgets and
bills, to assess their impact on the fulfillment of the Goals. We
pledge to support these efforts, monitor progress closely and do
our part in meeting the targets by 2015”.
In our Parliament we have opted to mainstream the MDGs in the
work of committees rather than creating a committee dedicated to
MDGs as is the case with other countries. This was to ensure that it is
an ongoing part of the work of our parliamentary committees to
review the progress and impact made by government departments in
achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
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It is for Parliament to ensure that commitments to the MDGs are
truly reflected in national, provincial and local government plans,
policies and in budgets. In addition each government department is
required to indicate in its strategic plan which is submitted to
Parliament annually how it had planned its activities with regard to the
MDGs. The departments’ annual reports also have to reflect how this
was achieved.
Parliamentary
committees
are
required
when
assessing
the
performance of the departments to assess their performance on the
MDGs and to use the information in the evaluation of the budget
Votes.
Currently our Parliament is at the stage of evaluation of the budget
Votes. Parliamentary committees must ensure that that the scarce
resources of our government are spent on the needs of our people
and more importantly on poverty alleviation strategies. Parliamentary
committees must therefore ensure that in scrutinising the budgets,
policies allow for sufficient public expenditures for all social
programmes particularly basic social services.
Our oversight function is the most important power that the
legislatures have to ensure and assist government to meet the
commitment to implement strategies aimed at accelerating
attainment of the MDGs. The exercise of our oversight function
must therefore not only be a fault-finding process on government
but must also be focused on the proactive detection of problem
areas.
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Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Speakers and Distinguished
Guests
Parliament
and
legislatures
as
the
platforms
for
public
consideration of issues should provide opportunity and space to
debate MDGs. Let us also mobilise the entire society to help
propel the MDGs forward and encourage action on the ground
through promoting the understanding that MDGs can only be
achieved by all our combined efforts.
This seminar provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our
challenges and successes in achieving the MDGs and to chart our
way forward to the 2015 countdown and beyond. It provides a useful
yardstick by which to measure our progress and define our future
actions.
The MDGs must continue to provide a focus for our efforts, while the
vision of a world without poverty must not be lost despite the current
difficult times. Our efforts to bring the MDG targets for 2015 within
reach of all must not cease.
Let us therefore use this seminar to develop processes that will
enhance our role as the legislature in this important task of
eradicating poverty and ensuring that human development reaches
all our people.
Thank you.
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