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The world is becoming global village and one after the other initiatives are being taken that indicates that the world wants to become one. After the establishment of WTO another landmark decision was taken by the world community. At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time bound targets, with a deadline of 2015 that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions- income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights the nights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.
The MDGs represent a global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s. Responding to the worlds main development challenges and to the calls of civil society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction, education, material health, gender equality, and aim at combating child morality AIDS and other diseases.
Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are an agreed set of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part. Poor countries have pledged to govern better and invest in their people through health care and education. Rich countries have pledge to support them, through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade.
"Looking ahead to 2015 and beyond, there is no question that we can achieve the overarching goal: we can put an end to poverty. In almost all instances, experience has demonstrated the validity of earlier agreements on the way forward in other words, we know what to do. But it requires an unswerving collective, long-term effort". United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The internationally agreed framework of goals and 13 targets was complemented by 48 technical indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
These indicators have since been adopted by
a consensus of experts from the United Nations, IMF, OECD and the World Bank.
Goal 1. Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Goal 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
Goal 3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Goal 4. Reduce Child Mortality
Goal 5. Improve Maternal Health
Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
Goal 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Goal 8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
Indicators
1. Proportion of population below $1 (1993 PPP) per day (World Bank)
2. Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty (World Bank)
3. Share of poorest quintile in national consumption (World Bank)
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Indicators
4. Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age (UNICEF-WHO)
5. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary cnergy consumption (FAO)
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course Indicators of primary schooling
Indicators
6. Net enrolment ratio primary education (UNESCO)
7. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 (UNESCO)
8. Literacy rate of 15-24 year olds (UNESCO)
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005,
and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
9. Ratio of girls to be in primary secondary and tertiary education (UNESCO)
10. Ratio of literate women to men, 15-24 years old (UNESCO)
11. Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector (ILO)
12. Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament (IPU)
Goal4: Reduce Child Mortality
Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
Indicators
13. Under five mortality rate (UNICEF WHO)
14. Infant mortality rate UNICEF WHO)
15. Proportion of 1 year old children immunized against measles UNICEF.WHO)
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Target 6 : Reduce by three quarter, between 1999 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Indicators
16. Maternal mortality ratio UNICEA WHO
17. Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel (UNICEF.WHO)
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
Target 7. Have halted by 2015 and began to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
Indicators
18. HTV prevalence among pregnant women aged 15-94 years (UNAIDS WHO UNICEF
19. Condom use rate of the contraceptive prevalence rale (UN Population Division)
19a. Condom use at last high-risk sex (UNICEF-WHO)
19b. Percentage of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
(UNICEF.
19c. Contraceptive prevalence rate (UN Population Division)
20. Ratio of School attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years
(UNICEF- UNAID-WHO)
Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Indicators
21. Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria (WHO)
22. Proportion of population in malaria-risk areas using effective malaria prevention and
treatment measures (UNICEF - WHO)
23. Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis (WHO)
24. Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Internationally recommended TB
control strategy) WHO
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Target 9 Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse
the loss of environmental resources
Indicators
25. Proportion of land area covered by forest (FAO)
26 Ratio of area protected to maintain biological diversity to surface area (UNENP- WCMC)
27. Energy use ( kg oil equivalent) per $1 GDP (PPP), (IEA World Bank)
28. Carbon dioxide emissions per capita (UNFOCC, UNSD) and consumption of ozone-depleting CFCS
(ODP tons) (UNEP-Ozone Secretariat)
29 Proportion of population using solid fuels (WHO) sanitation
Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
and basic sanitation
Indicators
30 Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
(UNICEF-WHO)
31. Proportion of population with access to improved sanitation, urban and rural (UNICEF.WHO)
Target 11: Halve achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum
Dwellers
Indicators
32. Proportion of households with access to secure tenure (UN HABITATI)
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Target 12: Develop further an open, rule-based. predictable, non-discriminatory
trading and finally system (includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction both nationally and internationally)
Target 13: Address the special needs of the least Developed Countries (includes tariff and quota free access for debt and cancellation of official bilateral debt, and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction).
Target14: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing states (through the Program of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and 22nd General Assembly provisions)
Target 15 Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
Indicators
Official development assistance (ODA)
33. Net ODA, total and to LDCs, percentage of OECD/Development Assistance Committee (DAC donors gross national income (GNI) (OECD)
34. Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation (OECD)
35. Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied (OECD).
