Millennium Development Goals

Dr. Md. Nazmul Hasan Assistant Professor & Head Dept. of Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics Update Dental College & Hospital Dhaka-1711 Bangladesh.

Introduction
The Millennium Development Goals1 (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.1

Background
The aim of the Millennium Development Goals (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.

Background (contd)
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, which brought together representatives of over 1,000 nongovernmental and civil society organisations from more than 100 countries. The Forum met in May 2000 to conclude a two-year consultation process covering issues such as poverty eradication, environmental protection, human rights and protection of the vulnerable. The approval of the MDGs was possibly the main outcome of the Millennium Summit.1

Millennium Declaration

In 2000, 189 nations made a promise to free people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations. This pledge became the eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. In September 2010, the world recommitted itself to accelerate progress towards this goals.2

Ideas Behind the MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) originated from the Millennium Declaration produced by the United Nations . The Declaration asserts that every individual has the right to dignity, freedom, equality, a basic standard of living that includes freedom from hunger and violence, and encourages tolerance and solidarity. The Millennium Declaration was, however, only part of the origins of the MDGs. It came about from not just the UN but also the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund . The setting came about through a series of UN-led conferences in the 1990s focusing on issues such as children, nutrition, human rights, women and others.1

Where do the MDGs best fit? Select 3

1 sustainable 2 values & perceptions development 7 social justice

8 global citizenship

3 human rights

4 conflict resolution 6 interdependence

5 diversity

Eight Goals for 2015

Goal-1. Goal-2. Goal-3. Goal-4. Goal-5. Goal-6. Goal-7. Goal-8. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Achieve universal primary education Promote gender equality and empower women Reduce child mortality Improve maternal health Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Ensure environmental sustainability Develop a global partnership for development

Major progress towards Millennium Development Goals, but the most vulnerable are left behind, UN report says

Significant strides have been made towards the Millennium Development Goals, yet reaching all the goals by the 2015 deadline remains challenging, as the world's poorest are being left behind, according to the MDG Report 2011, the UN's annual progress report. "The MDGs have helped lift millions of people out of poverty, save countless children's lives and ensure that they attend school," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "At the same time, we still have a long way to go in empowering women and girls, promoting sustainable development, and protecting the most vulnerable." The statement of the Secretary-General for the launch of the UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 in Geneva on 7 July 2011.3

MDGs in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has recorded impressive feats in pulling people out of poverty, ensuring that more children, girls and boys, attend school, and have access to clean water. Considerable progress has been made in child survival rate. Bangladesh is among the 16 countries who have received UN recognition for being on track to achieve MDG4. There have been some improvements to address the countrys massive environmental challenges over the past decade as well. Out of the 52 MDG targets, Bangladesh is on track on 19 of them; and 14 of them need attention.4

Status of MDGs in Bangladesh

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger Bangladesh is well on track to achieving Goal 1 with poverty coming down to 40 percent in 2005. Also, the average annual rate of poverty reduction till 2005 has been 1.34 percent against the required 1.23 percent to meet the 2015 target. The poverty gap ratio has also decreased dramatically to 9.0 Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education While a significant 87 percent has been achieved in terms of primary school enrollment, dropout rates remain high and therefore primary school completion rate low. Progress has been made in adult literacy54 percent in 2005but additional effort is needed to reach the target.

Status of MDGs in Bangladesh (contd)

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality & Empower Women Bangladesh has achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education together with being on track with respect to percentage of women employed in agriculture sector.

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality The country is on track with regard to achieving this goal. Significant strides have been made in all three indicators and if the trend sustains, the country will meet the 2015 target well ahead of schedule.

Status of MDGs in Bangladesh (contd)

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health Although the maternal mortality ratio is on track, it remains a challenge for Bangladesh to sustain the rate given the complex socio-economic factors that affect the goal. Also, the percentage of skilled birth attendants is low. Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases Bangladesh has made some progress in combating the spread of malaria with the number of prevalence dropping from 42 cases per 100,000 in 2001 to 34 in 2005.

Status of MDGs in Bangladesh (contd)

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability While significant progress has been made in terms of access to safe drinking water and sanitary latrines in urban areas, the same remains a challenge in rural areas. Also maintaining wet-lands and bio-diversity is still a challenge.

Goal 8: Develop a Global partnership for Development Penetration of telephone lines and internet, particularly cell phone usage, has increased to a great extent but youth employment rate is still low.

Significant progress of MDGs in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made significant progress in certain areas towards achieving MDGs (millennium development goals) by 2015 that include reducing child mortality, primary schooling, and gender parity in primary and secondary level education. Bangladesh, as the country most vulnerable to the global menace of climate change, needs to get urgent support pledged by the world leaders at the Copenhagen Climate Summit and it expects to receive a 15 percent share of the fund to address the additional challenges that climate change poses to Bangladeshs MDG gains. Bangladesh Progress Report 2009 on MDGs shows that the country has also achieved remarkable progress in reducing the incidence of communicable diseases and in improving indicators on environmental changes.

Significant progress of MDGs in Bangladesh (contnd)

However, overall education sector faces significant challenges in achieving the targets which include reaching the marginal populations, ensuring survival rate to grade V, improving quality of primary education and increasing share of education in government budget.

