The MillenniumDevelopment Goals

Post Graduate Diploma in Development Evaluation, UCU,

September 2012

Topic Outline

1. Introduction2. Background to the MDGs3. The MDGs4. MDG,s and Health5. Progress on the health related MDG’s6. Resources for Updates

Introduction

• The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)• Setting the development agenda “a

framework for the entire UN system to work coherently towards a common end”• developed in consultation with developing

countries• reflecting the multi-dimensional nature of

development

2. Background to the MDGs

September 2000 – UN Millennium Summit World leaders – 140 signed up to set of time bound and measurable goals and targets for combating• poverty• Hunger• disease• illiteracy• environmental degradation• discrimination against women• 8 Goals and 18 Targets

3. The MDGs

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and• hunger• Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the• proportion of people whose income is less

than• $1 a day.• Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the• proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Exercise

1. Discuss the rationale of the MDG’s 2. Identify weaknesses' of the MDG framework

and argument3. Review the frame work while making

suggestions

• 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 of primary schooling.• 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

• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality• Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990• and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.

• Goal 5: Improve maternal health• Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between• 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.

• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other• diseases• Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to• reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.• Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to• reverse the incidence of malaria and other

major• diseases.

• Target 14: Address the special needs of• landlocked countries and small island developing• states.• 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• Target 16: In cooperation with developing• countries, develop and implement strategies for• decent and productive work for youth.

• Target 17: In cooperation with pharmaceutical• companies, provide access to affordable

essential• drugs in developing countries.• Target 18: In cooperation with the private

sector,• make available the benefits of new

technologies,• especially information and communications• technologies.

MDGS AND HEALTH

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which emerged from the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, is increasingly recognized as the over-arching development framework.

Exercise

• Discuss the opportunities and challenges for health in the MDG’s

Opportunities for health in the MDG’s

1. They provide a common set of priorities on how to tackle poverty.

• This unprecedented level of agreement between national governments,

• international agencies • and the United Nations system• helps to ensure that the needs of poor people

remain at the top of the development agenda.

2. Health is at the heart of the MDG’s , with the recognition that better health is central to the global agenda of reducing poverty as well as an important measure of human well-being in its own right.

3. They set quantifiable and ambitious targets against which to measure progress. • These provide an indication of whether efforts to

improve health are on track, • and a means of holding decision-makers to account.

4. It’s possible to calculate what it would probably cost to achieve the MDG, • and this, in turn, draws attention to the

massive funding gap between what is available and what is needed.

5. The eighth goal calls for a global partnership for development,• recognizing that there are certain actions rich

countries must take if poor countries are to achieve goals 1 to 7

Challenges for health in the MDG’s 1. The need to strengthen health systems. • Without more efficient and equitable health

systems, • countries will not be able to scale up the

programmes for disease prevention and control that are required to meet the specific health goals — of reducing child and maternal mortality and rolling back HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and

• 2. health is prioritized within overall development and economic policies.

• This means looking beyond the health system and addressing the broad determinants of ill health — low levels of education,

• poverty, • unequal gender relations, • high-risk behaviours, • and an unhealthy environment — • as well as raising the profile of health within

national processes for poverty reduction and government reform.

3. To develop health strategies that respond to the diverse and evolving needs of countries. • The MDG indicate desirable outcomes in

terms of overall improvements in human wellbeing.

• This means designing cost-effective strategies to address those diseases and conditions that account for the greatest share of the burden of disease, now and in the future.

4. To mobilize more resources for health in poor countries. Currently, low-income countries cannot ‘afford’ the MDG and aid is not filling the gap. • There has been a sharp increase in

development, however there is still a big funding gap for the developing world to achieve their targets

• The United Nations Millennium Project recently estimated that meeting all the MDG would require an estimated U.S.$135,000 million of official development assistance in 2006, rising to U.S.$195,000 million by 2015.

• To improve the quality of health data in order

to measure each country’s progress towards the MDG.

• At a global level, the demonstration of progress can help to generate further resources and sustain political momentum for health-sector investment.

• At country level, reliable information can help ensure that polices are correctly orientated and targeted at those most in need.

Progress on the health related MDG’s

Exercise

• Compare Uganda’s progress to other countries in the same region

Resources

• Annual updates• UN• www.un.org/millenniumgoals• Progress Chart:• http://mdgs.un.org• Cyber SchoolBus• http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus