Can the Sudan Achieve the MDGs Given Its Past and Present Expenditure Allocation Patterns?

Abstract

This paper is organized in six small sections. The first section discusses briefly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and section two addresses the Human Development Index (HDI) for the Sudan and investigates the country’s efforts and attempts to achieve the MDGs by 2015. It analyzes the existing situation and reviews some of the Sudan’s attempts to achieve these goals. The purpose is to shed light upon the current situation of social and economic development in the Sudan and to briefly outline what is expected of the country in order to achieve the MDGs. The third section is a continuation of the analysis from the previous subsection and gives more data and updates on the Sudan’s efforts in achieving the MDGs and the major handicaps and impediments facing it. The fourth and fifth sections discuss the issues of government expenditure allocation to social services sectors generally and to health, education and water in particular. They examine the magnitudes of spending and their distribution among different services and their trends and direction. The main idea is to show how past and current government spending patterns have been affecting and will continue to affect the achievements of the MDGs Section six examines the issue of MDGs cost, especially for the education, health and water sectors. The discussion on the cost of achieving MDGs was originally done by the Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) to the Sudan in the format of matrixes of objectives and cost tables for these objectives for two phases; 2005-2007 and 2008-2011. The section examines these costing estimates for various sectors and then attempts to evaluate the potential of achieving MDGs given the historical fiscal experiences in the Sudan and the availability of budget finances to meet these objectives in the Sudan. The main point to be stressed is that little resources have been allocated to sectors influencing the achievement of the MDGs and we are arguing that if this pattern of spending continues in same manner and magnitude, there is a slim chance that the MDGs targets will be met. It is important also to mention that the analysis in this MDGs section, like other ones, is severely handicapped by a shortage of detailed and reliable data. We start with an introduction to the MDGs.