The Millennium Development Goals of Nepal - Assignment Example

The Millennium Development Goals of Nepal Table of Contents Introduction 3 Millennium Development Goals of Nepal 3 Role of UNDP and UN System for Accelerating MDG in Nepal 9 Progress of Nepal in Achieving Millennium Development Goals 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Introduction The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are referred to as a series of eight international development goals, which was established in the year 2000 in the UN Millennium Summit by signing the Millennium declaration. The goals were formulated to be achieved by the year 2015 with prime focus on addressing varied issues like eradication of poverty and protection of environment (UN Nepal Information Platform, 2012). The goals have been formulated with measurable targets along with clear deadlines emphasising improving the lives of poorest people of the world. The UN Millennium campaign has created partnerships with the Resident Coordinators office in various targeted countries in order to inspire and support the people all over the world for taking adequate actions, supporting the MDGs. In this regard, Nepal is deemed to be one of the most targeted and highly prioritised countries of the world. In Nepal, the Millennium campaign has a powerful interlink with the “Civil Society Organisations”, UN system and the local bodies, which tends to enhance its campaigning efforts and policy advocacy works (1United Nations Development Programme, 2014). With this concern, the assignment intends to analyse the MDGs of Nepal with depicting the roles of UNDP and UN System for accelerating the same in the nation. Millennium Development Goals of Nepal The MDGs are: Goal 1: “Eradication of Extreme Hunger and Poverty” This goal has been established in order to support the economically under-developed countries of the world wherein the people are not even able to afford the basic necessities of life such as food, which results in causing malnutrition. Therefore, in context to Nepal, the goal mainly focuses on improving the standards of living of the people as well as minimising the distance persisting between rich and poor. The target of the goal is to reduce the fraction of people in Nepal by 50 percent whose daily earnings is less than $1.25 and suffering from famine. The target is proposed to be accomplished in between 1990 and 2015 (1United Nations, 2015). In order to confirm that the above targets get accomplished within a set timeframe, the country will mainly analyse two indicators. The first indicator represents the prevailing rate of under-weighted children those who are below the age of five years and the second indicator denotes the proportion of populaces in the country who do not receive minimum level of diet (Shakya, 2013). Goal 2: “Achieving Universal Primary Education” This goal was designed to ensure that all the children of a country receive primary education and possess the right to enrol themselves in primary schools and complete their education. However, in relation to Nepal, the goal mainly focused on increasing the number of literacy rates in the country by providing the opportunity of primary education. As per the resolution, there should be maximum literacy rates among the age groups of 15 to 24 years, as they are regarded as the future of the country (2United Nations, 2015). Thus, in order to achieve the aforesaid goal, a target was set, which ensures that by the year 2015, all the children of Nepal irrespective of boys and girls will be able to complete primary schooling course. Goal 3: “Women Empowerment and Promotion of Gender Equality” The third goal emphasises promotion of gender equality and more importantly empowerment of women in Nepal. While preparing the resolution, it was decided that the women should be able to recognise their deserved rights and must be provided with equal opportunities as that of the men. The women should be educated properly, as the male section of the society is educated and there should be equivalent number of seats in the parliament reserved for the women. Therefore, the target for achieving this goal remained in the elimination of gender inequality in primary as well as secondary education system (United Nations, 2014). Goal 4: “Reducing Child Mortality” The fourth goal focuses on reducing the child mortality rate in Nepal. However, the main target to achieve the goal can be apparently recognised as that the infant mortality rate under five years of age should reduce by 2/3 in between the years 1990 and 2015. In order to make the target more effectively achievable, the government of Nepal aimed at lessening the figure of infant mortality rate by utilising improved means of vaccination (World Health Organization, 2014). Apart from this, planning was also made to increase the proportion of immunised infants against measles that would help in reducing the child mortality rate to some extent. However, in order to analyse the effectiveness of achieving the target, there are three indicators that have been used. In this context, the first indicator represents the mortality rate of infants as per 1,000 live births. Conversely, the second indicator signifies mortality rate of infants falling under the age range of five and finally the third indicator denotes the section of 1 year aged child who has been provided immunisation against measles (Odi, 2015). Goal 5: “Improve Maternal Health” The fifth goal paid utmost attention on improving the maternal health of the individuals in Nepal and thereby minimising the maternal mortality rate in the country. The maternal mortality ratio in the country was aimed to be reduce by three quarters, as majority of the women were losing their lives during childbirth due to various reasons including improper healthcare services and negligence by the healthcare professionals (Crown, 