The
Millennium Development Goals
(
MDGs) are eight
international development goals
that 192
United Nations member states and at least 23
international
organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They
include reducing
extreme poverty,
reducing
child mortality rates,
fighting disease
epidemics such as
AIDS, and developing a global partnership for
development.
Background
Heads of State at the Millennium
Summit
In 2001, recognizing the need to assist impoverished nations more
aggressively, UN member states adopted the targets. The MDGs aim to
spur development by improving social and economic conditions in the
world's poorest countries.
They derive from earlier international development targets, and
were officially established at the
Millennium Summit in 2000, where all world
leaders present adopted the
United Nations Millennium
Declaration, from which the eight goals were promoted.
Goals
The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were
developed out of the eight chapters of the
United Nations Millennium
Declaration, signed in September 2000. There are eight goals
with 21 targets, and a series of measurable indicators for each
target.
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 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
- 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
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
- 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 immunised against
measles
- 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 (at least one visit and at least
four visits)
- Unmet need for family planning
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
- Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance
of non-orphans aged 10–14 years
- 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
- Prevalence and death rates associated with
tuberculosis
- Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under
DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course)
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
- Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country
policies and programmes; 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 people
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
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
- Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based,
predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial
system
- 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
Indicators
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
Progress
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. The major countries that have been achieving their
goals include China (whose poverty population has reduced from 452
million to 278 million) and India due to clear internal and
external factors of population and economic development. However,
areas needing the most reduction, such as the
Sub-Saharan Africa regions have yet to
make any drastic changes in improving their quality of life. In the
same time as China, the Sub-Saharan Africa reduced their poverty
about one percent, and are at a major risk of not meeting the MDGs
by 2015. Fundamental issues will determine whether or not the MDGs
are achieved, namely gender, the divide between the humanitarian
and development agendas and
economic
growth, according to the
Overseas Development
Institute.
To
accelerate progress towards the MDGs, the G-8 Finance Ministers met
in London
in June 2005
(in preparation for the G-8 Gleneagles
Summit in July) and reached an agreement to provide enough
funds to the World Bank, the IMF,
and the African Development
Bank (ADB) to cancel an additional $40–55 billion debt owed by
members of the HIPC. This would
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.
Backed by
G-8 funding, the World Bank, the IMF
, and the ADB
each endorsed the Gleaneagles plan and implemented the Multilateral Debt Relief
Initiative ("MDRI") to effectuate the debt
cancellations. The MDRI supplements HIPC by providing each
country that reaches the HIPC completion point 100% forgiveness of
its multilateral debt. Countries that previously reached the
decision point became eligible for full debt forgiveness once their
lending agency confirmed that the countries had continued to
maintain the reforms implemented during HIPC status. Other
countries that subsequently reach the completion point
automatically receive full forgiveness of their multilateral debt
under MDRI.
While the World Bank and ADB limit MDRI to countries that complete
the HIPC program, the IMF's MDRI eligibility criteria are slightly
less restrictive so as to comply with the IMF's unique "uniform
treatment" requirement. Instead of limiting eligibility to HIPC
countries, any country with annual per capita income of $380 or
less qualifies for MDRI debt cancellation. The IMF adopted the $380
threshold because it closely approximates the countries eligible
for HIPC.
Yet, as we head towards 2015 increasing global uncertainties, such
as the
economic crisis and
climate change, have led to an
opportunity to rethink the MDG approach to development policy.
According to the 'In Focus' Policy Brief from the
Institute of Development
Studies, the ‘After 2015' debate is about questioning the value
of an MDG-type, target-based approach to international development,
about progress so far on poverty reduction, about looking to an
uncertain future and exploring what kind of system is needed after
the MDG deadline has passed.
The effects of increasing drug use has been noted by the
International Journal of Drug Policy as a deterrent to the goal of
the MDGs.
Controversy Over Funding of 0.7% of GNP
Over the past 35 years, the members of the UN have repeatedly made
a "commit[ment] 0.7% of rich-countries'
gross national
product (GNP) to
Official Development
Assistance." The commitment was first made in 1970 by the UN
General Assembly.
The text of the commitment was:
"Each economically advanced country will progressively
increase its official development assistance to the developing countries and will exert its
best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.7 percent of its
gross national product at market prices by the middle of the
decade."
However, there has been disagreement from the US, and other
nations, over the
Monterrey
Consensus that urged "developed countries that have not done so
to make concrete efforts towards the target of 0.7 per cent of
gross national product (GNP) asODA to developing countries."
