South Africa is unfortunately seemingly not on track to fulfil the United Nations' (UN) Millennium Development Goals. (MDGs). According to the MDG report that we are delivering to the United Nations this week, South Africa is great at opening up public access to critical institutions, but weak at delivering quality outcomes through them. We have increased access to education and health care dramatically, but due to the deterioration in quality of the education and health care systems, our citizens are often worse off for their engagement with them. More students are ill-educated than ever before, and more mothers and children die in child birth than ever before. These overwhelming facts cast a dark shadow over the achievements we've made in other areas.

South Africa has done well in meeting the targets of three MDGs: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, and to promote gender equality and empower women. We can be proud of these achievements, but there is still a long way to go still, especially in terms of education. According to the World Economic Forum's annual Global Competitiveness Report, of the 139 countries it surveyed, South Africa ranked 137th for the quality of maths and science education, behind countries like Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Thus, it's not enough to merely provide "access" to schooling if that education does not adequately equip our learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed.

One of the biggest government failures has been in helping us meet health-related MDGs: to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, and to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Indeed, South Africa is only one of a handful of countries where our child and maternal mortality rates are increasing. Child mortality went from 59 deaths (per thousand children under 5) in 1998 to 104 deaths in 2007. Our goal was to cut it to 20. Maternal mortality increased from 369 deaths (per 100,000 live births) in 2001 to 625 deaths in 2007. This is nowhere near the goal of 38 we set for ourselves. Something is very wrong with our health system for these negative trends to go on. The fact that our MDG report states that it is also "unlikely" that we will meet our goals regarding HIV/AIDS suggests that our health crisis is systemic.

Many of the problems facing our country seem daunting yet they are not insurmountable. In fact, they can be addressed by government focusing on those areas where they can affect change. This is illustrated well by the example of the failure of the government to introduce an Office of Standards Compliance as provided for by the National Health Act of 2003, for instance.

One reason for the fact that our infant mortality rates have remained relatively static over the last decade is the persistent lack of standardised infection control across the country. Currently every hospital can implement its own infection control guidelines and while some do this, others do not. Despite the National Health Act of 2003 stipulating that the Office of Standards Compliance must be established, this has still not happened seven years after the fact.

The Office of Standards Compliance is to ensure all hospitals are inspected and meet minimum standards, such as infection control. But this Office is not functional at all, with only a head of office, secretary and administration clerk. It does not yet have a Director of Certification, whilst other directorates are still being set up, and have numerous vacancies.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the continuing deaths of babies and mothers, and the rising number of deaths of children, highlights the desperate need for standards to be implemented at all public hospitals through the Office of Standards Compliance.

The DA reiterates its calls for all public hospitals throughout the country to be inspected to ensure that all maternity wards are practicing proper infection control. We further call on the Director-General of Health, Precious Matsoso, to bolster the Office of Standards Compliance and to provide leadership in ensuring it is equipped to effectively carry out its duties.

The example of the Office of Standards Compliance is but one in myriad examples of ways in which the South African government could be making dramatic improvements in trying to meet the MDGs if it had the will to do so. It is not enough to have undertaken an agreement to reach certain goals- there should be a concerted an evident campaign to change government ‘business as usual.'