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by Sarah

Young people are hungry for a place at the table!

January 23, 2013 in Economics, International Development, Youth

Enough Food for Everyone IF

Enough Food IF launch at Somerset House, London (23rd January 2013)

More than half the world’s population is under 25. Yet we – the young people of the world – are significantly under-represented in decision-making at all levels, from local government to global politics.

Internationally, 87% of young people surveyed by Restless Development feel that they have a role to play in shaping global development priorities. However, the majority of these young people say they are unsure how they can have a real say in development debates.

Here in the UK, the majority of young people are interested in politics [1]. However, 56% of 17 to 24-year-olds were not registered to vote in the last general election (according to the Electoral Commission). Perhaps this is because only 8% of young people believe that politicians care about their views [2]… How many young people do you think David Cameron has really listened to about their opinions on the EU, for instance?

In the run-up to the G8 summit to be hosted by the UK in June 2013, more than 100 NGOs are uniting in a campaign to end world hunger. This is good, important, and necessary: IF we don’t act, then 937 million young people’s life chances will be permanently damaged by childhood hunger by 2025.

We at Generation Development agree with these 100 NGOs that aid, land, tax and transparency are all crucial issues in the campaign to end world hunger. But young people are not just hungry for food. We have fire in our bellies, and we are hungry for change.

The dinner table is all well and good, but young people must also have a proper seat at the decision-making table. For too long, development has been seen as something that is done to or for young people, rather than with and by young people. We will inherit the decisions that are being made without consulting us. So we dream of a world where global leaders listen to the voices of young people across the world, and where young people can shape the future of international development.

If you share this dream, then tell your friends about Generation Development, and watch this space to learn how you can be part of a global conversation about young people’s needs, wishes and goals.

WE ARE: Generation Development

[1] 63% of the 1000 18-year-olds surveyed by the BBC in 2012 said they were interested in politics.

[2] A poll by the Children’s Society found that only 8% of 11 to 25-year-olds believe that politicians care about young people’s views.

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by thedevelopmentroast

Post MDGs 2015: Africa Must Shape Its Own Agenda Now

April 4, 2012 in Africa, MDGs

It’s already 2012 and the 2015 deadline for the achievements of the 8-bound Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is fast approaching. Most countries, especially on the African continent, have made some appreciable progress on some of the goals while others are unlikely to be achieved.

Most African countries in an effort to achieve the MDGs, which were developed and agreed at the UN General Assembly in 2000, put in place medium and long term poverty reduction strategies aimed at scaling up their efforts towards the MDGs. For instance, Ghana and Nigeria developed their own Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers to provide the blue print for accelerating economic growth and meeting the MDGs. African leaders later renewed their commitments to the MDGs in Addis Ababa in the year 2010 through the adoption of a decision in support of the work of the MDG Africa.

The quest for good governance, peace, accountability and transparency backed by sound policies has also been initiated to fast-track progress on the MDGs. African countries such as Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ghana have been able to reduce extreme poverty, increase primary enrolment and strengthen its health system due to visionary leadership combined with international support.Overall Africa has made tremendous strides in achieving universal education with 76 percent net enrolment in primary education in 2008, up from 58 percent in 1999. Under five mortality rates have relatively dropped from 184/1000 in 1990 to 144/1000 in 2008. On sanitation, it is estimated that Africa is on track to meeting the water target with 60 percent of people with access to drinking water in 2008, compared with 49 percent in 1990. There has also been some appreciable achievement in the reduction of extreme poverty. For instance, in Ghana, extreme poverty rate declined from 51.7% in 1991 to 28.5% in 2006,this means that the target of 26% can be achieved before the 2015 deadline

Despite these strides, it’s obvious that most African countries will not be able to achieve some of the goals especially on sanitation, gender equality and maternal mortality. The continent has been struggling to reach some of the goals due to reasons such as political instability, corruption, global financial crisis and lack of prudent socio-economic policies.

In view of this, it is important for leaders in Africa to begin to develop a post 2015 agenda that is participatory, ambitious and holistic; that will drive the socio-economic development of the continent. The post 2015 agenda should centre on livelihoods, especially those who are poor and vulnerable. The agenda should cover specific areas such as climate change, food security, gender equality, decent employment, natural resources, technology, education, health and promotion of local industries. In view of that, various stakeholders such as youth, women, disabled, civil society, media, traditional authorities and religious leaders must be engaged in developing the agenda. Direct ownership will facilitate a collective effort in the process of implementing such a plan.

African countries should also determine their country status as far as the current MDGs framework is concerned. This will help in knowing which approaches to use and help identify areas that require urgent and large-scale attention. Reliable data on the goals should be made available to serve as a platform for the post 2015 agenda to be improved upon. The availability of reliable data that can easily be interpreted offers the continent the opportunity to review its interventions and determine which approach to use in achieving each of the goals. Data will also enable the continent to determine which of the goals need more capital injection and what needs to be done to scale up efforts. This will require the establishment of strong national statistical systems that will evaluate every process of the agenda.

