With five years left to go, there is a lot of debate on if the Millennium Development Goals will be met. Some economists say that most areas of the world will at least be able to meet the Goal of halving poverty. While some who work for NGOs and the United Nations say that most of the world is falling short. There is some agreement that doubling access to sanitation will not be met.From this APP article that we found at the Sydney Morning Herald, writer Danny Rose recieves the view of Tom Costello, leader of World Vision in Australia. "The global financial crisis meant we took our eyes off the MDGs and off the ball," Mr Costello told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday."We retreated, looked inwards, and we're stuck in our bubbles saying `we're only worried about our selves' ... there was...
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has issued a new publication, Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals in Practice: A review of country strategies and reporting (full report, pdf).
Its primary objective is to review the extent to which—and how—human rights a......
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has issued a new publication, Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals in Practice: A review of country strategies and reporting (full report, pdf).
Its primary objective is to review the extent to which—and how—human rights a......
Only one out of every 16 HIV-positive children in Zimbabwe have access to life prolonging ARV drugs. This has led the parents of those children to migrate across national borders to get medical care for their children. The governments of Botswana and South Africa do not turn any children away in an effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals. This leads many to wonder why Zimbabwe is unable to keep up with the health demands of her people. From IPS Africa, writer Ignatius Banda describes this new type of migration away from Zimbabwe."This is how desperate the people are to provide treatment for their children," said Khumbulani Khaphela, a pastor with an evangelical fellowship church working in rural Plumtree."Some families after hearing that others have sent their children across the...
From IRIN, an article that explains how kindergartens in Guinea-Bissau can help that country meet the Millennium Development Goals.In the village of Gantauda, 90km from Guinea-Bissau’s capital, Bissau, a child’s third birthday is a milestone: it is the age when they can start at the local kindergarten, which their parents know improves their chances of survival.Enrolling in Gantauda kindergarten, Guinea-Bissau’s only pre-school centre, not only increases the chances of the children going on to primary school, but critically also provides a level of basic nutrition and health care most children are denied in a country where under-five mortality has risen from 203 to 223 per 1,000 live births, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).The Gantauda programme provides lunch for the...
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has issued a new publication, Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals in Practice: A review of country strategies and reporting (full report, pdf).
Its primary objective is to review the extent to which—and how—human rights a......
In the report "The Millennium Development Goals in Iraq", the Government of Iraq and the United Nations presented the progress made in a number of areas towards achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Iraq. These areas are: reducing hunger and child mortality and promoting gender ......
In the report "The Millennium Development Goals in Iraq", the Government of Iraq and the United Nations presented the progress made in a number of areas towards achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Iraq. These areas are: reducing hunger and child mortality and promoting gender ......
From the Voice of America, the coalition group Article 19 calls for action from world governments on meeting the Millenium Development Goals.Next month, the United Nations meets on the status of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The target date for the goals, which address such things as poverty, health and development, is 2015. The September U.N. meeting will look at how much progress has been made toward achieving them.Wednesday, a number of civil society and human rights groups called on governments to make a stronger commitment to transparency in the fight against poverty.Sejal Parmar, senior legal officer for the group ARTICLE 19, says the groups have sent a letter to the ambassadors responsible for coordinating the U.N. High Level Plenary Meeting on the MDGs.“We think...
By Todd Moss - Good question as the world prepares for the September summit to assess progress. But this is a slightly odd debate here at The Africa Report. The UN Millennium Promise’s Charles Abugre Akelyira seems to think the MDGs are a rejection of economic policy reform:
The MDGs came from the reactions to structural adjustment programmes...
One of the big stories that happened during our vacation involved US efforts on the Millennium Development Goals. US Aid unveiled the Obama Administration strategy to meet the goals by 2015. The US says it is going to concentrate on four strategies to meet the MDGs including leveraging innovation, investing in sustainability, tracking development outcomes, and enhancing the principle and practice of mutual accountability.The full report from the US government can be downloaded from here, you can also download US Aid director Rajiv Shah statement on the report from here. The Brookings Institution has already analyzed the report and posted a reaction. David Gartner works as a Co-director for Global Education efforts at the institution and says that the US should not forget education in its...
A full description of the community policies and rural development in place in Ghana. From The Ghanaian Chronicle, by Daniel Nonor.Ghana’s fight against poverty to make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals has seen various successive policies introduced to accelerate national development, with a special focus on rural development.By far, the design and implementation of these policies for social well-being have required a constant evaluation of how these systems have evolved over the years and to understand what impact they have had on development and poverty reduction programmes.One such programme is the Community-Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP), which was initiated by the Government of Ghana as part of its poverty reduction strategy in 2004. The Project aims at...
UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) released report What kind of State? What kind of equality? (full text, pdf, 5.23 MB). The report "analyses the progress of gender equality in the region."
What kind of State? What kind of equality? are the questions this document......
UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) released report What kind of State? What kind of equality? (full text, pdf, 5.23 MB). The report "analyses the progress of gender equality in the region."
What kind of State? What kind of equality? are the questions this document......
