...Question: Using three (3) Millennium Development Goals discuss how a country can achieve sustainable development Introduction The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states at the time (there are 193 currently) and at least 23 international organizations committed to help achieve the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015: 1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. To achieve universal primary education 3. To promote gender equality and empower women 4. To reduce child mortality 5. To improve maternal health 6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases 7. To ensure environmental sustainability 8. To develop a global partnership for development The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) gives governments a common framework for structuring policies and practices. The MDGs highlight the key priority areas of focus for development and also outlines the roles and responsibilities of key government actors. MDGs provide a framework for government planning, budgeting and monitoring development initiatives. The MGDs can also be used as a tool by the government to measure progress they have achieved in improving the livelihood of its citizens. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the...
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...Millennium Development Goals Introduction: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for development. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. The MDGs also provide a framework for the entire international community to work together towards a common end – making sure that human development reaches everyone, everywhere. If these goals are achieved, world poverty will be cut by half, tens of millions of lives will be saved, and billions more people will have the opportunity to benefit from the global economy. Background: The aim of the MDGs is to encourage development by improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries. They derive from earlier international development targets, and were officially established following the Millennium Summit in 2000, where all world leaders present adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The Millennium Summit was presented with the report of the Secretary-General entitled ‘We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century’. Additional input was prepared by the Millennium Forum...
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...The concept of gender has become a debatable issue in the contemporary society and an important dimension in the design and analysis of social and economic development policies. These development concerns have brought about gender issues at the forefront of national and international agenda. During the 1990's, the gender issue continued to follow the historical trend by being one of the most popular themes of debates. The Human Development Report, (1995) posits that the number of women is greater than or equal to that of men, in today's society, yet females are still considered as a minority segment of the population. As a measure to redress gender inequalities, approaches by feminist movements, such as Women in Development (WID), were crafted but not much was achieved. Later, it was Women and Development (WAD) and lastly Gender and Development (GAD). It seems deep-rooted gender inequality still exists globally, despite substantial national and international measures that have been taken towards gender equality. This essay deliberates on the assertion that, “Gender equality is debatable: what is undebatable is the attempt to make it universally applicable.” The writer agrees to a greater extent that gender equality is a controversial issue basing on the multiplicity of societies that it is applied to. The fact that there is no universal culture, universal religion or universal ideology makes the whole issue arguable, ence, the need to degenderise gender. Definition...
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...Examine the problems of defining and measuring development Sociologists have been divided on the issue of defining and measuring development. Development can be measured in many ways. For example, the Gross Domestic Product, the Human Development Index, the Quality of Life Index, the Gross National Happiness Index and the Millennium Development Goals. Development is also defined in many ways, for example the three world theory, the northern and southern hemisphere and the economically developed countries. Gross Domestic Product (GPD) is a way of measuring development which focuses on economic growth. GDP is the total value of all goods and services the country produces. A high GDP indicates a productive economy, where wealth will filter down to improve standard of life for society. However, critics note that this does not account for the distribution of wealth within a country so wealth could be concentrated in the elite groups oppose to being equally issued. Furthermore, the approach is based on Western capitalist ideologies that see wealth as synonymous with the well-being, ignoring the potential negative effects of rapid and unrestricted accumulation of profit. The data can be unreliable which would make it incomparable between countries. Another way in which to measure development is Human Development Index (HDI). This is a combination of scores of education, wealth and life expectancy between 0 (least developed) and 1 (most developed). The HDI is not completely comprehensive...
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...To what extent have the Millennium Development Goals been a success? by Name Presented to: Instructor Course Institution City Date Introduction The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide a comprehensive framework through which the society can address pressing issues of poverty. The MDGs are made up of eight major objectives, which are all related to global development. In 2000, 189 world leaders signed a Millennium Declaration. The leaders set 2015 as the deadline for achieving the set MDGs. There has been a mixed result of the progress towards attaining these goals. One of the major achievements has been achieved is that there has been a major reduction of people living in extreme poverty. Accordingly, the proportion of poverty fell to less than one fifth from nearly a third between 1990 and 2004. However, the results are not consistent throughout the world. For instance, the sub-Saharan Africa has not been able to meet any of the set targets. On the contrary, there has been a significant economic growth in some parts of Asia, especially, the Eastern part. The following is a summary of the progress that has been made so far based on the 2007 Millennium Goals Report. Extreme Poverty The percentage of people living in extreme poverty fell to 19% in 2004 from nearly a third in 2004. If this trend can continue for a long time, there is likelihood that the MDG will meet its target of halving those living on less than 1 dollar per day...
