Making Progress Toward the MDGs

Ahead of the UN High Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals, the global body has released its annual Millennium Development Goals Report 2008.  The report emphasizes that while progress has been made on the MDGs overall, this progress is threatened by rising global food and fuel prices as well as global economic downturn.

Here is an overview of key findings from the report:

GOAL 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Even though the proportion of people worldwide suffering from malnutrition and hunger has fallen since the early 1990s, the number of people lacking access to food has risen.  About one quarter of all children in developing countries are considered to be underweight and are at risk of having a future blighted by the long-term effects of undernourishment.

   

GOAL 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Slight improvements were made in primary school enrollment – up from 83 percent to 88 percent on average worldwide, although the rate for sub-Saharan Africa is only 71 percent, with 38 million children of primary school-going age not in school.

GOAL 3: Promote Gender Equity and Empower Women
Achieving gender parity in primary school enrollment remains a difficult task yet to be achieved as girls account for more than half of the child population not in school. MDG three also uses the proportion of women holding seats in national parliaments as a marker of progress. If this rate is to be increased, girls must be allowed to attend school. Currently nearly 18 percent of parliamentary seats are held by women.

GOAL 4: Reduce Child Mortality
The fourth MDG, cutting child mortality, also saw improvements, with the number of deaths of under-fives falling below 10 million for the first time in 2006, to 9.7 million. The rate has declined from 93 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2006. However, in 62 countries under-five mortality is not falling fast enough to meet the target of reducing the mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015.

GOAL 5: Improve Maternal Health
Improving maternal health, goal five, has seen the least progress – maternal mortality rates fell by less than 1 percent a year between 1990 and 2005, significantly below the 5.5 percent annual improvement needed to meet the target. In sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest level of maternal mortality, progress was negligible.

GOAL 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
Progress on universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS by 2010 and of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 has been limited. The majority of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, 60 percent of them are women; globally, the numbers have risen from around 30 million in 2001 to 33 million in 2007.  This is largely due to the fact that people with HIV are living longer as a result of treatment.  Access to anti-retroviral treatment improved by 42 percent in 2007; by the end of that year, three million people were receiving treatment in development countries, out of an estimated 9.7 million in need. 

On the second target of goal six, combating malaria, the number of insecticide-treated mosquito nets produced worldwide jumped from 30 million in 2004 to 95 million in 2007.  Sub-Saharan African countries for which there are trend data, showed increases in insecticide-treated net use among children under five; 16 of these 20 countries have at least tripled their coverage since around 2000.  Despite this progress, overall insecticide-treated net use falls short of global targets.

GOAL 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
For the seventh MDG, there has been significant progress with limiting ozone-depleting substances and slowing deforestation processes. Despite more people using improved sanitation facilities, however, there are still nearly one in four people in developing regions who do not use any form of sanitation.  In addition, access to drinking water has greatly expanded, but nearly one billion people still do not have adequate access. 

This summary does not include the important commitments of developed countries made under Goal Eight, the last MDG. A separate post will outline progress on commitments made by developed countries and progress to date.

Comments

[Claude]

Seems like recession took away-erased even- years and years of efforts to eradicate childrens undernourishment..this just goes to prove that building something is far more difficult than destroying..but despite of the rough times...the goal remains the same...and I know I do my best to give food/money and whatever I can to UNHCR..to help chidren..and I know if all of us do that..well we won't feel it..but when summed up it will help a lot of children...