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NEXT SET OF MDGS? ASK DAVID CAMERON

April 12, 2012 in MDGs, United Nations

Originally posted by Jenny Lei Ravelo on 12 April 2012 06:45:03 AM on DEVEX.com.

Think about it: U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron chairing a new U.N. committee that will establish a fresh set of development goals after 2015. Good, eh?

The answer may not be so easy for the development community. This new role for Cameron makes certain the United Kingdom will commit to the 0.7 percent aid spending target despite calls from several ministers to drop it,The Guardian says. While this doesn’t mean other donors would follow suit, it does mean more money for the development community.

But the idea of Cameron on board may mean the focus of post-2015 goals will veer away from mother and child to economic development. The prime minister and U.K. Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell have wanted to shift the debate toward economic development, The Guardian reports.

A government source told The Guardian Mitchell thinks economic factors need to be given “much greater weight” than it receives under the current MDGs. The source said economic development — not aid — is the reason 700 million people in China have been “lifted out of poverty.”

Concepts such as aid conditionality and public-private partnerships may also see light in the next set of goals under Cameron’s watch. Mitchell said he had set up a department at the Department for International Development to help put private sector development and engagement at “the heart of everything we do.”

Cameron has accepted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s invitation to chair the committee, The Guardian says. Consultations will start in May.

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POST-MDG FRAMEWORK: NO TO ‘LAST MINUTE RUSH’

April 10, 2012 in MDGs, United Nations

The article written by Jenny Lei Ravelo and originally posted to DEVEX Development Newswire takes a critical look at the UN’s apparent heel dragging in releasing details of the post-MDG consultation process that is just a month away.

The start of the consultation process for a framework past the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals is approaching, but the United Nations, which every country expects to spearhead such action, seems to be in a disarray.

According to the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, co-chair of the Beyond 2015 campaign, the United Nations has not released concrete details of the consultation process, which is starting in May.

In a report released Friday (April 6), CAFOD said the global body does not even have half the needed funds to complete the consultations. In addition, U.N. coordinators were being left to decide for themselves who they should include in the process. Worse, the poorest people might not even get to have a voice in the consultations — which CAFOD calls a must if the world wants to meet success with the post-MDG framework.

The report, titled ”1,000 Days: An End and a New Beginning,” made a list of what the international community can do to make sure no “last minute rush” happens in coming up with a post-MDG framework.

The organization said the United Nations needs to set clear and binding deadlines for proposals and in the establishment of the new framework. But the international community should not assume that the United Nations can do all the work. Thus, donors should also provide support to consultations to be conducted by civil society.

The new framework should also include environmental sustainability, which was not part of the MDGs, the report said. In addition, it should target groups that have made least progress to date on the MDGs – these are women and girls, and people in rural and remote areas.

The report also urged world leaders, such as the U.K. government, to show leadership in putting the post-MDG framework on the agenda of every international meeting and see the “bigger picture” rather than vying for personal interests when it comes to the final framework.

Most importantly, planning for the post-MDG framework should not distract governments and NGOs from pursuing the MDGs, but rather complement efforts to achieve the goals, the report said.

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MDG Target for Drinking Water Has Been Met! But huge challenges remain and you can be part of the solution.

March 12, 2012 in MDG 7 (Sustainability), MDGs, United Nations

Last week the WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation published a report celebrating the strides towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goal number seven, which is to:

“Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation”

The best news: as of 2010 the goal to provide safe drinking water has been met. According to the report:

“Since 1990, more than 2 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources.”

This is of course incredible news, but the report cautions against complicity. First of all, the goal for basic sanitation is far from being achieved. Not only that, but, as things stand, the challenge is not on track to be overcome by 2015 and three quarters of a million people still do not have access to safe drinking water world wide, as the UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon reminds us in his introduction:

“Of course, much work remains to be done. There are still 780 million people without access to an improved drinking water source. And even though 1.8 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, the world remains off track for the sanitation target. It is essential to accelerate progress in the remaining time before the MDG deadline, and I commend those who are participating in the Sustainable Sanitation: Five Year Drive to 2015″.

The final push will certainly be helped by the fact that access to clean water and sanitation were finally recognised as human rights in 2010 and 22nd of March will see a drive to raise awareness of global water issues further as UN’s World Water Day kicks off. The messages will also play a big part in the Rio +20 Conference.

