Millennium Development Goals Report

Overview of the Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a linked set of objectives – a portfolio of targets that represent a coherent assault on the problem of development (Hall, 2005). It expresses the shared commitment made by the Global community to fight poverty. The MDGs was endorsed by 189 nations as international commitment to the priorities for achieving sustainable development (CGIAR, 2005). It has 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 performance indicators on poverty reduction, human well-being, social opportunities, economic conditions and a healthy natural environment. Broadly, these goals are:

 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

 Achieve universal primary education.

 Promote gender equality and empower

In 2011, an estimated 61 million children were not in school, while 6.9 million children under age five died and 274,000 maternal deaths occurred (UNICEF, 2012). The United Nations has been issuing annual reports on the progress of MDG since 2005. If a country is making progress toward a specific MDG, then it is considered “on track” or “target met” (Fanzo & Prony, 2011). Otherwise its progress is “insufficient”. There has not been uniform progress towards all the MDGs in all countries (Rassool, 2008). The World Bank estimates that about two-thirds of developing countries are on track to achieve the MDGs. More than 90% are progressing in education (MDG2) and gender equality (MDG3), 88% in access to safe water (MDG7, target 3), and between 77% and 80% in reduction of poverty and hunger (MDG1, targets 1 & 3). Nonetheless, slow progress has been observed in the case of the health-related MDG (child mortality and maternal mortality (Lozano, Wang, Foreman, Rajaratnam, Naghavi, & Marcus,

Another area of concern as noted by Oh is the post MDGs implementation periods, in other words, what become of MDGs after 2015. He argued that since MDGs focus mainly on building up infrastructure to produce more public goods, chances are that poor funding may set in after 2015, the terminal year of MDGs, at this point, he asked what becomes of successful MDGs projects. Roy (2005) appreciates the global commitment to move about 50 percent poor people in the world out of extreme poverty by 2015 through MDGs projects. However, he advocated for a more thorough approach on the ground that not just 50 percent, but 100 percent of the people living in poverty should be elevated. He explained that if we still had 40 percent or 50 percent of humanity struggling to subsist at between one and two dollars a day, then we needs a deeper approach to fighting poverty. He equally observed that MDGs pay little or no significant attention to poverty in the urban economy, he is of the opinion that the MDGs should focus as well on provision of decent employment in the productive sector for urban dwellers. He advocated for restructuring of the tax system which he described as being regressive currently based on