Common-Sense Investments Can Lead to Eradicating Poverty

Are we in danger of not meeting the Millennium Development Goals deadline?  According to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the fight for global poverty appears to be headed in the wrong direction.  Our failure seems to resonate in the lack of focus in putting people at the center of our development policies and strategies concerning economic recovery.

The fears of job loss, inability to feed their families, and access to health care are concerns, but to overcome these and many other challenges faced globally, common-sense has to come in play. Investment needs to be in the source, the people.  Continuing to ignore the voices of the poor and the youths will only deter us from ultimately achieving our goals of eradicating poverty.

An expert in extreme poverty and human rights, Magdalena Sepulveda, urged States to immediately address the growing inequalities between the rich and the poor.  "These rising inequalities have diminished social cohesion and increased insecurity and exclusion through out the world." stated in her message.  Also noted was that the poorest and most excluded are taking the hardest hits with these financial crisises, while the richest continue to prosper.  "What is required are recovery measures that are equitable, accompanied by human rights safeguards and designed from the ground up, taking into consideration the specific needs of vulnerable populations."

"As we work to avoid a global financial meltdown, we must also work to avoid a global development meltdown."

-Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations

-Georisa Chang

SOURCE: UN News

Global Poverty Rate is Dropping

The global poverty rate is falling. An annual progress report shows that the Millennium Development Goals are on track to lower poverty rates despite the recent economic set backs.

The poverty rate is expected to fall by 15% by 2015. This is a significant achievement as it is well below the 23% target that was set.

And interestingly, it is not the developed countries that are making the difference. The world remains on track due to the momentum of growth in the developing world. In fact, the number of people in developing countries that live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day) is estimated to fall below 900 million due to the growth of developing countries in the last decades.

East Asia has the record for the greatest reduction in poverty, especially China and India. In both countries the number of people living in poverty fell by 455 million between 1990 and 2005.

Despite these significant reductions in poverty, world hunger remains an issue, which is another target of the Millennium Development Goals. Access to food and high food prices has proved to be a problem for policy makers.

"We have success stories," stated Bank Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, "but achieving all the MDGs will require extra effort." Progress is not universal and the benefits are not evenly shared.

According to Ban Ki-moon, achieving the MDGs will require equitable and inclusive economic growth that reaches everyone. "World leaders must show no only that they care, but that they have the courage and conviction to act."

-Gabrielle Gurian

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Malaria Report Shows Promising Advancement in Meeting International Goals.

On December 14, 2010 the WHO issued its World Malaria Report 2010. The report shows a significant decrease in malaria burdens, particularly in African countries. Between 2000 and 2009, eleven African nations have reduced confirmed malaria cases by more than 50%. These reductions resulted in 19 million fewer malaria cases in 2009 compared to 2005, and approximately 200,000 fewer deaths compared to 2000.

According to the report, the main reason for the reductions is increased funding, which reached its highest level in 2010. As a result, more people now have higher access to mosquito nets and preventative treatment.

Substantial improvement in effectively diagnosing and treating malaria has also been made. There has been an increase of diagnostic tests administered to detect suspected malaria cases. Eleven African countries are also now able to provide antimalarial treatment for 100% of malaria cases in the public sector.

However, international funding for malaria leveled-off at 1.8 billion between 2009 and 2010. Though funding will continue to be a challenge, the significant gains are promising, and it is critical that the international community ensure funding to meet malaria control targets, including the Millennium Goals by 2015.


-Martina Georgieva

SOURCE: The WHO

The Future We'll Make: TEDxChange Photo Campaign

The Gates Foundation and TED recently collaborated to create "The Future We'll Make: Flickr Photo Campaign." This photo campaign marks the 10th anniversary of the UN's Millennium Development Goals and is also an exciting way for people from all around the world to contribute their visions for a better future. The Borgen Project staff, such as our intern Corey Cox in the above picture, are getting involved - and so should you! Just click on this link and follow the few simple steps to get started.

