Canada and the World

        Current Events with a Canadian Perspective

 

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20 December 2010

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Missing the

Millennium Development Goals

 

A decade after commitments to cure the

problems of Third World poverty, the global

community has made disappointing progress

 

 

There was an impressive display of diplomatic firepower on show in September 2000 in New York City that included the heads of state and/or government from 191 nations.

 

 

Just about everybody who mattered in politics and government was at this important United Nations meeting. They gathered at the start of a new century to launch a new attack on the old problems of global poverty and social decline.

 

Millennium Development Goals Agreed to

Out of the New York gathering of 2000 came the Millennium Declaration; an ambitious set of eight goals to make the world a better place:

 

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
• Achieve universal primary education;
• Promote gender equality and empower women;
• Reduce child mortality;
• Improve maternal health;
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
• Ensure environmental sustainability; and,
• Build a global partnership for development assistance.

 

Within those eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 18 specific targets were set and there was a timetable for reaching them.

 

2015 Target Date for

Completion of Development Goals

Most of the goals were to be achieved by 2015. For example, the number of people living in extreme poverty (that is on less than $1 a day) was to be cut in half by 2015.

 

But, just wiping out poverty on its own is not enough. All the Millennium Development Goals are inter-connected and they reinforce each other. Failing to achieve one goal threatens success with the others. On the other hand, successfully completing one goal makes meeting the others a little easier.

 

Progress on Millennium

Development Goals behind Schedule

In January 2005, The Economist reported that “Sub-Saharan Africa has met or is on track to meet not a single MDG.” And, that was long before the financial crisis kicked the legs out from under the program.

 

In July 2009, the United Nations issued a progress report on how the MDGs: “We have made important progress in this effort,” wrote UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “and have many successes on which to build. But we have been moving too slowly to meet our goals. And today, we face a global economic crisis whose full repercussions have yet to be felt.”

 

Mr. Ban tries to put an optimistic face on the issue and urges UN member states to honour their promises made in 2000, but the situation on the ground is not pretty.

 

Third World Living Standards in Decline

Some progress was made in meeting the MDGs between 2000 and 2005 but that seems to have come to a halt.

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009 lists some of the backsliding that has happened recently:

 

• “In 2009, an estimated 55 million to 90 million more people will be living in extreme poverty than anticipated before the [financial] crisis;
• “The encouraging trend in the eradication of hunger since the early 1990s was reversed in 2008, largely due to higher food prices. The prevalence of hunger in the developing regions is now on the rise, from 16 percent in 2006 to 17 percent in 2008;
•  “Meagre progress on child nutrition from 1990 to 2007 is insufficient to meet the 2015 target, and will likely be eroded by higher food prices and economic turmoil; and,
•  “The International Labour Organization estimates that global unemployment in 2009 could reach 6.1 to 7.0 percent for men and 6.5 to 7.4 percent for women, many of whom remain trapped in insecure - often unpaid - jobs.”

 

 

Image credit

The White House

 

Sources

“Recasting the Case for Aid.” The Economist, January 20, 2005.

“Millenium Development Goals Report.” United Nations, July 2009.

“World Bank Receives $49b to Help Poor Countries on Millennium Goals.” Martin Luther Oketch, Daily Monitor, December 20, 2010.  

 

© Canada and the World, December 2010

All rights reserved

 

 

CONNECTIONS

 

In meeting development goals it’s important to acknowledge how the problems are connected.

 

Here’s an explanation of some aspects of interconnectedness from the Canadian International Development Agency:

 

“HIV/AIDS is driven at least in part by lack of education. And, education also suffers because of HIV/AIDS: teachers who are sick can’t teach, and kids whose parents are sick or dead can’t go to school because they have to work. When people are struggling to survive on less than $1 a day, they cannot think about protecting their environment, or sending their children to school.

 

“If people do not have access to safe drinking water, or if they live in slums, their health is at risk and their vulnerability to disease increases.”

 

International Human Solidarity Day is observed on December 20. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said during the 2010 observance, “Solidarity with those less fortunate is more important than ever, especially at a time when the global economic crisis has pushed an estimated 64 million more people into poverty.”

 

“...hard-fought development gains have been jeopardized by economic and financial upheaval, volatility in food prices and energy markets, and the impacts of natural disasters and climate change.”

 

Make Poverty History

 

According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor (December 20, 2010) “The World Bank has received a total pledge of $49.3 billion from donors to fund development avenues directed towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.” The money will be distributed through credit lines and grants to the world’s 79 least developed countries.