It is time for Africa to begin to determine the development pathway it wants to take through the building of a post 2015 MDGs agenda that will be owned and championed by Africans themselves.

By Leonard Ackon

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by thedevelopmentroast

UN Reports Great Strides for MDGs Against Extreme Poverty

March 10, 2012 in United Nations

 

CONCERTED GLOBAL EFFORTS HAVE LED TO GREAT STRIDES AGAINST EXTREME POVERTY – BAN, originally posted on UN website.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed that focused financing and partnerships for development have resulted in great strides in the global efforts to combat extreme poverty and facilitate social development, noting that the number of impoverished people is declining across the world.

“When we pull together, we can achieve great things,” Mr. Ban told a news conference at UN Headquarters to stake stock of global progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the globally agreed blueprint for halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of diseases, promoting access to education and improving health care, all by 2015.

“Partnerships for development work – they are good investments,” said Mr. Ban, citing the World Bank’s announcement that preliminary estimates indicate that the global target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty was achieved in 2010.

The number of people living in extreme poverty has also declined in all regions of the world, including in Africa where challenges are greatest, he said.

Earlier this week, a joint report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) showed that the world has met the MDG target of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water.

Progress has also been made in combating tuberculosis, with 40 per cent fewer deaths currently compared to 1990. The global malaria deaths have declined by nearly a third over the past decade, the Secretary-General pointed out, adding that there is now near parity in primary school enrolment between girls and boys.

The MDG target of significantly improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers has also been achieved – ten years in advance of the 2020 deadline, he said.

“These are major achievements. The MDGs brought not only better results but also better ways of measuring that have led to greater accountability.

“We know that national ownership and leadership are central to success. We know that well-directed financing brings development dividends. We know that innovations – in technology, medicine, social policy and service delivery – can bring dramatic change. And we know that partnerships work,” said Mr. Ban.

However, he noted, challenges remain, including massive disparities in social development between and within regions and countries.

For example, only 61 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to improved sources of water, while the level in most other regions is 90 per cent or higher, and with 2.5 billion people lacking improved sanitation, the world is unlikely to meet the MDG sanitation target, the Secretary-General said.

Many people who have escaped extreme poverty are still vulnerable to shocks, such as the impending food crisis in West Africa’s Sahel region. Hunger remains a global challenge with hundreds of millions of children undernourished, he said.

“As the 2015 deadline is fast approaching, we must be united and steadfast in our resolve to accelerate progress and achieve the MDGs. This is my commitment to build the future we want,” added Mr. Ban.

Rebeca Grynspan, the Associate Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), stressed that progress towards achieving the MDGs must re-energize the world’s commitment and said that more can be done by 2015.

“We know that a lot of effort is needed to sustain these gains, and that despite real progress, there are still vulnerable people to reach, several targets to attain and many countries to support,” she said.

“We must reach those left behind or at risk of being left behind, [those] who are not well represented in the aggregate figures because of deep inequalities,” added Ms. Grynspan.

Jeffrey Sachs, the UN Special Adviser on the MDGs, said that what many people in the beginning cynically believed to be nothing more than a “photo opportunity” is becoming the benchmark of global progress, noting that the end of extreme poverty is within sight.

“We are now seeing this breakthrough and the point is to accelerate from this point,” said Mr. Sachs. “I can tell you that technologies have never been better, the systems have never been better… we really are headed [to a] wonderful inflection point. There has been clear, rapid and unprecedented progress in many regions. All regions are now experiencing a drop in poverty,” he said.

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by Generation Development

Lots of knots left until aid is untied

October 24, 2011 in Economics, Funding, International Development, MDGs

The UK’s left leaning Guardian newspaper recently published this article on their Poverty Matters blog:

‘Afghanistan: proof that untied aid really works‘

It’s well worth a read to evaluate whether you think it adds up. Aid has become controversial in recent years, particularly with commentators like Dambisa Moyo decrying aid as a scourge in Africa, reducing economic growth and prolonging poverty.
Part of the problem is that ‘charity’ or ‘NGO’ administered aid will always have to come with strings. Charities rely on donations from people, usually for specific causes. It seems implausible that charities will drop their branding and pool resources in order to pursue evidence based interventions that may not be specifically related to their charitable aims.
The article goes on to say, “Even when the aid was technically untied, only 37% of it entered the local economy. Most of the aid spending went elsewhere: to fly in foreign experts, or provide bottled water and building materials.” For anyone who has worked in a setting where aid plays a part, this will not come as a surprise. What it doesn’t mention is that there will be 10 or 20 different companies all flying in their own bottled water.
The ideal of aid money to be used for investment in job creation through, for example, infrastructure strengthening, remains a pipe dream. Ultimately donors do not give money to build roads, develop farmland and create a functioning medical system. They give money to help save the lives of starving children. No bad thing, however to make a long term impact to prevent child starvation the most effective interventions are not supplying emergency food, but lie with unsexy causes such as free trade agreements and commodity speculation.

