When the Millennium Development Goals were adopted in New York everyone thought time had come for Africa to properly address its developmental problems. Summarised in eight points, many decision-makers thought time had come finish with all the scourges experienced for many years.

The eight areas were very specific and the objectives seemingly easy to attain. But 15 years on, very few African countries were able to show any visible signs of progress. In Cameroon, the only visible sign of success was registered in the area about access to education because, it must be said, appreciable efforts have been made to ensure that the majority of children have access to school and, as observed, the school attendance rate or that of illiteracy has been reduced to a bare minimum.

Observing this mass failure to attain these live-saving objectives when the deadline came in 2015 , the United Nations came up with another initiative, the Sustainable development Goals with the hope that every society or societal component will be able to improve its living conditions within the framework of its own set developmental standards, rather than aligning with UN goals which were not written with their immediate concerns or modes of live taken into consideration. The areas in which our countries failed are not necessarily very difficult areas. It is easy to introduce policies that considerably reduce poverty, so can maternal and infant health issues be addressed more carefully. Many African countries were able to make a critical assessment of the past 15 years and definitely know where they made errors and why progress could not be made in certain areas. Now, they have another opportunity to correct the errors that led to the non-attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. This time, the U N has instituted the Sustainable Development Goals whose life span runs through 2030. They have a good 15 year again to correct the errors of the past. In our country, one expects more seriousness and resolve in addressing such issues as maternal and infant health, especially as recent unfortunate events in some of our hospitals came to remind us of the necessity for greater concern in addressing such health issues. Poverty too, which is one of the issues to be immediately addressed, is being taken from the top and the fear is that to get right down when the real poor start to feel the impact of the many face-lifting projects will take too long. In any case policy makers certainly know that these regular assessments are important in determining whether our policies really impact on the people. The SDGs give us a rare opportunity to prove that we are serious about fighting poverty, disease, ignorance, sexism and other degrading practices.