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...Economic Commission for Africa The Millennium Development Goals in Africa: Progress and Challenges Economic Commission for Africa The Millennium Development Goals in Africa: Progress and Challenges August 2005 © 2005. Economic Commission for Africa Material from this publication may be freely quoted or reprinted. Acknowledgment is requested, together with a copy of the publication. The views expressed are those of the original authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations. Project coordinator: Adrian Gauci Editorial coordination: Cristina Müller Team: Abebe Shimeles, Workie Mitiku, Vanessa Steinmayer, Reto Thoenen This report was produced with guidance and input from Augustin Fosu, Director of the Economic and Social Policy Division of the ECA. It benefited greatly from the revisions of Bartholomew Armah and Kwabia Boateng. Special thanks to Lorna Davidson for the final editing, to Akwe Amosu for her valuable input, and to Seifu Dagnachew and Teshome Yohannes for creative and efficient lay-out and production. The report was designed by the ECA Communication Team and printed by the Documents Reproduction and Distribution Unit, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo credits (left to right): Front cover- R. Zurba/USAID, J. Dunlop/USAID, R. Zurba/USAID, M. Crozet/ILO. Back cover- J. Maillard/ILO, T. Brunette/USAID, I. Getachew/UNICEF. Table of Contents Acronyms .....................................................................
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...Making gender equality a reality The history of the world serves as a testimony that, in the days of yore, men were considered as the bread-winners and women as the nest-builders. As far as women were concerned, they were entrusted the responsibility to transform the brick-made house into a love-made home. The men had only to support the family financially. In fact, the women were stigmatised as homely-made furniture in the eyes of men. Unfortunately, this patriarchal trend still prevails in this so-called revolutionized world, where women are, once again, characterized as inferior. If the world has really undergone a revolution, then why this corrupt attitude towards women has not yet changed? However, the law has as its main motive to preserve and promote human rights, and gender equality is the crux of those rights. Gender equality does not only stand as a process of equal valuing of the roles of women and men, but more precisely, as a practice to overcome the obstacles of prejudices so that both sexes are subject to the economic, social, cultural and political developments of the society. It simply aims at equal perception, equal empowerment and equal responsibility in all spheres of life. One can be surely flabbergasted to acknowledge that achieving gender equality necessitates the presence of men; those men, because of whom, the word gender...
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...Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals in Practice: A review of country strategies and reporting UNITED NATIONS Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals in Practice: A review of country strategies and reporting UNITED NATIONS New York and Geneva, 2010 Note The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document. HR/PUB/10/1 © 2010 United Nations All worldwide rights reserved Credits Photographs: Goal 1: photo by Adam Rogers/UNCDF; Goal 2: © International Labour Organization/ G. Cabrera; Goal 3: photo by Adam Rogers/UNCDF; Goal 4: © UNICEF Armenia/2007/Igor Dashevskiy; Goal 5: © International Labour Organization/E. Gianotti; Goal 6: © World Lung Foundation/ Thierry Falise; Goal 7: © International Labour Organization/M. Crozet; Goal 8: © International Labour Organization/M. Crozet. About the publication This publication builds on a series of country and thematic background studies commissioned for the regional “Dialogues for Action: Human Rights and MDGs”, which took place in...
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...advantage of existing state structures. The result among the population, to generalize blatantly, has been a widespread disillusionment with government brought about by the lack of political accountability. Centralized governments serving ideologies or the whims of dictators have free reign and rarely take the interests of the general public into account. Hence the natural state is for people to distrust government, knowing that they have no power to influence it. These centralized governments that are not accountable to their populations have a very negative impact on their societies. They are likely to pursue unsustainable budget policies, ignore the social and economic interests of minority groups, and fail to provide adequate public education...
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...In 2000, the United Nations introduced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The MDGs were established to attempt to improve overall well-being for as many people as possible, and targets issues such as poverty, starvation, and disease. This paper will focus on the development goal of achieving universal primary education, specifically focusing on the country of Ethiopia. Achieving universal primary education is important because it acts as a building block towards the development of counties as a whole. Primary education is not only a necessity, but a right to all individuals regardless of gender or class. Over the course of the last decade, Ethiopia has experienced vast improvements in its education system. In 2005, the net enrollment ratio in Ethiopia was 77.5% for grades 1-4 and 37.6% for grades 5-8. Since then, enrollment has increased to 92.2% for grades 1-4 and 48.1% for grades 5-8 (UNDP). With the aid of the United Nations and other groups, Ethiopia has been making progress towards achieving primary education throughout the country; however, there is a necessity for a final push in completing this development goal. One of the largest obstacles that Ethiopia had towards achieving nation-wide primary education was the fact that the schools had fees. With a poverty rate of about 30% (UNDP), this created a problem for a large portion of Ethiopia’s population eligible for schooling, as they simply could not afford to...
