The
Millennium Development Goals (
MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The goals are:
- eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,
- achieving universal primary education,
- promoting gender equality and empowering women
- reducing child mortality rates,
- improving maternal health,
- Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,
- ensuring environmental sustainability, and
- developing a global partnership for development.[1]
Each of the goals have specific stated targets and dates for achieving those targets. To accelerate progress, the G8 Finance Ministers agreed in June 2005 to provide enough funds to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (ADB) to cancel an additional $40–55 billion debt owed by members of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
(HIPC) to allow impoverished countries to re-channel the resources
saved from the forgiven debt to social programs for improving health
and education and for alleviating poverty.
Debate has surrounded adoption of the MDGs, focusing on lack of
analysis and justification behind the chosen objectives, the difficulty
or lack of measurements for some of the goals, and uneven progress
towards reaching the goals, among other criticisms. Although developed
countries' aid for achieving the MDGs have been rising over recent
years, more than half the aid is towards debt relief owed by poor
countries, with remaining aid money going towards natural disaster
relief and military aid which does not further development.
Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries
have achieved many of the goals, while others are not on track to
realize any. A UN conference in September 2010 reviewed progress to
date and concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve
the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date. There were also
new commitments on women's and children's health, and new initiatives
in the worldwide battle against poverty, hunger and disease.
Government organizations assist in achieving those goals, among them
are the United Nations Millennium Campaign, the Millennium Promise
Alliance, Inc., the Global Poverty Project, the Micah Challenge, The
Youth in Action EU Programme "Cartoons in Action" video project and the
8 Visions of Hope global art project.
The aim of the MDGs is to encourage development by improving social
and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries. They derive
from earlier international development targets,
[2] and were officially established following the
Millennium Summit in 2000, where all world leaders present adopted the
United Nations Millennium Declaration.
The Millennium Summit was presented with the report of the
Secretary-General entitled ‘We the Peoples: The Role of the United
Nations in the Twenty-First Century’.
[3]
Additional input was prepared by the Millennium Forum, which brought
together representatives of over 1,000 non-governmental and civil
society organisations from more than 100 countries. The Forum met in
May 2000 to conclude a two-year consultation process covering issues
such as poverty eradication, environmental protection, human rights and
protection of the vulnerable. The approval of the MDGs was possibly the
main outcome of the Millennium Summit. In the area of peace and
security, the adoption of the Brahimi Report was seen as properly equipping the organization to carry out the mandates given by the Security Council.
[citation needed]
Ideas behind the MDG
This graph shows the proportion of world population in extreme poverty 1981–2008 according to the World Bank.
The MDGs originated from the Millennium Declaration produced by the United Nations.
The Declaration asserts that every individual has the right to dignity,
freedom, equality, a basic standard of living that includes freedom
from hunger and violence, and encourages tolerance and solidarity.
[4]
The MDGs were made to operationalize these ideas by setting targets and
indicators for poverty reduction in order to achieve the rights set
forth in the Declaration on a set fifteen-year timeline.
[4][5]
The Millennium Summit Declaration was, however, only part of the
origins of the MDGs. It came about from not just the UN but also the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The setting came about through a series of UN-led conferences in the
1990s focusing on issues such as children, nutrition, human rights,
women and others. The OECD criticized major donors for reducing their
levels of Official Development Assistance (ODA). With the onset of the UN's 50th anniversary, then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan saw the need to address the range of development issues. This led to his report titled,
We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century
which led to the Millennium Declaration. By this time, the OECD had
already formed its International Development Goals (IDGs) and it was
combined with the UN's efforts in the World Bank's 2001 meeting to form
the MDGs.
[3][6]
The MIB
focus on three major areas of improving infrastructure, and increasing
social, economic and political rights, with the majority of the focus
going towards increasing basic standards of living.
[7] The objectives chosen within the human capital focus include improving nutrition, healthcare (including reducing levels of child mortality, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and increasing reproductive health),
and education. For the infrastructure focus, the objectives include
improving infrastructure through increasing access to safe drinking
water, energy and modern information/communication technology;
amplifying farm outputs through sustainable practices; improving
transportation infrastructure; and preserving the environment. Lastly,
for the social, economic and political rights focus, the objectives
include empowering women, reducing violence, increasing political
voice, ensuring equal access to public services, and increasing
security of property rights. The goals chosen were intended to increase
an individual’s human capabilities and “advance the means to a productive life”.
[7]
The MDGs emphasize that individual policies needed to achieve these
goals should be tailored to individual country’s needs; therefore most
policy suggestions are general.
[7]
The MDGs also emphasize the role of developed countries in aiding
developing countries, as outlined in Goal Eight. Goal Eight sets
objectives and targets for developed countries to achieve a “global
partnership for development” by supporting fair trade,
debt relief for developing nations, increasing aid and access to
affordable essential medicines, and encouraging technology transfer.
[7][8]
Thus developing nations are not seen as left to achieve the MDGs on
their own, but as a partner in the developing-developed compact to
reduce world poverty.
Goals
The MDGs were developed out of the eight chapters of the Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000. There are eight goals with 21 targets,
[9] and a series of measurable indicators for each target.