Part of the call to arms in developed countries is to educate the public to the ways in which they can be part of the solution to help reduce the strain on fresh drinking water resources. There are the usual messages of showering instead of taking baths, turning off taps whilst brushing teeth and not to waste water in over watering grass lawns. However, the real breakthroughs are in highlighting the water footprint of our dietary choices. As a blog post for an EU/UN Drop by Drop competition to design an advert that encourages positive messages for water conservation says:

“Your food has a drinking problem”.

The message is simple, meat production is highly polluting and energy and water intensive, giving us some real food for thought. A whopping 70% of the world’s fresh water resources are used in agriculture and it takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef.

In fact, to put it in more digestible terms, passing up just one beef burger a month saves the water equivalent of taking 40 low flow showers (over 2,200 litres).

In recent years, the academic and research community has produced mountains of scientific research to evaluate these effects. As a result, you can now even measure your eating habits’ very own water footprint.

So if developed countries are as much a part of a solution to global water problems as the work done in the developing world, should we not be taking this into the post MDG framework? Share your thoughts on our forum, we would love to hear from you.

Oh and if you want to get inspired to be part of the solution, check out these videos:

PETA Germany’s Art Installation

FAO’s All You Eat Water Day Promotion

UN’s Water 101 Video

By Ioulia Fenton, GenDev’s Online Lead.

Photo credit: gt_pann, www.freedigitalphotos.net

 

 

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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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Still Time to Enter UN Youth Contests

February 23, 2012 in United Nations, Young Professionals, Youth

The UN is running a number of competition aimed at youth and young people and the good news is there is still time to enter them:

Global art contest for children and youth (UNEP)

Deadline is 16 March, 2012 Visit the website
chemicalsThe Stockholm Convention celebrated its 10th anniversary in May 2011. On this occasion, the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention is organising a global art contest for children and youth.

The theme for the competition is “Stockholm at 10: Chemical Challenges, Sustainable Solutions” and what it means to young people around the world.

The contest is open to three possible art media categories: drawing, photography and short videos. There are also three age categories: 5-10 years old; 11-15 years old; and 16-20 years old.

Youth, skills and work – Art Contest

Deadline is 1 April, 2012 Visit the website
GMR ArtContest 8FebThe 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report will examine how skills development programmes can improve young people’s opportunities for decent jobs and better lives.

Youth, skills and work – What skills do you need to create a better future? The artwork should illustrate ideas linked to youth, education, skills and the world of work.

The winning entry will receive a trip to Paris and will feature in the 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Report. To enter you must be between 18 and 24 years old.

Art for Peace 2012

Deadline is 30 April, 2012 Visit the website
artforpeace feb1The Office for Disarmament Affairs has launched a disarmament education contest for young people.

Youth from ages 5 through 17 are being urged to be creative and tap into their imaginations to draw, paint, sketch, use pens, pencils, crayons, charcoal, oil, acrylic paint or watercolours to illustrate a world free of nuclear weapons, without wars, without fear.

UPU – 2012 International letter-writing competition for young people

Deadline is 30 April, 2012 Visit the website
UPU2012The theme is: “Write a letter to an athlete or sports figure you admire to explain what the Olympic Games mean to you”.

The Olympic Movement seeks to create a better world through sports, by promoting the universal values of excellence, friendship and respect. With these values in mind, young letter-writers are invited to express their thoughts on what the Olympic Games, which are being organized in 2012, mean to them.

2012 GOI Peace Foundation – UNESCO, International Essay Contest for Young People

Deadline is 30 June, 2012 Visit the website
GOIEssay 9FebThe annual essay contest is organized in an effort to harness the energy, imagination and initiative of the world’s youth in promoting a culture of peace and sustainable development. It also aims to inspire society to learn from the young minds and to think about how each of us can make a difference in the world.

The theme is “Creating the Future We Want” – The future begins with the vision we hold now. What kind of future do you wish to create for yourself and the world?
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Where are the healthcare workers?

August 18, 2011 in Economics, International Development, MDGs, United Nations

One of the many striking omissions from the current set of MDGs is no real consideration for the severe lack of healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, technicians, support workers, skilled birth attendants, pharmacists, therapists etc etc) in low and middle income countries. Even with aspirational targets that the current MDGs set, many of them (4, 5 & 6 especially, but arguably 1 and 3 as well) cannot be reached with the current shortage of healthcare workers. Below are four maps, from the amazing Worldmapper, that show the countries of the world resized in proportion to what they are measuring. The two comparisons I have made are deaths from diarrhoeal disease Vs. physicians working and maternal mortality Vs. number of midwives.