The progress report shows that Bangladesh is on its way to achieve targeted prevalence of poverty by 2015; however, the hunger target might not be achieved due to the challenges of food security in the country.5

UNFPA and MDGs

The UN earlier appreciated Bangladesh's "noteworthy progress" in attaining MDGs saying Bangladesh had done remarkably and may well reach several of the MDG targets before the stipulated time of 2015. UNFPA was the lead agency in preparing the Bangladesh MDG progress report on goal 5 (Improving maternal health) target 6 (reduction of maternal mortality by 75% by 2015 from 1990 level) where MMR is to be reduced from current level of 320 400 to 143 by 2015. UNFPA also led the initiative to add "Access to reproductive health services for all" as an additional target and four additional indicators along with the global indicators.6

UNFPA and MDGs (contd)

The additional indicators that were added in the MDG report are:6

i. Reduction of Total Fertility Rate from 3.0 to 2.2 by 2015 ii. Reduce the proportion of maternal malnutrition by two-third by 2015 iii. Increase median age of marriage for girls by 2 years from 18 by 2010 iv. Reduce the proportion of maternal deaths caused by violence.

PM reflects Bangladesh's centrality in achieving MDGs

Prime Minister of Bangladesh on September 21, 2010 demanded pledged enhanced assistance of developed nations for developing ones as she addressed the UN MDG summit reflecting Bangladesh's centrality in the process. "Bangladesh is committed to playing a part in attaining the MDGs by 2015 (and) while the developed world is also committed to doing the same, they need to demonstrate their sincerity by helping reduce the implementation gap,"

Continued...
The premier referred to a recent report-Bangladesh prepared with UN assistance- suggesting that the country would need US $ 22.10 billion to attain all MDGs during 2009-2015 or an outlay of US $ 4.4 billion a year while a "substantial portion of this has to come from the development partners". She also reiterated her pledge towards achieving the goals in the plenary being attended by nearly 140 heads of government. "Our achievements on MDG-1 (poverty alleviation); MDG-2 (universal primary education); MDG-3 (gender equality and women empowerment); and MDG-4 (reduction of child mortality) are encouraging, and on track,"

Continued...
the Prime Minister said. Enhanced minimum dietary energy consumption, net enrollment in primary education, gender parity in primary and secondary education were other major areas where Bangladesh progressed extensively. She said outlining the targeted progress in achieving the goals within the deadline. She said Bangladesh was expected to achieve self sufficiency in food by 2021; ensure 100 percent school enrolment by 2015; eliminate gender disparity at all levels of education by 2015; enhance economic participation of women to 40 percent by 2021.

Continued...
The premier said the country also targeted to reduce maternal mortality to 15 percent and infant mortality to 15 per thousand live births by 2021; increase life expectancy to 70 years by 2021; provide safe drinking water for all by 2011 and hygienic sanitation by 2013; and achieve a "Digital Bangladesh" for global connectivity by implementing our national Policy by 2021.

Continued...
A formidable challenge confronting Bangladesh is erratic and frequently occurring natural disasters, due to global warming, "which is pushing "climate migrants" in our overburdened cities, and posing threat to our achieving MDG-1 by 2015". "Estimates indicate that a meter rise in sea level would submerge a quarter of our land mass, displacing 30 million people, and making it difficult to sustain a poverty free post 2015 era.

Conclusion
The Millennium Development Goals report, 2011 was launched in genera by the secretary general on 7 July, 2011. The report which presents the yearly assessment of global progress towards the MDGs, shows that although significant strides have been made, reaching all the MDGs by 2015 remains challenging because progress has failed to reach the most vulnerable. The report indicates what is required to ensure continued progress. New figures on child mortality show the progress made in improving child survival and decrease maternal mortality in some regions and women empowerment is increasing in some developing countries. The Millennium Development Goals are a UN initiative. The MDGs in the united Nations head-quarters in New York.8

Conclusion (contd)
Bangladesh is committed to fulfill the Millennium development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and it is imperative to understand the concept by the mass people. In June, 2005 a field survey conducted by UNDP Bangladesh communications unit shows that less than 3% people knows about the MDGs. Also, there remains considerable distance to go to achieve all of the MDGs and to assure a balanced progress of the whole nation. UN has to play a major role considering that vast majority of the people live in the rural areas and the MDGs can only be realized through local action UNDP.

Conclusion (contd)
The MDGs reflect the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that has adopted by 189 nations during the UN Millennium Summit in September, 2000. Bangladesh has recorded impressive feats in putting people out of poverty, ensuring that more children, girls and boys, attend school, and have access to clean water. Considerable progress has been made in Child survival rate. Bangladesh is among the 16 countries who have received UN recognition for being on track to achieve MDG9.

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R e fGoals (MDGs)c e : eren Millennium Development

Millennium Development Goals/UNDP www.undp.org/mdg Millennium Development Goals-United Nations

www.un.org/millenniumgoals 04. 05. MDGs in Bangladesh www.undp.org.bd/mdgs.php Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Bangladesh

www.dhakanews.info 06. Who/Millennium development goal

www.unfpamillnniumproject.org/goals 07. 08. 09. Millennium Development Goals (MDG) www.dhakanews.info Millennium Development Goals (MDG) en.wikipedia.org Millennium Development Goals-UNDP Bangladesh www.undp.org.bd

For more information: http://www.unesco.org/bsp/eng/mdg.htm

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