-Clare Ortblad

IMAGE SOURCE: Flickr

MDG Report Card

The Overseas Development Institute recently created a "Millennium Development Goals Report Card: Measuring Progress Across Countries," which ranks the countries who have made significant progress on either the first, fourth or fifth goal. The rankings are in terms of absolute progress towards the targets, meaning that countries that have improved by the largest margins (from first measurement), regardless of initial conditions. To see the full size image of this Report Card map, click here.

-Clare O.

SOURCE: GOOD Magazine

African Rice to Fight Hunger

One of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. A specific target point of this goal is to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. How will this be achieved? – you might ask.

Well, one successful project has been the New Rice for Africa (NERICA). Rice production in sub-Saharan Africa could not keep up with rapid population growth by the mid-1990s. Therefore, a hybrid between the Asian and African rice was created to resolve this problem. NERICA is a high-yielding, drought resistant and protein-rich variety that has contributed to food security and improved nutrition in several countries on the continent. The Africa Rice Center (WARDA) and its partners are the ones responsible for inventing this remarkable type of rice. NERICA is hailed as “technology from Africa for Africa.”

- Clare O.

SOURCE: MDG Monitor

Back to School Campaign in Yemen Targets 500,000 Children

A recently implemented "Back to School" campaign in Yemen is working to make education a priority, sending 500,000 Yemeni children to school. The campaign is the result of collaboration between Yemen's Ministry of Education and various international development agencies, including UNICEF, Save the Children, and CHF International.

Currently in Yemen, over one quarter of school-aged children do not attend classes regularly. This is due to a number of factors, including armed conflicts between the Yemeni government and opposition groups. This has resulted in a number of internally displaced families within Yemen.

This campaign is an important step for Yemen toward Millennium Development Goal 2, universal education for the world's children. “Education is one of the most critical contributions to peacebuilding,” said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Representative in Yemen. “Many children in Yemen have been deprived of education for too long because of the conflict, and we welcome the commitment from all sides to actively contribute to the success of this campaign.”

-Elizabeth Newton

SOURCE: UN News Centre, UNICEF Press Centre

Child Mortality: Statistics More Positive Than It Seems

With all the discussion about the Millennium Development Goals and The Global Fund Replenishment and the lack of progress, Hans Rosling breaks down the positive statistics and exposes a couple of flaws in our approach to assessing progress.

At a recent presentation, Rosling, a doctor and researcher, discussed child mortality. In this presentation he showed that progress has been made in decreasing child mortality. The MDG is a 4% reduction in child mortality per year. Many countries are meeting this goal!

However, many people have said that there is little to no progress in Africa, and the average statistics seem to confirm this. Rosling argues that this is completely false. First, he argues that it is necessary for people to stop considering Africa as one place. It is full of different countries with different child mortality reduction rates and thinking about it as just one place skews the statistics and hides the progress that has been made. Second, the way we compare the statistics to determine the percent reduction per year is also flawed. Instead of looking at a 19 year period, simply look at the difference between the 1990s and the 2000s. The average percent reduction in child mortality almost doubles in the 2000s! This still is not good enough though. As mentioned above, Africa is not one country. If one looks at the statistics from different countries within Africa, one can see that certain countries are decreasing child mortality rates incredibly quickly. These success stories are just hidden by flawed statistics and averages.

The point is that statistics don’t always show the real impact that is being made through the Millennium Development Goals and other development efforts. Sometimes we need to readjust the way we think about development and developing countries in order to see the big (more positive!) picture.

-Kelli Hanson

SOURCE: TED

U.N. Recognizes Water as a Universal Human Right; U.S. Senate Approves Water for the World Act

In a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday, officials affirmed that the right to water and sanitation is a universal human right that can be legally upheld. While access to water was confirmed as a human right in July of 2010, Thursday's meeting clarified the legal standards that accompany this important right.

This action by the Human Rights Council is significant because it makes the international right to clean water enforceable under law, as outlined in multiple international human rights treaties. "This landmark decision has the potential to change the lives of the billions of human beings who still lack access to water and sanitation," said Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent Expert on human rights.

