March 09, 2006

Inequality the real contest of the Games

THE destiny of 4500 elite athletes will be decided in just a few days at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. Some will win gold and return home as heroes. Others will not get past the early heats.

As an Australian, I want to see our athletes at the top of the medal tally. Paradoxically, I also hold onto the idea that the medals will be shared between the 71 Commonwealth countries, based on talent and effort.

The reality, however, is that most medals will go to rich nations.

Three nations — Australia, England and Canada — won 54 per cent of the medals at Manchester in 2002, with the rest shared among the remaining 68 countries. Poorer countries such as Zambia, Bangladesh and Malawi won just a few or none.

Rich countries, it seems, can afford to invest in success and ensure their destiny; poor countries cannot.

There are 53 developing nations in the Commonwealth, and while they represent 90 per cent of the population, they will take home only a few of the spoils. Unfair as this seems, it is nothing compared with the poverty and inequality many of their citizens face.

The destiny of most children in the developing world is decided before they turn five. If you are born in Malawi, there is a one in 10 chance you will die as an infant. If you make it past five, your chance of going to school is one in two. If you survive, you can still expect to live only a short 37 years.

The facts show that people born in developing countries do not have an equal chance. The average Zambian must eke out an existence on little more than $2 a day. Simply surviving is a gold-medal performance.

Plan Australia, goodwill partner of the Commonwealth Games, is responding to this world of inequality by working with poor children, families and communities throughout the Commonwealth and beyond to boost literacy, improve health and immunisation and supply safe water and good sanitation. Our work is achieving real results for some of the poorest people in the world, but it is clearly not enough. The scope of the problem is immense.

Recognising the tragic inequities that are at play, world leaders met in 2000 and committed to the Millennium Development Goals. These eight goals provide a strategy for halving world poverty by 2015. The goals are achievable, but it was recognised that developing countries would require more aid, fairer rules on trade, and debt forgiveness. Progress on the goals has been uneven. After the pressure of Live 8 and the Make Poverty History campaign, world leaders announced more aid. European nations promised to increase their aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2010 and to the required 0.7 per cent by 2015.

Australia also responded, promising to lift aid to 0.35 per cent by 2010 but with no longer-term commitment to either 0.5 per cent or 0.7 per cent.

Progress on trade broke down at the December talks in Hong Kong, with the European Union and United States maintaining highly protective subsidies that lock poor countries out of potentially life-saving agricultural markets.

It is reasonable to suggest that the issue of a more equitable and sustainable distribution of the world’s resources will be the defining feature of this century. Until now, it has been a slightly distracting problem that we should get around to solving one day. In the meantime, we have focused on our own economic growth and membership of the rapid globalisation club.

Our consideration of the plight of the very poor has traditionally been shelved under the heading of compassion. As we feel assured of our own economic destiny, we reflect on how dicey theirs is, and decide to lend a hand from our position of strength.

What is becoming apparent to many, however, is that our destinies are intertwined. Their poverty is also our risk, and our consumption and lifestyles may well turn out to be the destruction of us both.

People living in extreme poverty have very few options. Occupying marginal land, they frequently contribute to deforestation. They flee collapsing economies and civil war, becoming asylum seekers. Their high population densities, combined with underfunded public health services, provide the perfect breeding ground for diseases such as HIV/AIDS and bird flu that can mutate and become pandemics. Only by creating a more sustainable future for the poor can we hope to protect and save the planet.

The tides of globalisation have left us with an incredibly small planet. Actions in one part of the globe have repercussions in another. As China and India race towards the consumption levels that we enjoy, and living standards that we demand, it is becoming alarmingly apparent that the earth cannot sustain it all. It is time for a radical rethink, not only about how the poor fare but also about how we now live.

In this century, the inhabitants of the planet will learn how much we share a common humanity and destiny. By introducing the role of goodwill partner, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games has recognised the times, and is doing its part to encourage everyone to take responsibility for shaping a more equal destiny for all.

Ian Wishart is national executive director of Plan Australia, goodwill partner of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.