From Developmental Local Government to Developmental Local Governance

Abstract

The deadline for the conclusion of the millennium development goals (MDGs) approaches. The MDGs Report 2014 enumerates the main achievements: Since 1990, the world has halved extreme poverty, lifting 700 million out of this situation; between 2000 and 2010, an estimated 3.3 million deaths from malaria were averted and 22 million lives were saved in the fight against tuberculosis; access to antiretro-viral therapy for HIV-infected people has saved 6.6 million lives since 1995; gender parity in primary school enrolment, access to child and maternal health care and women’s political participation have shown steady improvement. Overarching achievements in science and technology, in addition to the ‘mobilisation of global social movements’, are noted. But the failings of the modern era are definitive. Approximately 1 billion people reportedly still live on less than US$1.25 a day (the World Bank’s poverty benchmark), more than 800 million people do not have enough food to eat and women’s rights are still at the top of matters to be addressed—even while millions of them continue to die in childbirth. The United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s (2014: 4–5) statement is enlightening:

(C)onditions in today’s world are a far cry from the vision of the Charter. Amid great plenty for some, we witness pervasive poverty, gross inequalities, joblessness, disease and deprivation for billions. Displacement is at its highest level since the Second World War… consequences of climate change have only just begun. These failings and shortcomings have done as much to define the modern era.… Our globalized world is marked by extraordinary progress alongside unacceptable—and unsustainable—levels of want, fear, discrimination, exploitation, injustice and environmental folly at all levels.