Half-way There and Time to Pick up the Pace

A UN report (pdf) was released today on the world’s progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. The report highlighted considerable gains: of note is an increase in enrollment in primary education from 80% in 1991 to 88% in 2005, with much of that progress made since 1999. However, the report notes that the number of people dying from AIDS is still on the rise, at a staggering 2.9 million people worldwide in 2006. Says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, “The world wants no new promises. It is imperative that all stakeholders meet, in their entirety, the commitments already made in the Millennium Declaration…The MDGs are still achievable if we act now.”

For the nitty-gritty, here is an excellent summary provided by our partner organanization DATA (www.data.org):

The MDGs in 2007: Global and African Progress

1. Poverty and Hunger
Global: The proportion of people living in extreme poverty (earning $1 a day or less) fell from 31.6% to 19.2% between 1990 and 2004. If this trend is sustained, the MDG poverty reduction target will be met for the world as a whole and for most regions.

Africa: The proportion of people living in extreme poverty has declined from 45.9% to 41.1% since 1999, but reaching the MDG target (to halve the extent of extreme poverty by 2015) requires that the current pace is nearly doubled.

2. Education
Global: Progress has been made in getting more children into school in the developing world. Enrollment in primary education grew from 80% in 1991 to 88% in 2005.

Africa: Enrollment has increased from 57% in 1999 to 70% in 2005, but a gap of 30% remains and the number of school-age children is increasing daily.

3. Gender Equality
Global: Women’s political participation has been growing slowly. Even in countries where previously only men were allowed to stand for political election, women now have a seat in parliament.

Africa: Although the share of parliamentary seats held by women has increased from 7% in 1990 to 17% in 2006, the share of women who earn a salary aside from farming still stood at less than one-third in 2005.

4. Child Mortality
Global: Child mortality rates have declined from 106 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 83 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005. It is becoming clear that the right life-saving interventions are proving effective in reducing the number of deaths due to the main child killers such as measles.

Africa: Under-five mortality rates dropped from 185 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 166 per 1,000 live births in 2005. This change barely makes a dent in the objective of a two-thirds reduction by 2015 and the region’s child mortality rate is still twice that of the developing world as a whole.

5. Maternal Health
Global: Over half a million women still die each year from treatable and preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

Africa: The odds that a sub-Saharan African woman will die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth during her life are 1 in 16, compared to 1 in 3,800 in the developed world.

6. HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases
Global: The number of people dying from AIDS worldwide increased from 2.2 million in 2001 to 2.9 million in 2006, and prevention measures are failing to keep pace with the growth of the epidemic. Key interventions to control malaria have been expanded. The tuberculosis epidemic appears on the verge of decline, although progress is not fast enough to halve prevalence and death rates by 2015.

Africa: The number of people dying from AIDS continues to mount, reaching 2 million in 2006. Although prevalence rates have leveled off, the number of new cases, especially among women, and the number of people with advanced HIV infection continues to grow and is rising faster than treatment services are being scaled up. There is no evidence that the very high rate of new TB cases in sub-Saharan Africa is starting to level off.

7. Environmental Sustainability
Global: Half the population of the developing world lacks basic sanitation. In order to meet the MDG target, an additional 1.6 billion people will need access to improved sanitation over the period 2005-2015. If trends since 1990 continue, the world is likely to miss the target by almost 600 million people.

Africa: Only 42% of people in rural areas have access to clean water (according to the latest 2004 data) and 63% of the entire African population lacks access to basic sanitation facilities (down only barely from 68 % in 1990 and far from the target of cutting this portion in half by 2015).

8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Global: Global aid levels are decreasing, making it more difficult for programs that work to be scaled up. Debt relief is being implemented in 22 of the 40 Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) with several other countries going through the process. However improvements are still needed in poor countries’ access to export markets, opportunities to earn a living through trade, and access to new technologies.

Africa: More and better aid is needed in Africa in order to address the continent’s development challenges, including a scale-up of funding for programs that help Africa to export. This assistance should also be provided in a predictable manner in order to allow African countries to plan and execute development strategies.

African Success Stories: Despite the fact that much remains to be done, there is some good news. Impressive results have been achieved in some specific African countries and sectors. For example, agricultural productivity has increased in Malawi, primary school enrollment has improved in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the spread of malaria is being controlled in Niger, Togo, Zambia, and Zanzibar, there is greater access to basic rural health services in Zambia, reforestation is underway in Niger, and access to clean water and sanitation has increased in Senegal and Uganda.

These practical successes demonstrate the importance of replicating and scaling up programs that work in Africa. With support from the United Nations, many developing countries – particularly in Africa – have advanced in preparing strategies to achieve the MDGs. As of mid-2007, 41 countries in sub-Saharan Africa had started the process of preparing national development strategies aligned with the MDGs and other development goals agreed upon through the United Nations. This coordination, in conjunction with funding for programs that can help African countries to prioritize the achievement of the MDGs will be essential to making progress toward meeting these targets by 2015.

Links

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf

Africa and the Millennium Development Goals (2007 Update)
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/docs/MDGafrica07.pdf

Millennium Development Goals: 2007 Progress Chart
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007-progress.pdf