Africa has failed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals set for the period from 1992 to 2002 with the number of people living in poverty doubled in the decade, according to an African workshop here on Thursday.

Kerfalla Yansane, Vice Chairman of the Board African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), told specialists and government officials from about 20 countries at AU-NEPAD MDG subregional consultations: "the African continent is off track while the rest of world is moving forward."

The specialist noted that Africa had achieved only 10 percent out of 40 percent of the goals set for 1990-2015 on the general. " School enrollment over the continent should be 100 percent now, but it has turned out only 57 percent at present."

Khadija Bah from NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) Secretariat said that the number of people suffering from hunger increased from 170 million to 200 million between 1992 and 2002.

Those living on less than one dollar per day will increase from 314 million to 366 million by 2015, he added.

"There will be a significant rise in orphans from the present 34 million because of HIV/AIDS," he said.

According to the workshop, Africa is probably the only development region where most of the MDGs might not be attained under current development and governance scenarios.

A number of international reports have indeed indicated that many countries are seriously off-track and only about eight countries carrying about 15 percent of the regional population could possibly achieve the first goal of halving poverty.

About a half of the countries that are considered to be low income and under stress are in Africa and are considered to be at risk of also falling short with the second goal of achieving universal primary education.

Under the health goals, the likelihood of failure to reduce significantly the spread of HIV/AIDS is very high in the region, with over 25 million Africans estimated to be living with AIDS in 2003 and another 2.2 million dying from it.

Three-quarters of the world's annual AIDS deaths occur in Africa, with women being more affected by the disease.

Preventable diseases like malaria also kill many people, and it is reported that of the 1 to 3 million malaria-related deaths every year, as many as 90 percent occur in sub-Saharan Africa and most of the victims are children.

In order to provide an accurate analysis of the progress and constraints to reaching MDGs in Africa, it is important to consult a wide cross-section of interests on how to render the MDGs meaningful to the development agenda in Africa.

In this regard, the AU Commission and the NEPAD Secretariat in close collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), United Nations Development Program and other bilateral partners is holding three subregional consultative workshops, with a view to further inform and strengthen the African Common Position, between 26 and 27 May.

The output of the workshop will be a report on each providing a synthesis of the views expressed and suggested actions. The outcomes will be integrated into the final draft of the AU-NEPAD Report as well as the final African Common Position Paper on the MDGs.

Source: Xinhua