2011). Moreover, certain other factors are also necessary to be taken into concern that include deliverance of proper ante natal care and making proper family planning, leading towards the improvement of maternal health. However, the goal is anticipated to achieve by the year 2015 (UN Nepal Information Platform, 2012). Goal 6: “Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases” The goal has been designed for combating in opposition to HIV/AIDS along with malaria and other chronic diseases that are prevailing in Nepal. In order to prevent HIV/AIDS, decisions have been made about educating the populaces of the nation whose age ranges between 15 to 24 years regarding the harmful effects of the disease. Moreover, it was also decided to provide necessary information to them regarding the preventive measures that can be adopted to keep away from the disease. It was also ensured that the people who were affected by HIV/AIDS in Nepal should have easy access to the antiretroviral drugs, which would help in curing the disease (UNESCO, 2013). However, in case of malaria, the major focus was to inform and educate the people regarding how to keep away from this disease and generating awareness about the importance of using mosquito nets. It was also aimed to minimise the number of deaths that were caused due to tuberculosis through DOTS treatment. Similar to the previous goals, the targets of this goal were also expected to accomplish by the year 2015 (Public Health Perspective Nepal, 2014). However, there are three indicators that would help in analysing the extent to which the targets have been attained. The first indicator represents the pervasiveness of HIV amid the pregnant woman whose age ranges between 15 to 24 years. The second indicator denotes the usage rate of condom amid the people along with the prevalence rate of contraceptives. The third indicator signifies the ratio persisting between the school attendance of orphans and non-orphans. All these indicators would certainly aid in estimating the rate of success of the targeted goal (UN Nepal Information Platform, 2012). Goal 7: “Ensuring Environmental Sustainability” This goal is completely focused on ensuring the sustainability of the environment of Nepal. The target of this goal remained confined in incorporating sustainable development policies of the country and urging the need to become more environment conscious towards reducing the loss of biodiversity on the earth. However, utmost focus should be laid on certain major areas including the depletion of ozone layer, high emission of CO2 and deforestation (United Nations, 2014). The goal also aimed at reducing the number of people by 50 percent within the year 2015 who are suffering from improper sanitation and do not have proper access in drinking clean water. Moreover, the goal also targeted to improve the living standards of nearly about 100 million individuals of slum areas of Nepal by the year 2020. However, there are three indicators that help in confirming the effectiveness of the targets. The first indicator implies determining the proportion of the people of Nepal who are using solid fuels. The second indicator signifies the proportion of the populaces residing within urban and rural areas who possess greater access to clean and safe drinking water. The third indicator represents the proportion of the people in the country of both urban and rural areas who have equal access towards improved sanitation (UNESCO, 2013). Goal 8: “Developing a Global Partnership for Development” This is the last and final MDG decided at the Millennium Summit, which focused on strengthening worldwide partnership. The target of the goal is to develop a conventional, rule based, fair-trading, non-discriminatory and financial system in Nepal. The main purpose is to establish a good governance system in the country and minimise poverty. Another target of the goal remained confined in providing help, debt relief, ensuring every people to perform decent works and mobilising the private as well as international companies towards solving the common problems. Specially mentioning, Nepal is completely dependent on “Official Development Assistance” for implementing the developmental based programs towards the attainment of MDGs within the specified period (United Nations Foundation, 2013). The inflow of foreign cooperation in Nepal including the multilateral and bilateral loans along with technical assistance and grant is found to be more than double in between the years 2002-2009. The flows of foreign capital in terms of per capita also rose from Indian Rupee 621 to Indian Rupee 1317 during this period. Moreover, the foreign help in the social sectors of Nepal has become nearly doubled to about 68% in these years. Consequently, this enhancement in trade led the country to join the World Trade Organisation in the year 2004 (United Nations, 2014). However, another target of the goal was to create a productive as well as decent work for the youths of Nepal. Therefore, in order to create job opportunities for 30, 00,000 young youths of Nepal every year, it is inherently necessary to collaborate with the private sectors for deriving positive outcomes. Securities of the bilateral agreements are also necessary to be considered in order to provide benefits to the youths of the nation who are working abroad (2United Nations Development Programme, 2014). Role of UNDP and UN System for Accelerating MDG in Nepal The United Nations Agencies and United Nations Development Program are both actively supporting the government of Nepal in accomplishing the designed MDGs within the specified timeline i.e. by the year 2015. The “Local Governance and Community Development Program” has been in the operations from the year 2009, supporting the local level towards attaining the stated goals. Identifiably, the UN agencies are also playing a major