Eddy’s wealth of experience, skill and ability to compare European (a.k.a “developed”) and African (“developing”) countries advance with MDGs is of particular interest for youth involved with MDG campaigning, and Eddy is more than willing to share.
Now, Eddy Orinda is a 27 year-old International student in Ukraine, originally from Kenya, an African country probably most affected by extreme poverty.
Having a great expertise in youth work in Africa as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Windows For Young People in Africa, Project Coordinator of the International Commission for Africa Project and in many other respected organizations - in Ukraine Eddy sits on the Organizing Committee of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for the All-Ukrainian Youth Summit of Ukraine.
Olexi: "Campaigning is essential for the success of the MDGs, could you compare the involvement of youth with the MDGs in African countries and in Eastern Europe (Ukraine)?"
Eddy: "Participation is a very relative thing when it comes to youth involvement with the Millennium Development Goals. Youth lack access to information about what the Millennium Development Goals are, let alone the significance of these Goals. In Africa, for instance, efforts of youth groups organized around civil society entities and governmental agencies are scanted and scattered.
People are doing things separately, which is good - some on the regional level, others on national and international levels. General youth projects in Africa were going on even before the MDGs were set up. It is happening because youth are very concerned about improving their lives.
Like in Africa there is a problem of youth ignorance concerning the MDGs in Eastern Europe, particularly in the former USSR countries [Ukraine, Russia, Georgia… – editor’s note] where the system of government operation is so bureaucratic. This leaves a great empty space in terms of government meeting its obligations to young people. This spreads to information access, support and funding for projects that young people would like to do within the MDG project. It spreads to youth organizing themselves around national youth policies that are not present in certain countries. Like in many parts of Africa, this is an issue that Ukrainian youth are facing today. So like I said, there is a huge gap between the government and what people are doing. And I particularly value programs of TakingITGlobal, which face this sort of challenge via concentration on information and personal development of young people.
When we are reducing ignorance we are improving opportunities of young men to improve their minds and therefore, by extension, to earn a livelihood from a certain skill that they may develop out of basic education from primary school."
Olexi: "The Kenyan community in Ukraine seems to have a number of great proposals as to intercultural cooperation with locals, especially on the MDGs?"
Eddy: "One of the major ideas behind the Kenyan community in Ukraine, which recently got off the ground, is to bridge the intercultural gap that exists between Africa and Europe. Recently I have been democratically elected to become president of the Kenyan community in Ukraine, and one of my key priorities is to find meaningful ways of partnership with organizations that are like-minded in spheres like MDGs, intercultural exchange etc."
Olexi: "How will your involvement with the UN Summit in Ukraine this year contribute to the establishment of an intercultural MDG dialogue?"
Eddy: "I think that involvement with the All-Ukrainian UN Youth Summit on MDGs this year will contribute greatly to bridging the gap that we seek to overcome. I appreciate the fact that the summit is opening to other resources and wealth of experience and ideas, which exist within other nationalities living in Ukraine. This will greatly enrich the value of developing a national youth policy framework for Ukraine.
There are a lot of opportunities that exist for Ukrainian and Kenyan young people to interact in terms of creating partnerships helping to meet the Millennium Development Goals. But there is a lot of prejudice about African youth as well as about youth from Eastern Europe; this is really a barrier to meaningful partnership. Thus, there is a need to demystify intercultural prejudice."
Olexi: "Eddy, what can be the contribution of developed European countries to the achievement of the MDGs in Africa and in poorer countries of Europe?"
Eddy: "Whereas in Africa the first and foremost Goal is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, I think that in European Countries, like Ukraine, the most important goal is the 8th – Development of a Global Partnership for Development. In this regard, there is a need for Europe to acknowledge that participation on the global arena is not the same, and therefore there’s a need to elevate the capability of African countries to participate. Europe could play a positive role campaigning for debt cancellation.
What I am always saying is that from an African perspective the Millennium Development Goals still have a long way to go, because both African politics and economy carry with them a baggage of debt burden.
When I am saying that debt has to be considered I am definitely talking about cancellation. This means that African economies will be able to redirect funds that would otherwise be used to service debts, to go into education, to go into fighting HIV/AIDS, to go into developing a global partnership for development, reducing child mortality rates and all the key areas of concern within the Millennium Development Goals.
The debt burden must be off-loaded if African and other poor countries are expected to be able to perform well on the MDGs in the 10 years left till 2015. I don’t think that it is possible for African Nations and economies to be reformed and therefore by extension to cut poverty by half in the next 10 years, remove diseases, address issues of HIV/AIDS, issues of Information Technology and how they are spread into the livelihoods of people especially in poor countries of the world. All that won’t be achieved with debt burden not being considered and not being one of the agendas of the Millennium Campaign."
Olexi: "The issue of political will comes to mind when one evaluates the progress made on the MDGs in recent years. What’s your take on this?"
Eddy: "I think it is really frustrating for the UN to address the MDGs in the next 10 years, without full political will of countries like America, who still remain reluctant in terms of being the front runners on the issues of debt cancellation. If this is done, this is a sure way to achieve the Goals. They are clearly achievable and it’s only a matter of political will on part of countries like the US to realize them.
As well there’s a need to look at other international issues regarding development assistance that affect the MDGs. I am particularly looking at those programs that are intended for Africa, for instance – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, recently launched by the Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair - International Commission on Africa. These Initiatives are great, but lets approach them from another perspective – they all come in the middle of one key program that has been agreed to by over 189 nations of the world including Britain and America. So it is rather inconsistent and subversive to undermine the MDGs in such a way."
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