Deaths from diarrhoeal disease (2002)

Number of physicians working (data from 2004)

Maternal Mortality (data from 2000)

Midwives working (Data from 2006)

These maps are amazing because they produce an undeniable truth when confronted with images as stark as this. The fact that the problem of recruiting, training and retaining healthcare workers has been lost in the overall international development picture. There is little hope to make a real tangible difference to health outcomes in international development without a significant focus on health workers. In my own opinion this should be a core component of any MDG replacements post 2015.

Fortunately there are some organizations working on this problem (but no nearly enough). Combining the need for health workers with an MDG target, skilled birth attendants to combat maternal mortality for example, can allow organisations to secure funding. The UN Population Fund considers skilled birth attendants “the single most critical intervention for securing safe motherhood”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFcqSs5NK1Y]

However simply training healthcare workers is not enough. The provision and support of healthcare workers needs to be sustainable, with lasting funding. The Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) here in the UK does some amazing  work in promoting links between institutions to encourage the exchagne of knowledge and experience in order to train more healthcare workers. More organisations simply arrange to send doctors or nurses overseas for short periods of time, to help with a particular issue. Although this has some value, it is automatically limited as it is not sustainable.

Many high income countries are also guilty of ‘stealing’ workers from low income countries. This ‘brain drain’ is a problem, but it should not be solved by restricting workers freedom of movement, but by supporting, nurturing and paying healthcare workers well enough to be able to stay where they are most needed.

From an interesting World Bank Publication.

 

Merlin, the health NGO, has an excellent campaign supporting health workers called “Hand Up for Health Workers” to try and recruit and train more healthcare workers for where they are needed. So please go and sign their petition!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/embed/9UbPSJCHgLE]

The brain drain must end, and doctors, nurses and other health professionals working in the places where they are most needed must be supported, paid, safe and well trained. This should be enshrined in international policy, and should be essential in any MDG replacement framework.

What’s your experience?

Tim

[email protected]

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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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UN MDG Report 2011… Digested… Part 1

July 30, 2011 in Economics, International Development, MDG 1 (Poverty & Hunger), MDG 2 (Education), MDG 3 (Gender Equality), MDG 4 (Child Mortality), MDGs

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2011

A Digested Read… in no way sanctioned by the UN.

Each year the United Nations produces its “Millennium Development Goals Report” describing the world’s progress towards the achievement of the MDGs. It’s not an easy read – both the good and the bad a buried amongst dispassionately reported facts, totally emotionless and littered with massive understatement. The way it’s written makes it phenomenally easy to read extraordinary statements like “12,000 fewer children died per day in 2009 than in 1990” and for it to not register.

I know it’s a little delayed, but I’ve been busy setting up Generation Development over the last couple of months, however here I have digested the report for you…

Foreword (Ban Ki-Moon)

Doing well in some areas, but need to do better in many others. Claims MDGs are responsible for lifting millions out of poverty (but really mainly Asian economic growth etc, but a nice idea). However if you’re a woman, or disabled, or another minority, and live in the countryside, faced with rising food prices or flooding or famine: still not much luck. Are we going to make the targets for 2015… You decide…

MDG1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Economic growth = less poverty, awesome! Extreme poverty projected to fall below 15% by 2015 (even with the economic crisis). Target: met. Instead of being the bottom billion, by 2015 it will be the (arguably less catchy) bottom 900 million. Still problems with surveying the poorest people, with limited data in Africa. However the economic crisis has had its effects: limited job creation, increased number of working poor, and static numbers in vulnerable employment – must do better.

Despite lifting hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty, the same number of people remained hungry, at around 16%. Also 23% children remain undernourished (reduced from 30% in 1990, but generally static). Probably as a result of high food prices. Commodity speculators have a lot to answer for. As does climate change. Target: missed.

For some reason there is a section on displaced people included under MDG1. In 2010 there were 43 million (same population as Tanzania), the highest since 1990. But as it’s not a goal I suppose it was important to fit it in somewhere.