The “Afghan First” policy has value, but will not stop NGOs from spending the cash they so painstakingly sourced through horrific TV adverts of starving children, and enormous billboards on street corners in rich countries. Funding local projects by financing local companies, hiring local staff and sourcing resources locally is a clearly sensible approach to make aid money go further. However it is not in the interest of those working for NGOs, as it will effectively put many of them out of a job. Chairites with specific aims may also find it difficult to convince their donors.

Conflicts of interest within the aid industry are rife. The future of international development policy post the MDGs must make aid more effective – transparent, untied and evidence based.

Much aid money has done great good, however much has been ploughed into plush offices, smart 4X4s and large advertising campaigns.

More must also be done to convince the public that saving a starving child’s life is valuable, but preventing them from starving in the first place is the more important challenge to tackle.  

Tim

[email protected]

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by Generation Development

Video Blog! The MDGs post-2015

August 5, 2011 in Guest Author, International Development, MDG 1 (Poverty & Hunger), MDG 2 (Education), MDG 3 (Gender Equality), MDG 4 (Child Mortality), MDG 5 (Maternal Health), MDG 6 (Health), MDG 7 (Sustainability), MDG 8 (Global Partnership), MDGs

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3p2VLTowAA&playnext=1&list=PLE7DFB0DB1151E209]

The current MDGs were based on figures from 1990, with a target for 15 years in the future. The World has changed a lot since then, the population has surged and there has been mass migration from rural to urban areas.

LMICs are no longer one and the same; development in Asia has soared, leaving the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa trailing behind, skewing results for poverty eradication and health provision.

After 2015, where will we be? Current statistics show that many of the targets may not be reached, and different areas will reach certain targets disproportionately to others. A local based approach for the future may be the way forward; we are no longer in a situation where inequality doesn’t matter.

Reports on where we are and where to go next include:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNsLF9-9l5U]

46% of the population in LMIC in 1990 lived on less than $1 a day, this decreased to 27% in 2009. For the target to reduce extreme poverty by a half, this seems to be on target however:

  • As a result of the global economic crisis 16% people in 2009 were undernourished, a rise from 14% in 2005.
  • Most people now live in urban areas, compared to rural areas in the 1990s posing different challenges to those that were faced when the goals were set.
  • The majority of poor people now live in MIC, is a HIC donor focus on poverty alleviation the right one?

 2. Achieve universal primary education:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jieco-43WNI&feature=fvwrel]

Worldwide coverage was 90% in 2009 up from 84% in 1990. In LMICs there was an increase to 89% from 82%.

Those that are out of school tend to be in the poorest quartile within their countries. If this target is not achieved by 2015 then a focus on the social circumstances of this population group may assist in alleviating this issue.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSILGxaJa0Y&playnext=1&list=PL6F6EA8D2C6D6C3E4]

  • The World as a whole is a lot more aware of the importance that women play in society and this is being shown in the male:female ratio in education. In 2009 the male to female ratio for those in primary education was 100:96 up from 100:91 in 1990.
  • Employment is still a major area in which improvement needs to be made.

 4. Reduce child mortality:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBrlwzzhsqs]

The majority of deaths of Under-5s are preventable and a third are attributable to under-nutrition.

The 2015 target is 30 deaths per 1000 live births; in 2009 throughout all LMICs the Under-5 mortality rate was 72 per 1000 a decrease from 1990 when there were an average of 100 deaths per 1000 live births.

  • Focus on other MDG targets will improve this as a secondary measure, as more people are able to afford healthcare and education is improved.

5. Improve Maternal Health:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76W3AdJtTRo&playnext=1&list=PLE82DDE19F41FA920]

Haemorrhage accounts for 35% of all maternal deaths, a preventable cause, easily improved by the presence of skilled-birth attendants. In 2009 63% of births in LMICs were attended by skilled birth-attendants and increase from 53% in 1990.

