Community Health Nursing

Millennium Development Goals

What is Millennium Development Goals? First is that, the Millennium Development Goals are
eight international development goals which were adopted by the United Nations in 2000. These goals are
assigned specific targets to be achieved by the year 2015. All 189 member countries of the United
Nations have agreed to try to achieve these goals in these 15 years. De Millennium Development Goals
are derived from the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which is signed in September 2000 and
commits world leaders to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and
discrimination against women. The Millennium Development Goals are the strongest statement yet of the
international commitment to ending global poverty. They represent a partnership between the developing
countries and the developed countries to create an environment, at the national and global levels alike,
which is conductive to development and the elimination of poverty.
The first MDG targets the poor directly, those living on less than one dollar a day,while the next
six focus on the underlying causes of poverty, such as lack of access to education, health care, and
employment; gender inequality; poor housing conditions; and environmental degradation. The eighth goal
is to develop a global partnership for development, and focuses on how the industrialized countries can
work with the poorer countries to enhance the latter’s standard of living. The MDGs thus complement the
Asian Development Bank’s vision of a region free of poverty, and its mission to help its developing
member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their citizens.
To ascertain the performance of countries toward reaching the MDGs, countries are assessed
according to latest available data. It is important to remember that the progress of countries is provisional
and is likely to change as the 2015 target date draws closer. This is particularly relevant at the present
time in view of the global economic crisis, which began in the second half of 2008. Not all MDGs are
likely to be affected to the same extent by the economic crisis. Progress toward eradicating extreme
poverty and hunger (MDG 1) may be particularly vulnerable because of rising unemployment and falling
household incomes. Reducing child mortality (MDG 4) and improving maternal health (MDG 5) could
also be affected if governments cut back on immunization campaigns, training midwives, and antenatal
care, for example. On the other hand, the impact on MDGs 2 and 3,achieve universal primary education,
and promote gender equality and empower women, may be less severe.
Base on my research, the first most important challenge to achieving MDGs in a given timeframe
is the availability of adequate funds and investment. Although developed countries’ aid for the
achievement of the MDGs has been rising over recent years, it has been diverted towards debt relief,
natural disaster relief and military aid which does not further the country into development. Similarly,
millions of money have been transferred directly from the wealthy nation governments to the often
bureaucratic or corrupt governments in Pakistan. As a result, MDGs targets yet lag behind due to lack of
availability of adequate funds and increased investment. One of the major MDG failures is the fact that
the success of the goals was not experienced equally across the globe; this in itself is a major defeat.
Consider a few of these statistics from different countries concerning the same MDGs. The extreme
poverty 50 percent reduction rate. First, Southeastern Asia exceeded the goal for extreme poverty
reduction by 16 percent, then Southern Asia exceeded the goal by 12.5 percent, then Northern Africa
scraped by at about 1.2 percent and lastly the Sub-Saharan Africa was by far the most behind. It did not
even meet the goal for extreme poverty reduction and was 12.5 percent away from doing so. Gender
inequality was also a focus of the MDGs, but unfortunately, according to the United Nations, gender
inequality persists in spite of more representation of women in parliament and more girls going to school.
Women continue to face discrimination in access to work, economic assets and participation in private
and public decision-making. Although there were huge successes achieved through the MDGs, it is
important to note that more than 800 million people continue to live in extreme poverty. According to the
U.N., “children from the poorest 20 percent of households are more than twice as likely to be stunted as
those from the wealthiest 20 percent and are also four times as likely to be out of school. In countries
affected by conflict, the proportion of out-of-school children increased from 30 percent in 1999 to 36
percent in 2012.”
Every region faces particular challenges but has the opportunity to work together in order to
achieve the MDG. While each MDG is reviewed in the next sections, the 2009 MDG report released
recently by UN (2009) summarizes progress, like what I said earlier that those living in extreme poverty
in the developing regions accounted for slightly more than a quarter of the developing world’s population
in 2005, compared to almost half in 1990 then the major accomplishments were also made in education.
In the developing world as a whole, enrolment in primary education reached 88 per cent in 2007, up from
83 per cent in 2000. And most of the progress was in regions lagging the furthest behind. In sub-Saharan
Africa and Southern Asia, enrolment increased by 15 percentage points and 11 percentage points,
respectively, from 2000 to 2007. And the deaths of children under five declined steadily worldwide to
around 9 million in 2007, down from 12.6 million in 1990, despite population growth. Although child
mortality rates remain highest in sub-Saharan Africa, recent survey data show remarkable improvements
in key interventions that could yield major breakthroughs for children in that region in the years ahead.
Among these interventions are the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets to reduce the toll of malaria,
a major killer of children. As a result of ‘second chance’ immunizations, dramatic progress is also being
made in the fight against measles. And also at the global level, the world came together to achieve a 97
percent reduction in the consumption of substances that deplete the Earth’s protective ozone layer, setting
a new precedent for international cooperation.
The goal number 4 is about reduce child mortality. The target for this goal is that reduce by two-
thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate. According to UN (2008). Worldwide, deaths
of children under five years of age declined from 93 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and
2006. A child born in a developing country is over 13 times more likely to die within the first five years
of life than a child born in an industrialized country. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about half the
deaths of children under five in the developing world. Between 1990 and 2006, about 27 countries, the
large majority in sub-Saharan Africa, made no progress in reducing childhood deaths. 7 Globally, child
mortality continues to fall. In 2008, the global annual number of child deaths fell to 8.8 million, down by
30 percent from the 12.5 million estimated in 1990. The under-five-year-old mortality rate in 2008 was
estimated at 65 per 1000 live births. Reducing child mortality increasingly depends on tackling neonatal
mortality; globally, about 40 percent of under-five-year-old deaths are estimated to occur in the first
month of life, most in the first week. The greatest reductions in child mortality have been recorded among
the wealthiest households and in urban areas (WHO, 2009). Much of the progress in reducing child
mortality can be attributed to increased immunization coverage, use of oral rehydration therapies during
episodes of diarrhea, use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and reduced disease incidence due to
improved water and sanitation (Wagstaff et al, 2007; Munoz 2008; WHO, 2009). However, because the
availability and use of proven interventions at the community level remain low, pneumonia and diarrhea
still kill 3.8 million children under five each year (WHO, 2009). Malnutrition is estimated to be an
underlying cause in more than one-third of all deaths in children under five. The decrease in child
malnutrition has been slow; the proportion of children under five who are undernourished declined from
33 percent in 1990 to 26 percent in 2006. However, by 2006, the number of children in developing
countries who were underweight still exceeded 140 million (UN, 2008; WHO 2009). Sub-Saharan Africa
accounts for about half the deaths of children under five in the developing world. Between 1990 and
2006, about 27 countries, the large majority in sub-Saharan Africa, made no progress in reducing
childhood deaths. In East Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, child mortality rates are
approximately four times higher than in developed regions. Disparities persist in all regions: mortality
rates are higher for children from rural and poor families and whose mothers lack a basic education (UN,
2008; WHO 2009).
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