 ''We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want.” |
This was the ‘historic’ commitment made by 189 member states of the United Nations at the September 2000 UN Millennium Summit where the Millennium Declaration was adopted unanimously. The declaration was taken as a “statement of values, principles and objectives for the international agenda for the twenty-first century”.
Ten years passed and world leaders, once again, gathered last month in New York to review the progress made in achieving the MDGs.
The UN report published in June 2010 had already told the story that the progress has been made, but it’s highly uneven, scattered and excludes the poorest of the poor. The review summit, like any other global summits, was expected to make some important announcements, which didn’t happen in reality. However, some significant ideas were put forward and global commitment to fighting poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy was renewed.
What has happened after 2000?
Some countries were able to achieve significant feats during this period. For instance, Vietnam made a remarkable progress in improving the lives of the poor. Recent statistics show that Vietnam reduced the proportion of people living on less
than $1 a day from nearly two-thirds to one-fifth in just 14 years. Moreover, the country also halved the proportion of underweight and malnourished children. Similarly, China has demonstrated significant progress as its poverty population has decreased from 452 million to 278 million.
Reports from Brazil are also encouraging. Infant mortality in Brazil has declined from around 50 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 33 per 1,000 live births in 2003 (that’s 34%). The country is faring well in combating poverty which is deeply based on race, gender and disability.
Some African countries like Ethiopia and Ghana also made remarkable progress. In Ethiopia the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 61% to 29% in 18 years and and primary school enrolment in Ethiopia has increased by more than 500 percent since 1994. Whereas, Ghana is set to become the first country in Africa to halve poverty and hunger before 2015. Undoubtedly, backed by international support, these successes emanate from these countries’ sheer determination and genuine political commitment to fight poverty and hunger amidst all odds.
Who is lagging behind?
No country in sub-Saharan Africa is on course to achieve all the MDGs by 2015. South Asian countries, too, will have to adopt tough measures in order to achieve the MDGs by 2015. Countries grappling with ongoing conflict and wars have performed badly.
A UN study of 30 countries found that just 11 of the 30 countries are on track to meet MDG1 (Halving poverty and hunger). In 2007 there were 923 million undernourished people in the world, an increase of 80 million people since 1990/92; 20 of those 30 countries are either off track or require additional, strengthened or corrective action to achieve MDG2 (education) despite an increase in enrolment in primary education from 83 per cent in 2000 to 88 per cent in 2007; and,
Only 7 of the 30 countries are on track to meet MDG 5 (maternal health). This is the goal that the UN recognises has seen the least progress.
In an overview in the "Millennium Development Goals Report 2010", the UN says that many countries, including some of the poorest, are moving forward, demonstrating that setting bold, collective goals in the fight against poverty yields results. For every life that has benefitted from the establishment of a quantitative, time-bound framework of accountability, the MDGs have made a real difference.
But unmet commitments, inadequate resources, lack of focus and accountability, and insufficient dedication to sustainable development have created shortfalls in many areas. Some of these shortfalls were aggravated by the global food and economic and financial crises. Nevertheless, the data and analysis on the following pages provide clear evidence that targeted interventions, sustained by adequate funding and political commitment, have resulted in rapid progress in some areas. In others, the poorest groups, those without education or living in more remote areas, have been neglected and not provided the conditions to improve their lives.
Though progress has been made, it is uneven. And without a major push forward, many of the MDG targets are likely to be missed in most regions.
Progress on the MDG1 target: “Halving global poverty”
The MDGs comprise eight specific themes, but the MDG1 has been on the forefront as it aims at reducing the proportion of people in extreme poverty by half between 1990 and 2015.
The June 2010 UN MDG report said that progress on this target was “still being made, despite significant setbacks due to the 2008-2009 economic downturn, and food and energy crises.” It further mentioned that, taken as a whole, the developing world “remains on track to achieve the poverty reduction target by 2015.
The World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report 2010 reports that number of people living below the international poverty line (of $1.25 a day) had fallen from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005 (a 22% reduction). The report’s projections to 2015, below, are for numbers in poverty to fall to 920 million by 2015, around half 1990’s 1.8 billion (about 49%)
However, these figures of progress are highly uneven. Much of the global progress in poverty reduction comes from East Asia where poverty incidence was reduced from 55% (1990) to 17% (2005). China dramatically reduced from 60% to 16%, whereas, India’s figure stands somewhere around 42% compared to 51% in 1990. However, in India, the number poor actually rose because of population growth. In many countries proportion of poor people might have decreased at the same time giving rise to the number of poor.
Sub-Saharan Africa is another dismal picture in terms of progress towards achieving the MDGs. In the sub-Saharan region proportion of people in poverty fell from 57.6% in 1990 to 50.9% in 2005, however, the number of people in poverty increased from 296 million in 1990 to 387 million in 2005.
What will happen after 2015?
The progress so far clearly indicates that only a few countries will make significant progress in achieving the MDGs, however, many countries will still strive even after 2015.
There isn’t a single and definite reason to point at for the uneven and slow progress toward achieving the MDGs, but global economic crisis and global energy crisis have greatly hampered the pace of progress in the developing world. On the other hand, lack of strong political will both in the developed and the developing world miserably impeded the MDG progress.
What will happen after 2015? This question has already surfaced in the development arena. Will there be another improved and more binding version of the MDGs? The review summit did not focus on the post 2015 scenario yet, but it is essential and likely that there will be another series of development goals with special emphasis on environmental protection and climate change issues. Given the fact that the MDGs won’t be achieved by many nations by 2015, having another target year with some similar goals will not surprise the world.
Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)
Targets (for 2015 ) | ||
1 | Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger | Halve the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and those who suffer from hunger. Full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people |
2 | Achieve universal primary education | Ensure that all boys and girls complete primary school. |
3 | Promote gender equality and empower women | Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. |
4 | Reduce child mortality | Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five |
5 | Improve maternal health | Reduce by three-quarters the ratio of women dying in childbirth. Universal access to reproductive health. |
6 | Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases | Target for 2015: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. Universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment for all who need it by 2010. |
7 | Ensure environmental sustainability | • Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. • By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water. • By 2020 achieve significant improvement in the lives ofat least 100 million slum dwellers. Significantly reducing the rate of biodiversity loss, by 2010. |
8 | Develop a global partnership for development | • Develop further an open trading and financial system that includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction – nationally and internationally • Address the least developed countries’ special needs, and the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States • Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems • Develop decent and productive work for youth • In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies. |
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