Education of women and empowerment will ultimately improve this situation, as increased knowledge of the risks will improve attendance to ante-natal clinics and specialist services.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEicDJ_aiME&playnext=1&list=PLE82DDE19F41FA920]

  • Progress is being made with HIV; fewer people are becoming newly infected (around 2.7 million in 2008) and people are living longer. 42% in LMIC in 2008 with HIV/AIDS receive ARVs, up from 16% in 2005.
  • Global awareness about malaria has increased and subsequently the use of nets in all areas has increased. However, poverty still determines whether or not a child with malaria gets treatment.
  • With TB being conjunct with HIV infection, rates are only recently being to slow. Globally infections were 139 per 100,000 in 2008.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix-1XFQDlUU]

CO2 emissions are rising worldwide leading to increases in climate catastrophes and desertification of once arable farming land are affecting the fight against all MDGs. Future targets need to incorporate the issues of climate change without diverting effort away from poverty alleviation. Those most affected by climate catastrophes need to have the ability to be more resilient to reduce the need for gross emergency aid.

8. Develop a global partnership for development:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXDDNFLDiFw&feature=channel_video_title]

The UN target for aid donation from HICs is 0.7% of GDP, only 5 countries reach this currently. However alleviation of debt burdens, preferential tariffs for imported goods from LDCs alongside duty free imports for products from LMICs has helped to improve international trading.

Aid driven targets may no longer be the solution for sustainable development and a focus on decent work and labour standards will help to further development globally.

Amelia Cutts: [email protected]

Amelia is a final year medical student at Southampton, UK. She has an interest in health politics, especially health inequalities, and have been actively involved in Medsin and related campaigns over  her time at medical school. 

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UN MDG Report 2011…. Digested… Part 2

August 1, 2011 in International Development, MDG 5 (Maternal Health), MDG 6 (Health), MDG 7 (Sustainability), MDG 8 (Global Partnership), MDGs, United Nations

MDG5: Improve maternal health

Overall, maternal mortality second to pregnancy has decreased the world over. However but not quite enough to make the MDG target. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia remain problem areas, and although South Asia has made good progress, Sub-Saharan Africa is stalling behind. This is likely because Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest rates of births with skilled attendances, highest numbers of adolescent pregnancies and lowest rates of contraceptive use, as detailed in the rest of this section. Improvements all round, particularly in South Asia, but Sun-Saharan Africa is lagging behind. Also, aid funding for family planning overall has significantly decreased – something we should all be concerned about.

Target: Reaching towards, but unlikely to be met overall.

MDG6: Combat HIV, Malaria and other diseases

Here’s Sub-Saharan Africa success story – finally the HIV incidence is being rolled back! This deserves a graph…

Problems remain in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, but this reduction is testament to the power of the global health community. This is nicely supported by increases in the proportion of people having a good understanding of how the virus is spread. However, now we have such a large population of HIV+ people, we need to do better at ensuring the have access to ARV therapy, which remains problematic. The target is for ‘universal coverage’, defined as >80%, Between 08 and 09 an extra 1.2million people were receiving ARV in Low and Middle Income countries, which suggests it’s possible to extend coverage significantly.  Yet by the end of 2009 there were 14,6 million people who needed ARV therapy and could not access it.

Doing well with Malaria as well – 20% reduction in deaths! Significant increase in use of nets to prevent transmission, and more people are receiving treatment if infected. TB incidence is also falling, and the TB target is likely to be reached! Largely thanks to the DOTS/Stop TB partnership: 41 million treated and counting, including 6 million lives saved.

Shame that “other diseases” are missed out. Someone should tell the UN that guinea worm is soon to be eradicated, and Polio is well on its way out. Fortunately the international community is now beginning to notice NCDs and mental health…

MDG7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Pretty depressing overall. Deforestation is rampant, especially in South America and Africa, although China has increased its forest coverage. The data from 2008 on CO2 emissions shows emissions increasing at a rapid rate, led by the massively expanding economies in Asia. We’re also losing the battle against biodiversity loss and species extinction.

Somewhat incongruously access to water and sanitation is included here as well. Storming towards the targets – improving water supplies continues to be a great success. However sanitation is problematic, with 2.6 billion people unable to access a flush toilet.

The population of slum dwelling urban poor is expanding faster than interventions to improve their lives, however in this section is the only mention of a post MDG agenda: “In April 2011, the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme encouraged countries to enumerate their slum populations, and to set realistic national, regional and local targets for improving the lives of slum dwellers. These could extend beyond the current MDG target, which has a deadline of 2020.” This will definitely be worth watching.

MDG8: Develop a global partnership for development

Aid has increased, but not as much as world leaders had promised. There Is very little comment on how effectively this aid has been used.

Fortunately protectionist economic policies were averted during the economic crisis, which is definitely an international success. Tariffs remain problematic, and exports fell, affecting some poor countries ability to continue to service their debt.

Internet and mobile phone use (in particular) have exploded in the developing world, although internet penetration is not yet as good. This provides significant opportunities to harness this new connectivity.

Conclusions

Although data collection for all of these things remains problematic, this is a brief rundown of the progress towards the MDGs as of 2011. The focus of this report is definitely on speeding up progress towards 2015, with little mention on what happens afterwards. So I guess that’s up to us. Over to you…

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