[10][11]
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Target 1A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day
- Proportion of population below $1 per day (PPP values)
- Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]
- Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
- Target 1B: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People
- GDP Growth per Employed Person
- Employment Rate
- Proportion of employed population below $1 per day (PPP values)
- Proportion of family-based workers in employed population
- Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
- Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
- Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption[12]
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
- Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
- Enrollment in primary education
- Completion of primary education
- Literacy of 15-24 year olds, female and male[13] Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
- Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
- Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
- Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
- Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament[14]
- For girls in some regions, education remains elusive[15]
- Poverty is a major barrier to education, especially among older girls[15]
- In every developing region except the CIS, men outnumber women in paid employment[15]
- Women are largely relegated to more vulnerable forms of employment[15]
- Women are over-represented in informal employment, with its lack of benefits and security[15]
- Top-level jobs still go to men — to an overwhelming degree[15]
- Women are slowly rising to political power, but mainly when boosted by quotas and other special measures[15]
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates
- Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
- Under-five mortality rate
- Infant (under 1) mortality rate
- Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles[16]
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
- Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
- Maternal mortality ratio
- Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
- Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
- Contraceptive prevalence rate
- Adolescent birth rate
- Antenatal care coverage
- Unmet need for family planning[17]
[edit] Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
- HIV prevalence among population aged 15–24 years
- Condom use at last high-risk sex
- Proportion of population aged 15–24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
- Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
- Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs
- Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
- Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
- Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
- Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
- Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
- Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course)[18]
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
- Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources
- Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
- Proportion of land area covered by forest
- CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
- Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
- Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
- Proportion of total water resources used
- Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
- Proportion of species threatened with extinction
- Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply)
- Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
- Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation
- Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers
- Proportion of urban population living in slums[19]
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
- Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system
- Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction – both nationally and internationally
- Target 8B: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC)
- Includes: tariff and quota free access for LDC exports; enhanced programme of debt relief
for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous
ODA (Overseas Development Assistance) for countries committed to
poverty reduction
- Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States
- Through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly
- Target 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of
developing countries through national and international measures in
order to make debt sustainable in the long term
- Some of the indicators
listed below are monitored separately for the least developed countries
(LDCs), Africa, landlocked developing countries and small island
developing States.
- Official development assistance (ODA):
- Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors’ GNI
- Proportion of total sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to
basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition,
safe water and sanitation)
- Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
- ODA received in landlocked countries as proportion of their GNIs
- ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their GNIs
- Market access:
- Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and
excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free
of duty
- Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
- Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as percentage of their GDP
- Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity
- Debt sustainability:
- Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision
points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points
(cumulative)
- Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative, US$
- Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services
- Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries
- Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis
- Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make
available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and
communications
- Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population
- Personal computers in use per 100 population
- Internet users per 100 Population[20]
Debate surrounding the MDGs
Drawbacks of the MDGs include the lack of analytical power and justification behind the chosen objectives.
[5]
The MDGs leave out important ideals, such as the lack of strong
objectives and indicators for equality, which is considered by many
scholars to be a major flaw of the MDGs due to the disparities of
progress towards poverty reduction between groups within nations.
[4][5]
The MDGs also lack a focus on local participation and empowerment
(excluding women’s empowerment) [Deneulin & Shahani 2009]. The MDGs
also lack an emphasis on sustainability, making their future after 2015
questionable.
[5]
Thus, while the MDGs are a tool for tracking progress toward basic
poverty reduction and provide a very basic policy road map to achieving
these goals, they do not capture all elements needed to achieve the
ideals set out in the Millennium Declaration.
[4]
Another criticism of the MDGs is the difficulty or lack of
measurements for some of the goals. Amir Attaran, an Associate
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health, and
Global Development Policy at University of Ottawa, argues that goals
related to maternal mortality, malaria, and tuberculosis are in
practice impossible to measure and that current UN estimates do not
have scientific validity or are missing.
[21] Household surveys are often used by the UN organisations to estimate data for the health MDGs.
[21]
These surveys have been argued to be poor measurements of the data they
are trying to collect, and many different organisations have redundant
surveys, which waste limited resources.
[21]
Furthermore, countries with the highest levels of maternal mortality,
malaria, and tuberculosis often have the least amount of reliable data
collection.
[21]
Attaran argues that without accurate measures of past and current data
for the health related MDGs, it is impossible to determine if progress
has been made toward the goals, leaving the MDGs as little more than a
rhetorical call to arms.
[21]
Proponents for the MDGs argue that while some goals are difficult to
measure, that there is still validity in setting goals as they provide
a political and operational framework to achieving the goals.
[22]
They also assert that non-health related MDGs are often well measured,
and it is wrong to assume that all MDGs are doomed to fail due to lack
of data.
[22]
It is further argued that for difficult to measure goals, best
practices have be identified and their implication is measurable as
well as their positive effects on progress. With an increase in the
quantity and quality of healthcare systems in developing countries,
more data will be collected, as well as more progress made.
[22]
Lastly the MDGs bring attention to measurements of wellbeing beyond
income, and this attention alone helps bring funding to achieving these
goals.
[5]
The MDGs are also argued to help the human development by providing
a measurement of human development that is not based solely on income,
prioritizing interventions, establishing obtainable objectives with
operationalized measurements of progress (though the data needed to
measure progress is difficult to obtain), and increasing the developed
world’s involvement in worldwide poverty reduction.
[5][23]
The measurement of human development in the MDGs goes beyond income,
and even just basic health and education, to include gender and
reproductive rights, environmental sustainability and spread of
technology.
[5]
Prioritizing interventions helps developing countries with limited
resources make decisions about where to allocate their resources
through which public policies.
[5]
The MDGs also strengthen the commitment of developed countries to
helping developing countries, and encourage the flow of aid and
information sharing.
[5]
The joint responsibility of developing and developed nations for
achieving the MDGs increases the likelihood of their success, which is
reinforced by their 189-country support (the MDGs are the most broadly
supported poverty reduction targets ever set by the world).
[7]