The United Nations says that Ethiopia is on track to meet Millennium Development Goal number 1 of halving poverty within it's borders. If Ethiopia continues their current economic growth they will be able to meet the goal of halving poverty by 2015.From Bloomberg, writer William Davison gives us more details of Ethiopia's progress in meeting the goals. The government has “made an enormous progress in the provision of social services such as education, health, and infrastructure by spending a large share of its budget in the pro-poor sector,” the report said. “This could be taken as the best practice from which others may learn.”Poverty reduction is central to policy in a country where half of children are “chronically malnourished,” 47 percent are stunted and 38 percent...
UN Development Programme (UNDP) has recently published Millennium Development Goals Report: Turkey 2010. The report analyses the progress of Turkey towards achieving the MDGs. The report is available in English and Turkish.......
By Nancy Birdsall - Bill Easterly struck a chord with his recent Aid Watch post on development being about problem-solving systems not “direct solutions to problems”.
I couldn’t help thinking: A-ha – another argument for the merits of Cash on Delivery Aid (aka #CODAid on twitter). Here’s two reasons why (I could think of more. . . .) .
First because...
Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies and supported by UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) published The Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response and Recovery (full text, pdf). The handbook "contains 19 standards, each with accompanying key actions and guidance notes."
The handb......
TheMillennium Development Goals Report 2010 has been released through theThe The International Fund for Agricultural Development IFADThe report notes that, even though the economic crisis took a heavy toll on jobs and incomes around the world, the world is still on track to achieve the MDG target of......
UN Development Programme (UNDP) published Honduras national human development report for 2008-2009 De la exclusión social a la ciudadanía juvenil. The report is available in Spanish
(full text, pdf, 35.3 MB). ......
UN Development Programme (UNDP) published Regional Human Development Report for Perm krai 2010 (Russian Federation) Доклад о развитии человеческого потенциала в Пермском крае. The report is available in Russian
(full text, pdf, 6.11 MB). ......
The truth is that poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is dropping, yet it is consistency being shown as a failure. In order to halve it's poverty level from 2000 to the year 2015, Sub-Saharan Africa would have to experience economic growth that even the best economy could not achieve. Yet, this is the standard it and the world is trying to chase in meeting the Millennium Development Goals.An article in Business Daily Africa highlights a couple of studies that criticize the MDGs. Writer Victor Juma gives us the details on the studies and shows us some of Africa's successes. Economics professor at New York University, William Easterly, says in a research paper that choices made in defining success or failure as achieving numerical targets for MDGs made their attainment “less likely in Africa...
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has issued a report Tourism and the Millennium Development Goals: sustainable - competitive - responsible. The report can be accessed from the web site.......
The United Nations has produced a new report showing the progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The good news is that the UN predicts MDG number 1 of halving the worlds poverty can be met by the year 2015. In the next five years, the number of people living in poverty should be halved from the level of 1990, lifting some 920 million people out of poverty. However, the goals on improving sanitation, and the empowerment of women have shown slow progress. The report notes that the goals that need the biggest infrastructure development have been the slowest to improve.From the IPS, writer Beatrice Paez details the latest MDG report. "Economic growth has been robust enough to guarantee that all regions remain on track to meet the poverty target," said Francesca Perucci, chief of...
By Kaci Farrell - Earlier this month, senior fellow Kim Elliott and I discussed ways to improve trade preference programs for the least developed countries (LDCs) with colleagues at the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, European Parliament, and British Parliament. What did we learn? Where do we go from here?
1. Reforming rules of origin is a feasible first...
A new report on the progress of meeting the Millennium Development Goals shows increases in child mortality. Six Sub-Saharan African countries have seen increase in child mortality according to the United Nations. From this Associated Press article that we found at WNOL-TV, we find out which countries have seen the slip in child health.The countries that halved their poverty rates since 1990 include relatively populous countries such as Ethiopia and Egypt and post-conflict countries such as Angola, the report said. However, in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, the proportion of the population living in extreme poverty has risen.Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world registering an increase in the under age 5 mortality rate, which has risen in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad,...
The UN Secretary General , has issued the progress report on AIDS response. Available full text, it is a part of the 2010 General Assembly AIDS Review. The report was presented to the 64th General Assembly by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro and puts f......
A recent conference held in Australia talked about the effects of disease in meeting the Millenium Development Goals. Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases’ annual conference talked about the new strains of diseases that are growing resistant to current drugs and treatments. The 350 professionals gathered at the conference also talked about the the challenges of treating major outbreaks of new diseases.From the Inter Press Service writer Neena Bhandari attended the conference. Our snippet focuses on drug resistant strains of malaria.Professor Kevin Marsh, director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute Wellcome Trust programme in Kilifi, Kenya, cites the experience of Africa to stress the impact of efforts to fight one of the world’s killer diseases on meeting the MDGs."In...
The UN Secretary General , has issued the progress report on AIDS response. Available full text, it is a part of the 2010 General Assembly AIDS Review. The report was presented to the 64 th General Assembly by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro and puts......
Last week, Kofi Annan made headlines by calling out political leaders in Africa, saying that they lack the political will to improve development in their states. The critique was within a new report from the Africa Progress Council, of which Annan is leader. In the APC's new African Progress Report 2010, they first say that economic growth has been great within the continent, but they point out that growth has been uneven. The economic growth has benefited some states more than others, and so far has helped a few people rather than most. The uneven growth will prevent Africa from meeting some of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. From the Guardian, writer Eliza Anyangwe has this analysis of the report. In her piece, she shows how the report tries to answer just who is to blame for...