MDG2: Universal primary education

Sub-Sahara African success story! Doing the best. Numbers increasing across the world, but this increase has slowed recently. No such luck however if your poor, female, a refugee or live in a conflict zone. Literacy still a problem in sub-Saharan Africa, but South Asia and North Africa storming ahead. Target: ? near miss

MDG3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Mixed bag when considering gender parity and education, depending on which level you look at and in which region. Overall: definitely improved since 1990, however some regions need to do better. Target: 50/50

Women in employment: increased a bit since 1990, but stagnated since the economic crisis. Women who became unemployed have found it much more difficult to re-enter employment after the crash. Target: missed.

More women in parliaments around the world than ever before, but far off parity at 19%. Again, although improved, women also do not yet wield the ultimate power of either head of state (10 heads) or head of government (13 heads).  Unsurprisingly, whether you are for or against them, enforcing quotas improves things.

MDG4: Reduce child mortality

“Achieving the goal for child survival hinges on action to address the leading causes of death” – wisdom from the UN. However massive improvements in child mortality:

  • 12,000 fewer children dying every day.
  • Global under-5 mortality declined by a third.
  • Great gains made in Northern Africa and Eastern Asia.

Sub-Saharan Africa still a real problem however, with 1/8 children not reaching age 5, that’s 18x more than the developed world, and a blight on the face of our planet. Here Gates has got it right, children die of TREATABLE diseases: diarrhoea, malaria, pneumonia. Why have we failed to treat them? Again, if your poor and live in a rural area you risk of dying is significantly more than your urban dwelling well off peers.

Measles is a global health success story, with 80% children receiving the vaccine in 2009. The campaign has resulted in a 78% drop in measles mortality worldwide! AWESOME! However it must be sustainable to maintain population immunity.

Target: in reach, if sub-Saharan Africa pulls itself round. 

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Famine and the Failure of MDG1

July 23, 2011 in Economics, MDGs, Youth

“We can never address these problems through emergency response. We have to solve these problems through prevention.”

Jeffrey Sachs, 19th July 2011

Millenium Development Goal 1 aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, with target 1.C stating that we should halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger between 1990 and 2015. We are only 4 years away from that goal. The 2011 Millennium Development Goals Report, produced by the United Nations to evaluate progress towards the goals states, with classic understatement, that “based on current trends, sub-Saharan Africa will be unable to meet the hunger-reduction target by 2015.” Despite overall reductions in poverty levels hunger levels have plateaued at around 16% and so the UN decided to “undertake a comprehensive review of the causes behind this apparent discrepancy to better inform hunger-reduction policies in the future.” 

From : http://kenilworthgeography.blogspot.com/

Patently, this is too little too late. At the moment I am writing this, and the moment you are reading it, 12,000,000 people are starving to death in the region of east Africa known as the Horn of Africa, taking in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Famine is not an overnight event. Somalia has suffered two years of a significant lack of rain and international food prices have been rising towards crisis level. In 2008 Josette Sheeran, head of the UN’s World Food Programme, warned this region was heading for disaster in an article in the Economist, describing it as “a silent tsunami.” The article is a call to arms to find solutions to the complex economic, political and environmental factors building towards a humanitarian disaster. Yet the international community, facing an unprecedented financial crisis, sat back and waited until the cachectic bodies and bloated bellies of starving children once again flooded our TV screens. Somalia faces an additional synergistic factor creating an even worse situation there, with the Al-Shabab rebel group continuing to prevent aid agencies from providing support.

Whether you blame the environment and climate change, economics and aid, war and violence, or a combination of these toxic factors, this is ultimately a man made disaster and should have been prevented. MDG1 may have focused attention on the world’s starving people and encouraged the development of strategies for the prevention and relief of hunger, however if an entire region of the world is left to starve to death we have failed.

I have no doubt that an enormous aid programme will be launched, and the $300 – $500 million needed to provide food assistance will arrive. However this is not a sustainable situation. It is a band-aid on an amputated leg. This situation also demonstrates the absurd uselessness of the Famine Early Warning System if there is no motivation or drive to reduce the ultimate causes of famine.

We, both as members of the international community and simply as fellow humans, should be ashamed.

We, as youth and the future of international development, must to better.

We must ensure that any international development framework that emerges post-2015 ensures that a famine, such as the one currently ravaging the Horn of Africa, does not happen on our watch. 

In solidarity with my African brothers and sisters.

Tim

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