|
Millennium development goals: Are we on track?
June 20, 2007In April 2007, the General Assembly of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations convened to discuss progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Patrick Webb, PhD, dean for academic affairs at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, presented on the status of the Millennium Development Goal One (MDG1): radically reducing extreme poverty and hunger.
The MDGs were developed at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 to set measurable goals and targets for a range of pressing global problems, including poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. MDG1 has a twofold objective: reduce the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day, and reduce the proportion of people suffering hunger by half. In order to meet these goals, Webb highlighted recent successes that can guide future efforts.
There are three priority issues to be tackled in seeking to address the second objective (on hunger) - removing the 'invisibility' of hunger by better measuring and highlighting areas making limited progress, promoting innovations in programming, and integrating mainstream lessons from successful action in humanitarian settings (saving lives and reducing acute malnutrition) into development interventions. Development efforts can address these issues by improving protocols and products for treating malnutrition, and preventing malnutrition by enhancing behaviors and choices that lead to improved nutrition throughout the lifecycle.
Poverty and hunger are multidimensional problems requiring multidimensional solutions. To address the multidimensional nature of these problems, the first MDG addresses five distinct goals: reducing poverty, narrowing the poverty gap (between richest and poorest), increasing the share of income enjoyed by the poorest families, reducing the share of preschool children who are underweight, and lowering the share of each country's population that has too little to eat. "Progress in one target area does not guarantee progress in the other areas," says Webb. "Focusing on just one aspect of the problem, or just one of the target risks, is missing the point-and risks compromising the success of the entire agenda."
Speaking on behalf of the three Rome-based agencies of the United Nations (the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)), Webb argued that governments should engage more seriously in measuring their own progress towards agreed goals. Solutions to hunger are known, and novel approaches to the treatment and prevention of malnutrition in emergencies have shown that quick gains are possible. Making such gains sustainable means scaling up innovations across developing country settings, and targeting resources towards such key priorities.
This meeting of Member States, UN System Organizations, other major institutional stakeholders, as well as non-governmental organizations, academics and foundations concentrated on the theme "Eradicating poverty and hunger - Joining forces to make it happen." The conference explored the issues and set the groundwork for the ECOSOC's first Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) this summer in Switzerland. Webb concluded by stating that "-in order to successfully impact malnutrition it takes complementary inputs delivered through complementary partnerships. It is not only about food, and it is not only about cash in the pocket. Many different elements are needed to achieve the five goals, and many institutions have to bring their resources to bear. In order to tackle the problem it is not possible to focus on just agriculture or just health; in order to be successful the many facets of the problem must all be addressed."
Webb will continue to work with the many stakeholders involved in assessing progress and further advancing the important human goals that are the MDGs.
Tufts University, Health Sciences
Poverty and hunger are multidimensional problems requiring multidimensional solutions. To address the multidimensional nature of these problems, the first MDG addresses five distinct goals: reducing poverty, narrowing the poverty gap (between richest and poorest), increasing the share of income enjoyed by the poorest families, reducing the share of preschool children who are underweight, and lowering the share of each country's population that has too little to eat. "Progress in one target area does not guarantee progress in the other areas," says Webb. "Focusing on just one aspect of the problem, or just one of the target risks, is missing the point-and risks compromising the success of the entire agenda."
Speaking on behalf of the three Rome-based agencies of the United Nations (the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)), Webb argued that governments should engage more seriously in measuring their own progress towards agreed goals. Solutions to hunger are known, and novel approaches to the treatment and prevention of malnutrition in emergencies have shown that quick gains are possible. Making such gains sustainable means scaling up innovations across developing country settings, and targeting resources towards such key priorities.
This meeting of Member States, UN System Organizations, other major institutional stakeholders, as well as non-governmental organizations, academics and foundations concentrated on the theme "Eradicating poverty and hunger - Joining forces to make it happen." The conference explored the issues and set the groundwork for the ECOSOC's first Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) this summer in Switzerland. Webb concluded by stating that "-in order to successfully impact malnutrition it takes complementary inputs delivered through complementary partnerships. It is not only about food, and it is not only about cash in the pocket. Many different elements are needed to achieve the five goals, and many institutions have to bring their resources to bear. In order to tackle the problem it is not possible to focus on just agriculture or just health; in order to be successful the many facets of the problem must all be addressed."
Webb will continue to work with the many stakeholders involved in assessing progress and further advancing the important human goals that are the MDGs.
Tufts University, Health Sciences
Millennium Development News and Current Millennium Development Events RSSMalaria Millennium Development Goal 'unlikely to be met'
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria globally is unlikely to be met, according to Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow Professor Bob Snow.
Safe water? Lessons from Kazakhstan
Despite significant efforts to improve access to safe water and sanitation, a new report co-authored by an expert at The University of Nottingham, argues that much more needs to be done.
Huge proportion of maternal deaths worldwide are preventable
A study published in PLoS Medicine this week suggests that of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa, more may die from treatable infectious diseases than from conditions directly linked to pregnancy.
New study supports action to tackle poor sanitation in developing countries
Improvements in sanitation and sewerage systems can have a dramatic effect on reducing cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases, research has shown.
Global effort to provide poorest with basic sanitation slow going
Worldwide, billions of people lack access to a reliable source of safe drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. To address the problem, the United Nations established the Target 10 initiative, which aims to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
Researchers address developing countries' water and sanitation needs
Worldwide, more than one billion people lack access to an improved water source, such as a rainwater collection or dug well, and two billion still need access to basic sanitation facilities, such as a latrine.
Rural students lag behind in sub-Saharan Africa
A new study in the current issue of Comparative Education Review reveals the discrepancy between the actual state of education in sub-Saharan Africa and the educational goals outlined in the United Nation's Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) programs a decade ago.
Call for global action over continued huge burden of maternal deaths in poor countries
Experts will issue a stark warning today that Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, which aims to reduce maternal deaths by 75% before 2015, will only be met with intensified commitment and a focus on effective strategies.
Include Indigenous communities in MDGs or watch them die a slow death, experts warn
We are dangerously close to killing off the world's Indigenous populations, and losing forever the invaluable knowledge these communities have about medicines and the ecosystem.
Experts urge industry and international donors to prepare pneumococcal vaccines
In today's online edition of The Lancet, a group of leading global health experts have come together to call for vaccine manufacturers and international donors to negotiate affordable pricing of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and for governments of developing world countries and their partners to establish disease surveillance networks and begin preparations for pneumococcal vaccine introduction.
More Millennium Development News Articles
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |