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SILVER SPRING, Md. - A decade after world leaders agreed to fight global poverty by implementing eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the progress is at a crucial stage, needing significant commitment from governments, investment of resources, and a clear action plan, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) said./p>
“Ten years ago, the world community took eight bold decisions with the intent to slash poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other ills by 2015,” said Frank Teeuwen, United Nations Senior Liaison for ADRA. “Now the international community must keep its promise of the Millennium Declaration to the millions of vulnerable people around the world. We cannot let them down.”
The MDGs, adopted in September 2000 by all 192 United Nations member states, were recognized as the most pressing issues needing improvement among the world’s developing nations, namely eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, developing a global partnership for development, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
“Together, we created a blueprint for ending extreme poverty. We defined achievable targets and timetables,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders in New York this week that attended a three-day summit on ending global poverty. “We established a framework that all partners, even those with different views, have been able to embrace. We brought new urgency to an age-old mission.”
While vast improvements have been made in the areas of disease control, school enrolment, and access to clean water, significant work is still needed to reduce children mortality and improve maternal health.
With just five years remaining until the MDGs are to be achieved, the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) continue to face high poverty rates. More than 800 million people in LDCs live below the poverty line, while just six of the 49 LDCs have poverty rates of less than 30 per cent, according to the United Nations. Also experiencing difficulties are land-locked developing countries, small island developing states, countries experiencing or emerging from conflict, and those most affected by climate change.
“The international community must continue to stand with them at this time, despite the economic difficulties that are putting pressure on aid budgets and other kinds of support,” Ban remarked Tuesday. “This is a moral commitment, first and foremost - a test of global solidarity.”
For more information about the MDGs, please click here.
The following list provides a progress update of the MDGs:
Goal 1 - Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger:
•The number of people living under the international poverty line of $1.25 a day declined from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion between 1990 and 2005.
•The proportion of people living in extreme poverty in developing regions dropped from 46 per cent to 27 per cent - on track to meet the target globally.
•The economic crisis is expected to push an estimated 64 million more people into extreme poverty in 2010.
•About one in four children under the age of five is underweight in the developing world, down from almost one in three in 1990.
“Ten years ago, the world community took eight bold decisions with the intent to slash poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other ills by 2015,” said Frank Teeuwen, United Nations Senior Liaison for ADRA. “Now the international community must keep its promise of the Millennium Declaration to the millions of vulnerable people around the world. We cannot let them down.”
The MDGs, adopted in September 2000 by all 192 United Nations member states, were recognized as the most pressing issues needing improvement among the world’s developing nations, namely eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, developing a global partnership for development, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
“Together, we created a blueprint for ending extreme poverty. We defined achievable targets and timetables,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders in New York this week that attended a three-day summit on ending global poverty. “We established a framework that all partners, even those with different views, have been able to embrace. We brought new urgency to an age-old mission.”
While vast improvements have been made in the areas of disease control, school enrolment, and access to clean water, significant work is still needed to reduce children mortality and improve maternal health.
With just five years remaining until the MDGs are to be achieved, the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) continue to face high poverty rates. More than 800 million people in LDCs live below the poverty line, while just six of the 49 LDCs have poverty rates of less than 30 per cent, according to the United Nations. Also experiencing difficulties are land-locked developing countries, small island developing states, countries experiencing or emerging from conflict, and those most affected by climate change.
“The international community must continue to stand with them at this time, despite the economic difficulties that are putting pressure on aid budgets and other kinds of support,” Ban remarked Tuesday. “This is a moral commitment, first and foremost - a test of global solidarity.”
For more information about the MDGs, please click here.
The following list provides a progress update of the MDGs:
Goal 1 - Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger:
•The number of people living under the international poverty line of $1.25 a day declined from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion between 1990 and 2005.
•The proportion of people living in extreme poverty in developing regions dropped from 46 per cent to 27 per cent - on track to meet the target globally.
•The economic crisis is expected to push an estimated 64 million more people into extreme poverty in 2010.
•About one in four children under the age of five is underweight in the developing world, down from almost one in three in 1990.
Goal 2 - Achieve Universal Primary Education:
•Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 89 per cent in 2008, up from 83 per cent in 2000.