36. ODA received in landlocked developing countries as proportion of their GNIs (OECD)
37. ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their GNIs OECD)
Market access
38. Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duty (UNCTAD, WTO, WB)
39 Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries (UNCTAD, WTO, WB)
40. Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries OECD) Debt sustainability
41. Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity (OECD,WTO)
42. Total number of countries that have reached their Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) decision points and number tat have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative) IMF-World Bank)
43. Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative (IMF World Bank)
44. Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services (IMF-World Bank)
Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed countries, Africa, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states
Target 16 In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
Indicators
45. Unemployment rate of young people aged 15-24 years, each sex and total (ILO)
Target 17: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
Indicators
46. Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis (WHO)
Target 18 In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies.
Indicators
47. Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population (ITU)
48. Personal computers in use per 100 population and Internet users per 100 population (ITU)
UNDP is working with a wide range of partners to help create coalitions for change to support the goals at global, regional and national levels, to benchmark progress towards them, and to help countries to build the institutional capacity, policies and programmes needed to achieve the MDGs.
Guided by the UN Core Strategy UNDP work on the MDGs focuses on coordinating global local efforts that:
Campaign and mobilise for the MDGs through advocacy
• Share the best strategy for meeting the MDG in term of innovation practices, policy and institutional reforms, means of policy implementation, and evaluation of financing options
Monitor and report progress towards the MDGs and
• Support governments in tailoring the MDGs to local circumstances and challenges
Progress towards the Millennium Developer Goals (MDGs) too slow in many parts of the world. The crisis is most severe in Sub- Saharan Africa where, despite some success such as increased primary school enrolment, the majority of countries are not on track to achieving the MDGs.
At goal level, progress has been made but the gains are uneven. Small island developing states and landlocked developing countries face sever challenges, while high rates of inequality in many middle-income countries mean that entire regions or social groups will be left behind.
The year 2009, marked the crossing of half-way point of the MDGs. Yet crucial development policies and finance are not systematically aligned with the MDGS. As part of its poverty reduction mandate, UNDP is working to bridge this gap.
MG Support, established in 2006, is designed to quickly mobilise technical support from across UNDP the UN System to help developing country governments achieve the MDGs. The successor of Jeffrey Sachs's UN Millennium project, MDG Support works with countries by Invitation, helping to prepare and implement national development strategies that are bold enough to achieve the MDGs. However, without adequate financing these plans are either viable or realistic. By itself, the long-standing commitment by the developed world to contribute just 70 percents of every $100 eared to official development assistance would generate enough funding to implement national strategies capable of achieving the MDG.
It is encouraging that European Union countries have now committed to reaching the 0.7 target by 2015 that the group of Eight Countries have now pledged to double development assistance to Africa by 2010, bringing the figure to $50 billion. However, all donor countries urgently need to fulfil their commitment to existing pledges.
For this war, MDG Support works with a broad range of actors, aero the UN system as well as with the International Financial Institutions, to generate more and better support for countries national plans to hit the MDGs. targets. It works to improve the tools and methodologies available to train staff and government officials, and to strengthen way of sharing knowledge and experiences.
The burgeoning financial crisis that came to a dramatic head in September 2008 after more than a year of volatile food energy and commodity prices compounded a series shocks already being felt around the world. As daily headlines chart the ups and downs of stock prices and the chronicle failures financial institutions and industrial giants, the international community must reflect on what is at stake for the millions in developing countries who had benefited from the one growth of the past decade. It must also assess the plight of the poor, who did not reap the benefits of this global growth. We cannot afford to run the risk of further reversing progress towards achieving the MDGs, eight development goals agreed upon by the world’s leaders to halve extreme poverty by 2015. As UN Secretary -General Ban Ki-moon stated, ensuring that aid to the poorest countries will be crucial in preventing the economic crisis from becoming a crisis of human development and security. April 2009 saw the wind up of the much anticipated G20 London Summit, where leaders reaffirmed previous commitment to increase and helps countries achieve the MDGs. They also committed significant new resources for the International Monetary and the World Bank, and promised to make resources available for social protection, investments in long-term food security and addressing the threat of irreversible climate change the time has arrived for the International community to live up to the commitments made to documented in the latest 2009 UN report on these goals.
Despite so much of effort to develop humanity as a whole on this planet earth, all the development goals are coming from the physical plane. The spiritual development is still to be understood by the world leaders as a worthy goal to be achieved by humanity although we all are born to achieve the same. This is the main reason why most of the people including great scientists have not been able to cross the barrier of 500 points on a 1000 point scale of consciousness developed by David Hawkins. If the humanity wants to achieve the real goal of life, which may appear to be subtle to many, then we need to balance the goals of the physical world and the spiritual world.
The Tenth International Conference is scheduled to be held from June 23 - 26, 2009 at Szent István University Gödöllo, Hungary on the main theme U.N. Millennium Development Goals: Challenges and Perspectives. The Conference has been organised to deliberate upon the important dimensions which the world is encountering.
- Ajay Kr. Singh