Rektors blogg:

In her capacity as co-chair of the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group, Prime Minister Erna Solberg visited our campus today to launch The Millennium Development Goals report 2014. Students at the International Summer School were invited to attend. Indeed an appropriate setting for such an event.

The International Summer School was opened on 23 June with about twenty students admitted to the International development studies. These students gathered today to take part in the launch event. Their questions to the Prime Minister were many and to the point, and I was impressed by the engagement and knowledge of our students. I am sure Erna Solberg was equally impressed.

There is no doubt that the Millennium Development Goals have had great impact, not least on health. In the course of 22 years, annual number of under 5 deaths fell from 12 to 6.6 million while the global maternal mortality ratio was nearly halved, from 380 to 210 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. This is what we are told by the report that was released today. Causes of progress are manifold, but setting clear goals has inspired. Erna Solberg rightly pointed out that the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals - which will build on the Millennium Development Goals – must be concrete and measurable so as to allow for adequate implementation and follow up.

Remarkable success on some points must not gloss over the fact that formidable challenges remain. Referring again to the report, it is estimated that as many as 58 million children have no access to primary education. In other words: Goal 2 – achieve universal primary education – is still beyond reach. It is commendable that our government places emphasis on education in their strategies for capacity building abroad. As duly underlined in today’s discussion, education of girls, in particular, has great health dividends.  

Erna Solberg also touched upon Millennium Development Goal 5 – on maternal health. Adequate care of pregnant women is an integral part of this goal. In this context the endeavors of Kristin Braa and her colleagues are highly relevant and laudable. Their Health Information Systems Program is now in use in more than 40 countries and helps ensure an appropriate follow up during pregnancy. Quite an achievement that bodes well for the future.  

As stated in the report that was launched today, great strides have been made on many points. It is tempting to make the assumption that the positive development will continue unabated, provided that due efforts are made to sustain funding of targeted initiatives such as those embedded in the Millennium Development Goals.  However, in a changing world, extrapolations are fraught with difficulties. We have seen it in Syria, where polio was near eradication but now develops into a major health emergency. We have seen it in Greece, where health suffers in the wake of the austerity measures. And we saw it in the many countries that experienced a wave of hunger and malnutrition in the wake of the food price volatility in 2008 – 2009. Recent history is replete with setbacks, and we need to pause and reflect on why.

If we so do, we will have to conclude that the attention to targeted initiatives to improve health and education will have to be married with an attention to the global governance system. Global governance must be conducive to the ambitions embedded in the Millennium Development Goals, and must not be allowed to interfere with these. Today, there is number of dysfunctions in the global governance system that must be attended to in order to secure continued success towards the Millennium Goals and beyond. These dysfunctions are highlighted in the report of the Lancet-University of Oslo commission, launched earlier this year. At the conclusion of today’s event, Erna Solberg was presented with a copy of the latter report – in the hope that she will help ensure that governance will get the place it deserves in the follow up of the Millennium Development Goals.