Are the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals attainable?

They envisioned a world without hunger, poverty, inequality, sickness and unnecessary death. So, at the start of the millennium, 189 member nations of the United Nations came together and agreed to spend the next 15 years addressing eight issues at the heart of equitable and sustainable development for all countries involved.

U.N. members pledged that by 2015, they would:

• eradicate poverty and hunger
• achieve universal primary education
• promote gender equality
• reduce child mortality
• improve maternal health
• combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases
• ensure environmental stability
• develop a global partnership for development.

Ten years into the agreement, a quick inventory shows that while some countries are on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), others are far from making the mark.

According to a report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, progress has been made, even among some of the world’s poorest countries. But the report warns that without additional efforts, many countries will fall far short of meeting several of the goals.

“With five years to go to the target date of 2015, the prospect of falling short of achieving the Goals because of a lack of commitment is very real,” the report states. “This would be an unacceptable failure from both the moral and the practical standpoint. If we fail, the dangers in the world — instability, violence, epidemic diseases, environmental degradation, runaway population growth —will all be multiplied” (United Nations, 2010).

In an effort to prevent goals from going unmet, world leaders convened in New York for three days in September and adopted a global action plan to meet their target date.

By the looks of things, some goals have a long way to go.

How far have nations come?

Status: Prior to the goals, 842 million people accounted for the world’s hungry. Four years into the millennium, that number rose to 873 million. Just five years later—nine years into the U.N.’s commitment—the world’s hungry stood at 1.02 billion people (United Nations, 2010).

Obstacles: Higher food prices and the global recession have reduced many peoples’ access to food, and with rising hunger, it’s difficult to combat poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, many countries have made no visible progress. 

Status: More than 72 million children of primary school age around the world—about half of them in sub-Saharan Africa—remain out of school, and dropout rates in many countries remain high (United Nations, 2010).

While many countries have made remarkable progress in enrolling students, the increase in enrollment could overwhelm teachers and school systems and strain some countries’ abilities to deliver a quality education.

Obstacles: Families’ income continues to dictate a child’s access to education. The 2010 U.N. report states that children from the poorest 20% of households account for more than 40% of all out-of-school children in many developing countries. Children from poor or conflict-riddled areas and children with disabilities are least likely to go to school.

Status: According to the World Bank, the number of females employed in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia is below 30%. Although more women are actively employed, inequalities persist; among them are significant gender gaps in participation rates, occupational levels and wages.

Obstacles: Changing societal perceptions of women, particularly in male-dominated cultures, is a challenge. But the protection of women has posed an even greater impediment. Despite increased initiatives to address violence against women, rape and other attacks are used as a weapon of war in some violence-torn countries (msnbc.com, 2010).   

Status: Globally, the number of deaths among children under age 5 has fallen from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009 (Childinfo, 2010). Childinfo also found that Northern Africa and Eastern Asia have made the most progress in reducing under-five mortality, while Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and Oceania are far from meeting the millennium goal of reducing the deaths of children under age 5 by two-thirds.

Obstacles: Tuberculosis, particularly in African countries with a high prevalence of HIV, has posed a challenge. And tuberculosis is growing increasingly drug-resistant.

Malaria is also a major concern. According to the World Health Organization about 3.3 billion people—half of the world’s population—are at risk of malaria. Every year, this leads to about 250 million malaria cases and nearly 1 million deaths. In Africa, one in every five, or 20%, of childhood deaths is malaria-related. An African child has on average between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever each year (World Health Organization, 2009).

Status: While the number of women who die giving birth has declined, progress falls short of the goal. Worldwide, more than half of all maternal deaths are concentrated in six countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Pakistan (msnbc.com, 2010).

MSNBC reports that in the United States and other industrialized countries, 24 women die for every 100,000 live births, but that number soars to as high as 1,400 in Afghanistan and 1,000 in some of the poorest corners of the world.

Obstacles: According to the U.N. report, a lack of skilled health workers, a lack of financing for maternal health, a rise in adolescent pregnancies and the practice of unsafe abortions have all complicated the problem. In addition, 11% of women in developing countries who want to delay or stop childbearing are not using contraception.

Status: According to UNAIDS (2008), the rate of new HIV infections has fallen in several countries, but this decline is partially offset by an increase of new infections in other countries. An estimated 33 million people were living with HIV in 2007, up from 8 million in 1990.

African nations that have been some of the hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, including Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are leading a 25% decline in new infections in the region. This decline is attributed to increased access to treatment and improved prevention methods (UNAIDS, 2008).

Obstacles: Prevention, while a priority in some countries, isn’t receiving enough attention in others. The U.N. reports that for every two people starting antiretroviral treatment, there are five new HIV infections. In addition, women—who account for half of all HIV infections worldwide—aren’t receiving the proper family planning counseling.

Status: Although the world is expected to exceed the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water, 672 million people will still lack access to improved drinking water sources in 2010 (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2010).

And while 1.3 billion people have seen improved sanitation since 1990, U.N. nations may still miss the MDG sanitation target by a billion people.

Obstacles: Stark discrepancies exist between what is accessible to people living in urban areas versus those living in rural areas. Eighty-four percent of the world population lives in rural areas without an improved source of drinking water (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2010). 

WHO/UNICEF data also shows that urban population growth could threaten to undo the drinking water and sanitation strides that have been made in urban areas. 

Status: The need to accelerate the commitments to aid, trade, debt relief and universal access to technology and essential drugs has reached emergency proportions, according to the UN.

Although international aid reached its highest level ever in 2008, there remain large gaps in meeting existing and long-standing commitments. Much international aid has been directed to Iraq and Afghanistan, while aid to Africa lags far behind commitments and need (United Nations, 2010).

Obstacles: The global recession—the worst since the Great Depression—has reversed development gains in many developing countries and threatens to undermine the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

References

United Nations, General Assembly. (2010). Keeping the promise: a forward-looking review to promote an agreed action agenda to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 (10-23802). 

msnbc.com. (2010). Battle against extreme hunger is falling short.

World Health Organization. (2009). 10 facts on malaria.

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation. (2010).

UNAIDS. (2008). Media Kit: 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic. 

Childinfo. (2010). Statistics by area/child survival and health.