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...The Gender Gap Team A Lori Iles, Nathan Casteel, and Sami Toa SOC/100 October 06, 2011 Carla Bolden The Gender Gap “Of all the ways that one group has systematically mistreated another, none is more deeply rooted than the way men have subordinated women.” “All other discriminations pale by contrast.” (Wolf.1994) When Alan Wolfe penned these words, he was surely speaking about the atrocities that have occurred and continue to occur to women all over the world. Women have been beaten, raped, killed, mutilated, imprisoned, abused, enslaved, and forced to endure subhuman standards to claim dominance and control over them. Women have certainly bore the brunt of this power struggle with the opposite sex and have even been willing to die as the only means to their personal freedom. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, and grandmothers who united are the larger portion of society, yet are rarely acknowledged for their vital contributions. Much of their work goes unnoticed and unpaid. Despite international laws guaranteeing women the same rights as men, women around the world are denied their rights to land and property, financial resources, employment, and education, among others necessities. (weforum.org) Men hold the majority of power positions and decision power within the authorative sphere of public office. Often, the result of those decisions initiates policy that tends to reflect the needs and preferences of men, not women. Woman have an insufficient ratio of representation...
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...Own the Goals What the Millennium Development Goals Have Accomplished By John W. McArthur For more than a decade, the Millennium Development Goals -- a set of time-bound targets agreed on by heads of state in 2000 -- have unified, galvanized, and expanded efforts to help the world's poorest people. The overarching vision of cutting the amount of extreme poverty worldwide in half by 2015, anchored in a series of specific goals, has drawn attention and resources to otherwise forgotten issues. The MDGs have mobilized government and business leaders to donate tens of billions of dollars to life-saving tools, such as antiretroviral drugs and modern mosquito nets. The goals have promoted cooperation among public, private, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), providing a common language and bringing together disparate actors. In his 2008 address to the UN General Assembly, the philanthropist Bill Gates called the goals "the best idea for focusing the world on fighting global poverty that I have ever seen." The goals will expire on December 31, 2015, and the debate over what should come next is now in full swing. This year, a high-level UN panel, co-chaired by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will put forward its recommendations for a new agenda. The United States and other members of the UN General Assembly will then consider these recommendations, with growing powers, such as Brazil...
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...of child rights, compromising the development of girls and often resulting in premature pregnancy and social isolation. Child marriage is becoming less common overall, but the pace of change is slow. In 34 of the 55 countries with comparable data from two recent surveys, there has been no significant change in the percentage of women aged 20–24 married by 18 – and only 5 countries experienced a decrease of more than 10 per cent. Questions Introduction: Child marriage refers to any marriage of a child younger than 18 years old (18 is the recognised age of adulthood according to the Article 1 of the Convention on the Right of the Child. While child marriage affects both sexes, girls are disproportionately affected as they are the majority of the victims. Their overall development is compromised, leaving them socially isolated with little education, skills and opportunities for employment and self-realisation. This leaves child brides more vulnerable to poverty, a consequence of child marriage as well as a cause Child marriage is now widely recognised as a violation of children's rights, a direct form of discrimination against the girl child who as a result of the practice is often deprived of her basic rights to health, education, development and equality. Tradition, religion and poverty continue to fuel the practice of child marriage, despite its strong association with adverse reproductive health outcomes and the lack of education of girls. Where child marriage...
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...NIGERIA MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS REPORT 2010 © 2010, Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Acronyms and abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 MDGs status at a glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Goal 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Goal 2 – Achieve universal primary education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Goal 3 – Promote gender equality and empower women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Goal 5 – Improve maternal health . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the eight international development goals that were established following theMillennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states at the time (there are 193 currently), and at least 23 international organizations, committed to help achieve the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015: 1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. To achieve universal primary education 3. To promote gender equality and empower women 4. To reduce child mortality 5. To improve maternal health 6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases 7. To ensure environmental sustainability[1] 8. To develop a global partnership for development[2] 17 Sdgs 1) End poverty in all its forms everywhere * 836 million people still live in extreme poverty * About one in five persons in developing regions lives on less than $1.25 per day * The overwhelming majority of people living on less than $1.25 a day belong to two regions: Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa * High poverty rates are often found in small, fragile and conflict-affected countries * One in seven children under age five in the world has inadequate height for his or her age * Every day in 2014, 42,000 people had to abandon their homes to seek protection due to conflict * By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere...
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