MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)

United Nations Organisation and its partners are on a war path. They are going all out and leaving no stone unturned in a concerted effort to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) unanimously agreed upon by all the countries of the world and all the leading development institutions. The target date is 2015 and the achievement in every sphere is quite encouraging. The goals are:

• 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
• Global Partnership for Development

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon established an Advocacy Group in June 2010 to garner all possible support for the programme. In his own words, these are 'some of the world's leading thinkers and doers' and they have come together to combat poverty. They have proved their outstanding leadership in implementing the goals, in areas like education, food security, health, environment and the empowerment of women. They support the Secretary-General in mobilising world-wide action and political will. The achievement so far is encouraging as aforesaid. However, a detailed review of each area of action would not be out of place.

1. ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER


People suffering from hunger, in spite of being employed, is a shame on humanity, especially when such a lot of food is being wasted by the people who have the capacity to purchase more than enough. About 15% of the global population, coming to around 850 million people, are undernourished and one in five children in the developing world is underweight due to undernourishment.

Then, where is the progress? We have to go back to the year 2000 to appreciate the progress. In that year, the dawn of the millennium, 689 million workers lived below the poverty line of $1.25 per day. Progress in several areas of the world, especially East Asia, has brought that figure down to 456 million in 2011. People who suffered from hunger in 2010 were just half of the number in 1990. That means, the target of halving poverty by 2015, has been already achieved five years ahead of the deadline, in 2010. We must, however, face the fact that, despite this progress, about one billion people will still be living on less than $1.25 a day in 2015.

2. ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION


Enrolment in primary education was 82 % in 1999 and it has risen to 90 % in 2010 in the developing nations. But this increase has increased demand for secondary education facilities. In 2010, 71 million adolescents between 12 and 15 years of age and 61 million children of primary school age were out of school. Female education is also showing progress as the ratio of literate women with literate men has increased from 90:100 in 1990 to 95:100 in 2010.

So there is considerable progress in this area. But a closer scrutiny of the figures has shown that the progress has noticeably slowed down from 2004. This means that the chances for achievement of the target of 100 per cent enrolment of children in primary schools by 2015 seem to recede.

3. PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN


In enrolment in primary schools, gender parity has been achieved, allowing a 3 % plus-or-minus margin as negligible. The ratio of enrolment of girls in primary schools with that of boys rose from 91:100 in 1999 to 97:100 in 2010. There has been an increase also in the share of women in paid jobs outside farming with a rise of 5% from 35 to 40 between 1990 and 2010.

However, in 2008-2009, only 25% of senior management positions are occupied by women and the average payment they get is 23% less than the payment men get for the same job. Women continue to face opposition and neglect in access to education, job placement, acquisition of economic assets and participation in Government and administrative positions. Adding insult to injury, violence against women continues unabated.

4. REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY


The number of deaths in children below five years of age was 12.4 million in 1990. In spite of population growth, this number has declined to 6.9 million in 2011. This means that at least 14, 000 children have been saved from death per day. This is indeed progress in this target area. Children of uneducated mothers are more likely to die than children of educated mothers.

However, there is increase in the proportion of children dying during the first month of their birth. Children born into poor families, especially in rural areas, are twice more likely to die before the age of five than children born into other families. It is also disappointing that, while child deaths are decreasing worldwide, it is on the increase in sub-Saharan Africa.

5. IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH


In 2010, the worldwide figures for maternal deaths were around 287, 000. This is 47% less than the figures for 1990. There is also a considerable narrowing of the gap between the availability of skilled care during child birth in the urban and rural areas. In the developing nations, more and more women are receiving antenatal care and there is reduction in the number of teens having children.

However, the glaring difference in the rate of maternal mortality in developed and developing nations continues to challenge health workers. The rate in developing nations is 15 times higher than in developed nations. Development assistance by Governments in developing nations for reproductive health care remains very low.

6. COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES


Though, correct knowledge of HIV transmission and use of condom is low among young people, fresh cases of infections are declining in the regions where the infection was most rampant. AIDS- related deaths are fewer and more and more people are living with HIV. There has been an increase in all regions in access to facilities for treatment of AIDS. 8 million people worldwide are receiving antiretroviral therapy for AIDS as per figures available for the end of 2011. This is an increase of 1.4 million from the figures for the end of 2009.

In the global drive against malaria, there is considerable progress now. There is a decrease of 17% in incidence and 25% in malaria-related deaths compared to the year 2000. More children have got insecticide-treated bed nets in sub-Saharan Africa where the most number of incidence and deaths have been reported. Death rate due to Tuberculosis has also come down to 50% of the rate in 1990. Chances of achieving the target by 2015 in these areas are bright.

7. ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY


World adopted the Montreal protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer quarter of a century ago and encouragingly there has been a reduction of over 98% in the global consumption of ozone-depleting substances. Over $ 513 billion has been pledged towards initiatives for sustainable development, since the agreement entitled 'The Future We Want' was approved by world leaders at Rio+20.

Protected areas covered 12.7% of land area and 1.6% of the ocean area in 2010 and the figures show an increase of 58% in the number of protected areas since 1990. Though more than 2 billion people got access to improved drinking water facilities, between 1990 and 2010, and the percentage of people using improved water sources rose to 89% in 2010 from 76% in 1990, we have to realise that 783 million people remain without access to good sources of drinking water.

Considerable progress has been made in the provision of improved sanitation facilities to people, especially in Eastern and Southern Asia. The percentage of people getting access to improved facilities rose from 36 in 1990 to 56 during 1990-2010. However, there are still 2.5 billion people without access to improved sanitation facilities.

The number of slum dwellers has increased from 650 million in 1990 and 760 million in 2000 to 863 million in 2012. But the share of the slum residents in the urban population declined from 39% in 2000 to 33% in 2012. 200 million slum-dwellers have got improved drinking water sources, improved sanitation facilities or durable and less-crowded houses. Therefore, double the target has been achieved in this area, as the target was to make significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million people.

8. DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT


Protectionist measures by several nations have affected almost 3% of the total global trade, though G20 members had pledged to eliminate such measures. External debts of heavily indebted poor countries have been reduced to an extent, but 20 developing countries still face debt distress. Aid to landlocked countries came down, while aid to small island nations increased.

The debt to GDP ratio of many developing countries has decreased and they could weather the economic downturn of 2009. However, expected slow-down in growth rate in 2012 and 2013 may again weaken debt ratios. Availability and affordability of essential medicines in developing countries have improved very little.

There has been progress in making the benefits of new technologies and communication facilities available to all the people in the world. Only 26% of people in the developing nations are internet users, while 74% of the people in the developed nations use internet. But these figures are fast changing with more and more people getting access to internet in the developing countries. Mobile cellular phone users worldwide are 6 billion at the end of 2011.

Overall, there is a fair chance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, in most of the target areas. Depletion of resources on earth remains a major problem and this can be controlled only through increased use of renewable energy sources like the sun and the wind.