This progress toward Millennium Development Goal 7, which includes expanding worldwide access to clean drinking water and sanitation, is augmented by support from the United States: Last week, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Water for the World Act, which aims to provide 100,000,000 people with first-time access to drinking water. The bill has now moved to the House of Representatives for approval before it becomes a law. Contact your representatives to demand that they support this historic legislation!

-Elizabeth Newton

SOURCE: United Nations Human Rights, Change.org

Investing in Women

With this week’s U.N. Summit focusing on the Millennium Development Goals, it is important to note the progress that has already been made. Goal 3 of the agreement is to promote gender equality and empower women. A Goldman Sachs initiative is helping the world achieve this goal.

Two years after it was launched, Goldman Sachs continues its 10,000 Women Initiative. This initiative is a five-year investment offered to underserved women around the world to provide them with a business and management education. Operating through a network of academic and non-profit partners, Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women has already helped over 1,200 women and is well on its way to meeting the initiative’s goal.

-Kelli Hanson

Source: Goldman Sachs

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Recognized For Reductions in Child Mortality

Goal 4 of the Millennium Development Goals concerns child health, aiming for all countries to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015.

On Monday, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was presented with a UN award for her country's progress toward this important goal. In Bangladesh in 1991, 146 out of every thousand children died before they reached age five. Today, that number is just 54 per thousands births, making Bangladesh one of only nineteen countries that are on track to reach MDG 4.

In Bangladesh, this impressive progress is widely attributed to empowerment of women, which has been achieved through expanded schooling for girls, microcredit initiatives, and growth of women's civil society.

Reducing child mortality is closely related to the other MDG goals. Without a steady food supply, improvements in maternal health, and strong infrastructure, child mortality cannot be reduced. Today, the leading causes of child mortality are diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria, together responsible for over a third of all deaths in children worldwide.

-Elizabeth Newton

SOURCE: The Daily Star, Save the Children

Approaching United Nations Summit in NYC Highlights Global Poverty

From September 20-22, the United Nations headquarters in New York City will host the largest meeting of world leaders addressing worldwide poverty since 2000. In less than two weeks, leaders from all over the world will be meeting to track the progress of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets developed at the UN Millennium Summit a decade ago in 2000. The goal of this year's summit is to accelerate progress toward the MDGs, capping off a month of meetings and negotiations about global poverty, which have welcomed input from NGOs, civil society, and the private sector.

Since 2000, much progress has been made toward the Millennium Development Goals, but not enough. "It is clear that improvements in the lives of the poor have been unacceptably slow, and some hard-won gains are being eroded by the climate, food and economic crises," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June.

As the summit approaches, the public must hold its leaders accountable for working toward these goals. With so many issues filling the political arena, it is vital that voters demand that international development be a top policy priority.

The weekend before the summit, millions of people from all over the world will be uniting in the event "Stand Up and Take Action" to bring attention to the MDGs. Interested in how you can get involved? Make a direct impact by contacting your congressional leaders and letting them know you support funding for international aid and development. Visit The Borgen Project's guide to making a congressional phone call and learn how easy it is to make your voice heard in the fight for a safer, healthier, and more just world.

-Elizabeth Newton

SOURCE: United Nations Millennium Development Goals

UN Conference to Focus on Global Health and MDGs

Melbourne, Australia is set to host the 63rd United Nations Department of Public Information Conference, an annual occasion held to encourage the participation of civil society. This year's event will focus on global health while also rallying support for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Some of the goals relating to the conference include reducing childhood and maternal mortality, obtaining universal access to reproductive health, and stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The three-day event will consist of dozens of workshops on various global health related issues, all of which will seek to promote dialogue between the many NGOs in attendance. Additionally, speakers such as General Assembly President Ali Treki, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, Michel Sidibé, and the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo Akasaka, are scheduled to present.

-Devynn Patterson

Source: "Global health the focus as annual UN event for civil society kicks off"-UN News Centre

Kindergartens to Help Achieve Millennium Development Goal

The Ministry of Education in the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau operates with a very low budget, so low in fact that it struggles to cover much more than teacher's salaries. However, the small village of Gantauda is serving as an inspiring example of what a community can do to further their children's futures.