role in supporting the government in the implementation of several programs that are related with poverty reduction, improving health, providing education, creation of employment, women empowerment, combating HIV/AIDS and sustainability of environment (UN Nepal Information Platform, 2012). Moreover, these agencies are also noted to be providing adequate support in enhancing the capacity level of the government towards monitoring and planning the attainment of such MDGs since the year 2002 by introducing the “Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper” (United Nations, 2014). Collaborating with the regional offices of UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP, the UN agencies have supported in conducting training on the MDGs costing and need assessment to the respective government personnel who held responsible for preparing the 3 years plan. However, in order to help the Nepal Government for accelerating the off track MDGs, the United Nations is involved in designing “MDG Acceleration Framework” focusing on sanitation (UNESCO, 2013). Progress of Nepal in Achieving Millennium Development Goals By the year 2015, it is projected that Nepal will be able to fulfil majority of the above portrayed MDGs. However, as per the current progress report, the country already attained a few of the goals. The report, which is prepared collaboratively by the Nepal Government and the “United Nations Development Program (UNDP)”, revealed that a majority of the targets including hunger and poverty, universal primary education, maternal health and child mortality, women empowerment and gender equality are predicted to be accomplished by the year 2015 (3United Nations Development Programme, 2014). However, the goals that are not likely to get fulfilled within due time include “combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other harmful diseases”, “developing a global partnership” and “ensuring environmental sustainability”. Most of the health related targets have already been accomplished but with an exception of a proportion of the population affected by HIV is being treated with “Antiretroviral Combination Therapy”, as per the report (United Nations, 2014). Based on the above discussion report, it can be inferred that Nepal can easily cut down the proportional population to about 21 percent those who are living underneath the poverty line by the year 2015. This can be justified with reference to the findings of the report that remittance plays a major role in the reduction of poverty, but there remains a doubt regarding its sustainability in long run (Jackson & Singh, 2015). However, with respect to creation of employment, the report states that, even though the target could be achieved but decent work and productive employment for all the people are not likely to be achieved. In case of achieving primary education, the standards of education can be duly met, but there might remain a problem of repetition and retention (Population Action, 2010). There has been a positive response about the promotion of gender equality as per the report. Even though the girl-boy ratio in the primary as well as secondary education has been quite satisfactory, in tertiary education, the target is not achievable. The target for child and maternal mortality rate is achievable, but according to the report, the achievement is limited to certain population groups or regions (World Bank, 2014). However, utmost focus was paid on providing safe drinking water to the people of Nepal, but in practical, the populaces belonging to the nation achieve the target without guaranteeing the continuous access towards drinking water. Therefore, it becomes a mandate for Nepal to concentrate on such areas wherein the situation has not yet been developed as desired (United Nations Development Programme, 2011). Conclusion Based on the above discussion and analysis, it has been quite evident that the eight MDGs, which have been designed in the Millennium Summit in United Nations, proved beneficial for Nepal in making overall development. This development can be measured in the form of eradicating poverty, protecting the Earth’s ecosystem and resolving complex health related issues among others. The eight MDGs were identified to possess separate targets that are expected to be achieve by the year 2015. However, in order to measure the extent to which the goals are achievable, several indicators have been duly analysed. Amongst the targets, majority of them are associated with “universal primary education”, “hunger and poverty”, “child mortality and maternal health”, “woman’s empowerment and equality”. Nonetheless, there lay certain areas including the eradication of HIV/AIDS and ensuring sustainability of environment that are assumed not to be achieved within due time because of having shortages in finding out appropriate measures towards addressing the same. Therefore, the government of Nepal should strive to adopt effective measures and policies so as to fulfil all the postulated MDGs within due time and support the nation to make wider progression in every field. References Crown (2011). Nepal Is On Track For MDG 5. Childbirth Is No Longer The Leading Cause Of Death Among Women Of Reproductive Age. MDG 5 - Driving Down Maternal Mortality in Nepal. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/mdg-5-driving-down-maternal-mortality-in-nepal [Accessed February 22, 2015]. Jackson, A. & Singh, A. (2015). Measuring South Asia’s Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. South Asian Network for Agricultural & Social Development. [Online] Available at: http://www.sansad.org.in/Measuring_South_Asias_Progress_Towards_MDGs.pdf [Accessed February 22, 2015]. Odi (2015). Millennium Development Goals Report Card: Learning from Progress. Journal, pp. 1-11. Population Action (2010). 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