•The current pace of progress is insufficient to meet the target by 2015.
•About 69 million school-age children are not in school. Almost half of them (31 million) are in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than a quarter (18 million) are in Southern Asia.
Goal 3 - Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women:
•In 2008, there were 96 girls for every 100 boys enrolled in primary school, and 95 girls for every 100 boys in secondary school in developing regions.
•The share of women employed outside of agriculture remains as low as 20 per cent in Southern Asia, Western Asia and Northern Africa.
•The global share of women in parliament continues to rise slowly and reached 19 per cent in 2010 - far short of gender parity.
•In 2008, there were 96 girls for every 100 boys enrolled in primary school, and 95 girls for every 100 boys in secondary school in developing regions.
•The share of women employed outside of agriculture remains as low as 20 per cent in Southern Asia, Western Asia and Northern Africa.
•The global share of women in parliament continues to rise slowly and reached 19 per cent in 2010 - far short of gender parity.
Goal 4 - Reduce Child Mortality:
•The number of children in developing countries who died before they reached the age of five dropped from 100 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2008.
•Almost nine million children still die each year before they reach their fifth birthday.
•The highest rates of child mortality continue to be found in sub-Saharan Africa, where, in 2008, one in seven children died before their fifth birthday.
•Of the 67 countries defined as having high child mortality rates, only 10 are currently on track to meet the MDG target.
Goal 5 - Improve Maternal Health:
•While declining slowly, the maternal mortality rate remains unacceptably high. Hundreds of thousands of women die annually from complications during pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of them - 99 per cent - in developing countries.
•In 2008, skilled health workers attended 63 per cent of births in the developing world, up from 53 per cent in 1990. Progress was made in all regions, but was especially dramatic in Northern Africa and South-Eastern Asia, with increases of 74 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively.
Goal 6 - Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases:
•The number of new HIV infections fell steadily from a peak of 3.5 million in 1996 to 2.7 million in 2008. Deaths from AIDS-related illnesses also dropped from 2.2 million in 2004 to two million in 2008.
•Antiretroviral treatment has expanded, but continues to be outpaced by HIV infection rates. By the end of 2009, more than five million people were on treatment. But for every two individuals starting HIV treatment each year, five are newly infected.
•In 2008, 45 per cent of HIV-positive expectant mothers in low- and middle-income countries received treatment, up from 35 per cent in the previous year. In 2008 alone, more than 60,000 HIV infections among at-risk babies were prevented because their HIV-positive mothers received treatment.
•Half the world’s population is at risk of malaria. There were an estimated 243 million cases of malaria in 2008, causing 863,000 deaths, 89 per cent of them in Africa.
•Global production of mosquito nets rose from 30 million to 150 million annually between 2004 and 2009. Artemisinin-based antimalarial medication has also become more readily available, though coverage varies sharply by country. External funding for malaria control has risen sharply in recent years, and reached $1.5 billion in 2009 - still far short of the estimated $6 billion needed in 2010 alone to meet the MDG target.
•An estimated 11 million people suffered from tuberculosis in 2008. But the number of new cases fell from 143 to 139 per 100,000 people between 2004 and 2008.
Goal 7 - Ensure Environmental Sustainability:
•Some 1.7 billion people have gained access to safe drinking water since 1990. Yet 884 million people worldwide still do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines.
•The world has missed the 2010 target for biodiversity conservation. Based on current trends, the loss of species will continue throughout this century.
•Slum improvements are failing to keep pace with the growing number of urban poor. The absolute number of slum dwellers keeps rising, with some 828 million people living in slums today, even though the share of the urban population living in slums is declining.
Goal 8 - Global Partnerships for Development
•Official development assistance stands at 0.31 per cent of the combined national income of developed countries, still far short of the 0.7 per cent UN target. Only five donor countries have reached or exceeded the target.
•Debt burdens have eased for developing countries and remain well below historical levels.
•Only 1 in 6 people in the developing world has access to the Internet.
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ADRA is a global non-governmental organization providing sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race or ethnicity.
For more information about ADRA, visit www.adra.org.
Author: Hearly Mayr
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