Millennium Development Goals - Report Example

Introduction: Millennium Development goals, commonly referred to as MDGs, are “a set of time-bound and measurable goals and targets designed to decrease poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental devastation and discrimination against women” (Wagner). These goals were adopted by the United Nations in September 2000 after a series of round table conferences at Millennium Summit meeting in New York. These goals basically set measurable development targets for the governments of member countries in eight different sectors as mentioned below. Goal 1: Extreme poverty and hunger should be eradicated. The goal will be achieved by reducing the number of people earning less than $1 per day to one half by 2015. It also emphasizes on reduction of the number of people suffering from poverty to one half by the same date. Goal 2: Every child on earth, male or female, should be able to primary education by 2015. Goal 3: To eradicate gender disparity, it will be ensured that men and women have equal access to education facilities at all levels. Goal 4: Mortality rate of children under five should be reduced by two third of the present value. Goal 5: Proper medical care should be provided to women to ensure three quarters reduction in maternal mortality rate by 2015. Reproductive health care should be made universally available. Goal 6: Spread of Malaria and HIV/AIDS should be reversed by 2015. Goal 7: Programs should be initiated for sustainable development without the adverse effects on environment. Safe drinking water should be made available to more people with the water deficient population reduced to one half by 2015. Goal 8: A partnership should be developed between rich and poor countries to achieve the MDGs. It defines the mechanism of how the poorer countries will be able to achieve these goals with the financial and technical support of developed countries. The content of these goals is derived from the United Nations Development Conferences held after the inception of United Nations Development Program in 1965. Millennium Development Goals – Successes and Short Comings: The overall progress towards the MDGs is very different in different countries and regions around the globe. Most of the developing countries have limited their focus towards the first goal with a very limited or no focus towards environmental and health aspirations of MDGs. It is observed by different analysts that so far the targets set by MDGs are not met on an international scale. However, success of individual countries or regions can be observed which shall be discussed in the following lines with reference to each of the eight goals. 1. The first goal has been the primary focus of most of the governments in developing countries for reasons both political and financial. China and Vietnam for example have reduced their population earning less than $1 per day from more than 35% to less than 14% of the total population. Considerable progress on the goal has been made in South Asian countries particularly India where ration of population living below poverty line has been reduced from 37.5% to 26.1%. Very little progress was however observed in the countries of Latin America and Middle East. For most of the European countries goal 1 was not a challenge as the average income of their population was well above $1 per day. 2. As in the case of first goal discussed above, the progress towards the ‘education for all’ target of UN was different for different countries. UN task forces note that under developed countries such as Bolivia and Cameron have allocated greater proportions of annual budget to the development in health and education sector. For the most European and Central Asian countries, it is anticipated that they will be able to achieve the targets set in goal 2 by 2015. However, serious setbacks have been faced in many of the African countries such as Mozambique and Tanzania where primary school enrollment has decreased over the past few years. 3. Since the announcement of Millennium Declaration, women participation in political and social life of under developed countries have been significantly increased. But this can largely be attributed to the extraordinary measures taken by the governments such as special quotas for women etc. Enrollment in educational institutions was set as the main indicator to measure success in this goal. According to estimates, out of 150 million children not in school, 90 million are girls. European countries have made significant progress in decreasing the gender gap however; most of the south Asian and Sub-Saharan African countries lie far behind in abolishing gender discrimination in education system at all levels. 4. Children mortality rate has been alarmingly high in most of the African countries due to lack of basic health facilities. A small progress can however be observed in this regard in Bangladesh and Gambia. In some East Asian countries such as Cambodia, the number of children died per one thousand births increased from 115 to 138. The best results with reference to this goal were obtained by countries in Latin America where child mortality rate has significantly decreased and it is observed that the region will able to achieve the set targets by 2015. 5. The situation of maternal mortality rate is not very encouraging and governments have failed to achieve the desired targets in most of the regions of the world. The United Nations health care agencies have reported that Europe and Central Asia despite providing good health care facilities to their people have failed to achieve the desired targets related to maternal mortality. The only region that has achieved the set targets of reduction in maternal health care is the Latin America and the Caribbean. Sub Saharan Africa and South Asian region despite lacking in the basic infrastructure and facilities have managed to decrease the maternal mortality rates. These reports have been submitted by United Nations Development Assistance Framework through its taskforce number 4 which is concerned about the child and maternal health. 6. The spread of Malaria and HIV/AIDS and other viral diseases was considered as one of the major crisis faced by this world with the start of new millennium. The countries East Asia and Pacific, despite limited incomes and large populations have managed to stop the spread of these diseases. Europe and Central Asia however have failed to eradicate the threat of HIV/AIDS where it is becoming an epidemic; same is the condition of the spread of tuberculosis in European countries. The Middle Eastern and North African countries have however reduced the spread of Malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis considerably. The threat of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis is very high in the South Asian region especially in Southern India and Bangladesh because these regions have very densely populated areas and humid climatic conditions. Some countries, like Pakistan have reduced the rate of the spread of HIV/AIDS considerably by initiating awareness campaigns about the spread of these diseases on print and electronic media. 7. In order to eradicate the threat of Global Warming and to preserve the climatic conditions for saving the planet Earth and Human race the goal no. 7 is concerned about the sustainability of environment. The targets set under this goals include the incorporation of sustainable environmental practices in industry and household use of energy and natural resources in all the countries of the world by 2015. According to the recent report issued by the United Nations Environment Program on the Water Day of 2011 on the theme of ‘water for cities’ the goals set for the provision of safe drinking water to half of the population have already been achieved however a majority of world population is still without proper wastewater management and sanitation facilities and the situation is expected to continue as it is till 2020. 8. For a partnership to be developed the communication gap between the developed and poor countries need to be narrowed and considerable success has been achieved in this regard because almost all the regions of the world with the exception of the Sub Saharan Africa have a good access to internet and other modern means of communication. Various contracts have been signed between the developed and poor countries for the provision of financial and technical assistance to make the poor countries self sustainable in the fields of science and technology. The economies of the poor countries are being supported by issuing them trade quotas and providing them with technical assistance for converting raw resources available in various regions into finished products. Conclusion: Millennium development goals were regarded as a step in the right direction by most of the analysts after their declaration was made back in September 2000. Subsequent years have proven that their observations were correct in this regard. Although most of the targets set in MDGs are so far unmet internationally, most of the countries and regions have made significant progress in some or all eight of the MDGs announced by UNO. Mostly lagging behind are the poor and under developed countries which depend on developed countries for the finances and technology required for development in the sectors of health and education. The recent global recession slowed down the process of assistance to poor countries but the assistance is back on track now and most of the targets set under the MGDs are expected to be achieved by 2015. A firm resolve on the part of every human being is however required for complete eradication of poverty, hunger, disease and gender disparity from the face of planet. And for this awareness among the masses must be enhanced. Works Cited "Indian Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) - India Country Report." Economy Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2011. . Kluger, Jeffery. "Millennium Success: The World Gets Healthier, Richer." Time 24 June 2010. Print. "Millenium Development Goals." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2011. . "Millennium Development Goals: Aid Success Stories." Caritas.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2011. . Wagner, Diana. "2000 Millennium Development Goals." University of Iowa Centre for International Finance and Development. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2011. . Read More