CHAPTER 5 41. The following MDG goals are identified as the least likely to be realised: ? ? ? ? ? Halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty; Achieving universal education; Reducing child mortality; Improving maternal health; and Combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases. ii. Findings of the CRM 42. Issues that came up in discussions around this objective mirror the responses in the survey. It has been suggested that investment criteria should include direct effects on poverty alleviation. In practice, this implies that greater attention needs to be given to investment in sectors that employ poor people, such as agriculture. 43. Some stakeholders, including those representing the public sector, pointed out that the authorities, in fact, do not ignore this criterion in public investment decisions. What is lacking, however, is transparency of the importance it plays in such decisions. There was consensus in the discussions that the government should consider these concerns carefully and look more systematically into what could be done. It should take due account of any trade-offs between short-term and long-term effects on growth and development, and employ investment criteria that take the direct short-run employment effects on the poor into account. 44. The impact of rural-urban migration on urban poverty is a cause for concern to some stakeholders, who have noted that the lack of a corresponding expansion of infrastructure and service delivery is a major reason for this relationship. The obvious response to alleviate the problem increasing spending on urban infrastructure is not considered a feasible option because of resource constraints. Neither do the stakeholders consider policies for reducing rural-urban migration, such as improving employment and welfare conditions in the rural areas. In the context of equity, however, many stakeholders stress the need for improving conditions in the rural areas, especially access to basic facilities. The motivation is to achieve equity, and not to reduce ruralurban migration. 45. Despite several decades of social scientific research on rural-urban migration, its causes, benefits and costs, there are signs of neglect by public policy in Ghana of certain basic questions: whether anything should be done about rural-urban migration in Ghana; how to reduce its costs and take advantage of its benefits; and whether there is a 126