Support for the 0.7% Target
The UN "believe[s] that donors should commit to reaching the
long-standing target of 0.7 percent of GNP by 2015".
The European Union has recently
reaffirmed its commitment to the 0.7% aid targets. The EU External
Relations council says that, as of May 2005, "fourout of the five
countries, which exceed the UN target for ODA of 0.7%, of GNI
aremember states of the European Union."
Many organizations are working to bring U.S. political attention to
the Millennium Development Goals. In 2007,
The Borgen Project worked with Sen.
Barack Obama on the Global Poverty Act, a bill requiring
the White
House
to develop a strategy for achieving the
goals. As of 2009, the bill has not passed, but Barack Obama
has since been elected President.
Challenges to the 0.7% Target
However, many
OECD
nations, including key members such as the United States, are not
progressing towards their promise of giving 0.7% of their GNP
towards poverty reduction by the target year of 2015. Some nations'
contributions have been criticized as falling far short of
0.7%.
John Bolton argues that the U.S.
never agreed in Monterrey to spending 0.7% of GDP on development
assistance. Indeed, Washington has consistently opposed setting
specific foreign-aid targets since the
U.N. General Assembly first
endorsed the 0.7% goal in 1970.
The Australian Government has committed to providing
0.5%
of GNI in International Development Assistance by 2015-2016,
without noting the long-standing 0.7% goal.
Challenges of the Millennium Development Goals
Although developed countries' aid for the achievement of the MDGs
have been rising over the recent year, it has shown that more than
half is towards debt relief owed by poor countries. As well,
remaining aid money goes towards natural disaster relief and
military aid which does not further the country into development.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs (2006), the 50 least countries only receive about one third
of all aid that flows from developed countries, raising the issue
of aid not moving from rich to poor depending on their development
needs but rather from rich to their closest allies.
Related Organisations
The
Micah Challenge is an
international campaign that encourages
Christians to support the Millennium Development
Goals. Their aim is to "encourage our leaders to halve global
poverty by 2015."
8 Visions of Hope is a global art project that
explores and shows how art, culture, artists & musicians as
positive change agents can help in the realization of the eight UN
Millennium Development Goals.
See also
References
- Background page, United Nations Millennium Development
Goals website, retrieved 16 June 2009.
- About the Millennium Development Goals, OECD
Development Co-operation Directorate website, retrieved 16 June
2009.
- http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml etc.
- MDG
Monitor
-
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/MDGsOfficialList2008.pdf
- list of goals, targets, and indicators
- MDG Monitor:Goal 1
- MDG Monitor:Goal 2
- MDG Monitor:Goal 3
- MDG Monitor:Goal 4
- MDG Monitor:Goal 5
- MDG Monitor:Goal 6
- MDG Monitor:Goal 7
- MDG Monitor:Goal 8
-
http://www.mdgmonitor.org/country_progress.cfm?c=BRA&cd=
-
http://www.mdgmonitor.org/country_progress.cfm?c=BEN&cd=
- http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/rburgess/wp/jep11.pdf
- E. Carrasco, C.McClellan, & J. Ro (2007),
"Foreign Debt: Forgiveness antetretetred Repudiation" University of
Iowa Center for International Finance and Development
E-Book
- E. Carrasco, C.McClellan, & J. Ro (2007),
"Foreign Debt: Forgiveness and Repudiation" University of Iowa
Center for International Finance and Development E-Book
- 'After 2015: Rethinking Pro-Poor Policy'
Institute of Development Studies (IDS) In Focus Policy Brief 9.1.
June 2009.
- Singer, M. 2008. Drugs and development: The global impact of
drug use and trafficking on social and economic development.
International Journal of Drug Policy 19 (6):467-478.
- http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/press/07.htm
-
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/costs_benefits2.htm
-
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/07_aconf198-11.pdf
-
http://www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/fact_sheet/ecosoc_Chapter_4_apr15.pdf
-
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/EUExternalRelations24May.pdf
-
http://bproject.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/borgen-on-capitol-hill/
-
http://bproject.wordpress.com/2006/12/10/borgens-2006-congressional-meetings/
-
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/endorse_TI_19Jan05.pdf
-
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/media/release.cfm?BC=Media&ID=5854_3696_6753_7484_7221
- Singer, M. 2008. Drugs and development: The global impact of
drug use and trafficking on social and economic development.
International Journal of Drug Policy 19 (6):467-478
- http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/
- http://www.8visionsofhope.org/
External links
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