Below is the written transcript:
Basics
Niger, officially known as the Republic of Niger, is the
largest country in Western Africa. It is a landlocked country, bordered by
Nigeria, Benin, Burkina, Faso, Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Chad. Niger was named
after the Niger River, and over 80 percent of the country is covered by the
Sahara desert.
The capital city of Niger is Niamey, which is located in the
far southwest corner of Niger. It is an administrative, cultural, and economic
center. Its major industries are manufacturing bricks, ceramic goods, cement,
and woven goods.
Politics
As far as the government goes, Niger has gone through
multiple reforms since gaining its independence in August of 1960. For its
first fourteen years as an independent state, Niger was run by a single-party
civilian regime under the presidency of Hamani Diori. However, in 1974, a
combination of devastating droughts and accusations of corruption resulted in a
coup that overthrew the Diori regime. The system of government that followed
became known as the Second Republic, which was under single-party military rule
and a new constitution overseen by Seyni Kountché and later Ali Saibou. However,
demands to institute a multi-party democratic system led to a national peace
conference that was convened in July of 1991 to prepare a way for the adoption
of a new constitution and the holding of free and fair elections. The
institutions of the Third Republic were put into place in April of 1993.
Unfortunately, the election in January of 1995 resulted in a rival president
and prime minister, which led to governmental paralysis. Ibrahim Baré
Maïnassara overthrew the Third Republic the following year and a second
military rule was implemented. During this time a new constitution for a Fourth
Republic was written and elections were held in July of 1996, where Baré
was declared the winner. In his efforts to hold onto his position of power,
basic civil liberties were violated and opposing leaders and journalists were
often imprisoned. In April of 1999, Baré was killed in a coup led by Daouda
Malam Wanké, who established a transitional National Reconciliation
Council to oversee the drafting of a constitution for a Fifth Republic with a
French style semi-presidential system of government. This new constitution was
approved in July of 1999 and presidential elections were held in October and
November of the same year. Mamadou Tandja was declared the winner, and was
re-elected in December of 2004.
Globalization 2.0
Despite political unrest within Niger, the country maintains
friendly relations with both East and West Africa, as well as several other
nations. Niger has maintained close ties with France, its former colonial
power. Following Niger’s independence in 1960, France maintained sever hundred
advisers at all levels of Niger’s government and military. The French
government is also almost entirely dependent upon Niger for the Uranium, which fuels
its extensive Nuclear Power system. Niger maintains especially close relations
with its bordering countries as well, specifically Nigeria, Mali, and Benin.
Niger and Niger share a large Hausa minority on each side of their border, and
have formed the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission of Cooperation, the NNJC. Niger
and Mali has established large-scale trade links and sizable population
movement between the two nations. Niger and Benin are both former French
subjects of French West Africa, and each rely on the port at Cotonou as their
main route to overseas trade.
Niger also enjoys foreign aid from several sources,
primarily France, the European Union, the World Bank, the IMF and other United
Nations agencies. Other principal donors include Belgium, Germany, Switzerland,
Canada, Saudi Arabia, and, while the United States Agency for International
Development, USAID, does not have an office in Niger, the United States is a
major donor, contributing nearly $10 million each year to Niger’s development.
The United States is also a major partner in policy coordination in such areas
as food security and combating HIV and AIDS. The importance of external support
for Niger’s development is demonstrated by the fact that about 45% of the
government’s budget—including 80% of its capital budget—derives from donor
resources. Because of this, Niger is not as advanced along the globalization
scale as it could be.
Most Relevant
Problems
As far as Niger’s progress where the Millennium Development
Goals are concerned, the country is, again, not as far along as it could be.
Due to numerous governmental reforms, certain issues have become lost in the
chaos, and progress relies solely on foreign aid. While all of the Millennium
Development Goals need to be worked toward, the most immediate are combating
HIV, AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases, and ensuring environmental
sustainability. Niger is one of the countries that form the Sahel Region, which
has seen recurring drought, food insecurity, and increased desertification over
the last 30 years. Currently, Niger is in the middle of a drought, which has
led to the worst famine that the country has seen since 1973. Unfortunately, malnourished
individuals are at a much higher risk of contracting malaria, and those who are
already suffering from it become extremely vulnerable as a result of the
combination. Malaria further reduces appetite among its victims, weakening them
even more as they will not eat what little food is offered to them. In Niger,
malaria outbreaks flare during the rainy season when stagnant pools of water
become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and although Niger is in the middle of
a drought, seasonal flooding has left behind pools of water that are not fit to
drink, but allow mosquitoes to breed.
What Next?
Luckily the Malaria Foundation International (MFI) has
recently joined forces with the Niger Educational System Associates (NESA) to
work towards fighting malaria in Niger. According to NESA, which is led by a
group of volunteer professionals from Niger, in order to fight malaria, it is
critical to work towards achieving improved living conditions. Ensuring the
development of functional health clinics and the proper diagnosis and treatment
of the disease was also regarded as particularly important. Currently, the
foundation Doctors Without Borders is working on a pilot project with the
Integrated Health Centers seeking to improve access to health care. The organization’s
community workers are educating the populations at risk and are fanning out to
villages to conduct rapid diagnostic tests for malaria so that early treatment
can be provided.
As far as environmental sustainability goes, during the last
two years, food insecurity and drought have reached abnormally high levels,
prompting a response from the international community and an intensive food
security operation undertaken by the International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies. These two foundations are joining up with 15 other
large-scale water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion projects that have been
established by the Federation Global Water and Sanitation Initiative, and more
than 250,000 people in some of Niger’s poorest communities will benefit from
it.
Here Comes 2015…
But what of the rest of the Millennium Development Goals?
When they were established in the year 2000, following the Millennium Summit,
the United Nations as well as 23 other international organizations agreed to
achieve them by the year 2015. In Niger’s case, 14 specific targets pertaining
to each goal were set as well.
·
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.
·
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
·
Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children
everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of
primary schooling.
·
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary
and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no
later than 2015.
·
Target 5: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and
2015, the under-five mortality rate.
·
Target 6: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990
and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
·
Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to
reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS.
·
Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to
reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
·
Target 9: Integrate the principles of
sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss
of environmental resources.
·
Target 10: Halve by 2015 the proportion of
people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
·
Target 11: By 2020 to have achieved a
significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
·
Target 12: Address the special needs of
landlocked countries and small island developing States.
·
Target 13: Deal comprehensively with the debt
problems of developing countries through national and international measures in
order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
·
Target 14: In cooperation with the private
sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information
and communications.
These specific targets allow Niger to work at achieving each
Millennium Development Goal in feasible way that is specific to its own needs.
The deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals—the year 2015—is
right around the corner, and these targets will allow Niger to measure its
success and re-evaluate its plan. Niger will be able to mark what it achieved
and did not achieve and make changes where necessary. Niger, and many other
developing countries, will not have achieved all of the Millennium Development
Goals fully by the year 2015, but they were an excellent starting point. They
forced developing countries to make a plan for change, and drew other nations’
attentions toward issues that they may have been ignorant to before. When 2015
arrives, Niger will have a plan of action and be equipped with the knowledge
and the allies to achieve it.
