Topic: Galvanising support for the millennium development goals in South Africa
Programme director
Participants and delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
It is once again a pleasure to join you today, as we continue with discussions on how best we can achieve the millennium development goals for the benefit of many poor South Africans.
This occasion carries a significant weight in realising the aspirations of our people, who look up to this summit to emerge with resolutions that will help improve their lives for the better.
Indeed this is because the MDGs serve as a beacon hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday to those who live in poverty, unemployment, sickness and homelessness. These unfortunate factors have become regular characteristics of many societies in the developing world including of course, South Africa.
As a country, we cannot afford to act in isolation when progressive countries across the world craft local strategies in their quest to meet the targets of addressing income poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter and gender inequality, among others.
We must join in this noble effort with the understanding that our ability to meet these important targets depends on extent to which we are united as a society.
On reviewing what the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has outlined as best practice in relation to meeting the MDGs, I am heartened that South Africa follows many of the best practice programmes.
This includes measures such as improved access to social services, education and healthcare, as a strategy to invest in human capital for long-term growth and poverty reduction.
The challenge for South Africa, as is the case for many developing countries is that we have the twin responsibilities of reducing both poverty and inequality.
It is important to remember that reducing poverty rates as we have done with our social wage has not necessarily resulted in a reduction in inequality.
As we move forward, our endeavor must include working together to build a "democracy with social content". In the ruling party, the African National Congress, we believe that this will require the development of a political and economic system that places the needs of the poor and social issues such as healthcare, education and social safety net at the top of the national agenda.
Of course, this must start with government putting in place appropriate policies that will achieve all these national objectives. At the same time, we must acknowledge and appreciate the role of the working class in this project of social transformation.
It is for this reason that government policies must be accompanied by "a strategic contribution by public sector workers to the transformation of the state and efficient provision of services to the population".
Among other things, this means that our value system should include important elements such as a commitment to the delivery of quality services to all of South Africa's citizens.
While we have increased the numbers of children attending primary school and facilitated access to health services to people that may not have such access before, our challenge is improve the quality of such services so that they indeed have the desired educational and health outcomes required for us to meet our MDG commitments.
So, one of our challenges is deepen the quality of the services we provide. This requires a combination of policy improvement and commitment to better implementation of programmes emanating from them.
Aside from the political and bureaucratic actors improving on their roles we need the rest of society to come to the party as well. We have MDGs that promote the equality of women and measures to combat maternal mortality.
South Africa has some of the best policies and indeed programmes to meet these MDGs and that they are rightfully praised for these in the international community. But, if there is not a concomitant change in attitudes in our society around issues such gender equality and a commitment to a society free of violence against women and children, we will not meet our commitments as required by the third MDG. Men have to accept women as they equals, not only in the workplace but also in families.
I raise this issue because we have observed as the ANC that "patriarchal oppression was embedded in the economic, social, religious, family and other relations in all communities, its eradication cannot be an assumed consequence of democracy". Given this reality, we need civil society to embark on campaigns that will break the shackles of patriarchy.
We therefore need civil society organisations to engage in what we call horizontal advocacy. This means going out and talking to people so that we begin to change patriarchal mindsets and behavior. Civil society, therefore also has a role and duty to implement policy and not only as is their right and duty, to demand good policies to be developed.
This notion of civic duty and a solidarity based consciousness needs to extend to the middle classes and the wealthy in our country. Some of the social policies required to improve the well being of our people may require extensive public investment.
Within the framework of a society guided by human solidarity we need people to support equality seeking policies such as the proposed National Health Insurance programme. The attainment of the health related MDGs are almost impossible without a more equal access to healthcare.
Colleagues, this requires people like us to pay our taxes and even support increases in taxation rates if this will enable us to change our society for the better.
For us to win as a society, some of us may need to sacrifice some excess so that we all benefit from a more equal society and where we beat the beast that is poverty.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the hope that is offered by the MDGs, that all in society needs to act, commit and sometimes give up some of the plenty we have so that we can indeed halve poverty by 2014,and so that we can indeed reduce maternal mortality and attain qualitative universal education.
Programme director, in short, for us to achieve the MDGs, we need a society that acts in solidarity with those of our citizens that are on the social and economic margins. We must build a broad based acknowledge social movement towards for us to realise the MDGs.
This is time for South Africa to unite for common cause, just as it was the case during the struggle for freedom. We need to learn from, among others, organised labour, which has historically been concerned with issues beyond the shop floor and have been very successful in their pursuit of social justice.
We must all learn to think and act beyond our own "shop floor" issues and seek to work together if our society wants to attain the MDGs.
Working together we can do more!
I thank you
Speech by the Deputy Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, at the National Summit on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Cape Town