Gantauda is not only home to the nation's first preschool center, but it has also succeeded in enrolling every child aged 3-6 in kindergarten. Such an accomplishment was achieved through a community based program funded in part by Plan International, a children's development organization. Villagers pay into a joint fund that is used for families who are unable to send their children to preschool, due to financial hardship, and pay 30 percent of the running costs. The Gantauda program then teaches children reading and writing techniques, hones motor skills, and encourages joint learning. It also provides children with a nutritious lunch, clean latrines and is in the process of implementing a basic health care center.

According to data from the World Bank, socio-economic differences effect early childhood development, with those living in poverty lagging behind their peers who do not. The hope is that preschool education will alleviate some of those disparities, enabling all children to go to primary school one day, and therefore achieving a UN Millennium Development Goal.

-Devynn Patterson

Source: "Guinea-Bissau: Kindergarten to help in MDG fight"-Relief Web

Development Goals Success

Since the Millennium Development Goals were signed, new investments in the fight against poverty have produced real results and improved the lives of millions of people. The numbers speak for themselves: an estimated 3.2 million Africans are currently receiving life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment (up from 50,000 in 2002), and 88 million bed nets to protect families from malaria have been delivered by the Global Fund alone. Progress has also been made in getting children into school. Estimates show 34 million African children went to school for the first time between 1999 and 2006, thanks in part to savings from debt relief and development assistance for education.

These results are evidence that development assistance can have a transformative impact in the world's poorest countries, especially when it is combined with committed and transparent leadership and policies aimed at economic growth.

-Molly McNeill

Maria Sharapova Gives Quarter Million Dollars for UNDP projects

Tennis star Maria Sharapova was appointed a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador in 2007. Her role is to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, with an emphasis on promoting the recovery of Chernobyl-affected areas.

On July 1 Sharapova made a personal contribution of US $250,000.00 to expand a UNDP-supported programme that provides sports and physical activities for youth in the area affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Sharapova said that despite the challenges, “I’ve seen progress in Gomel and kids with a great potential to do even more. What they need is to work hard and believe in themselves. Having supported health and education initiatives, I am very happy to start contributing on sports and physical activities that promote healthy lifestyles.”


-Molly McNeill

SOURCE: UNDP News

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Encourages Business Investment in Developing Countries

BORGEN PROJECT
At the 10th annual UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York this week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged business leaders to invest more in developing countries to help with global economic growth. Mr. Ban stressed that with foreign and official aid coming under pressure because of global economic woes, foreign direct investment must play a greater role in helping reduce global poverty: "As the world continues to reel from the financial crisis, and as climate change, poverty, resource constraints and other threats test our capabilities, we need business as our partner more than ever". As a child raised in the post-war Republic of Korea, Mr. Ban has seen first hand the power of foreign direct investment in developing a country.

The Global Compact initiative brings together over 8,000 companies from around the world based on the idea that "business, as a primary agent driving globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology, and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere," according the UNGC overview. The Compact attempts to align business ambitions with the Millennium Development Goals, the 8 eight global anti-poverty targets set out by the UN in 2000.

-Matthew Thwaites

SOURCES: 'Invest more in the developing world'-UN News Centre, Overview of the UN Global Compact

UN Identifies Strategies to Accelerate Development and Poverty Reduction

The United Nations say on the Millennium Development Goals, "development models that focus attention on the poor while expanding job opportunities, increased government spending on social services and aid flows from affluent nations are all successful strategies for alleviating global poverty."

A new report drawn from examples of 50 other countries reaching to complete the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, identifies important factors such as access to low carbon energy and mobilizing domestic capital by for one, improving tax collection, as crucial.

An example from Ethiopia and Kenya shows that when they abolished primary school fees there was a surge in the number of children enrolled in school. Likewise, in Afghanistan innovative health services have reduced morality rates among children under the age of five, according to the UNDP report

The UNDP report concludes that adequate expenditures by government have led to improvements in both education and health.

-Molly McNeill

SOURCE: UN News

8 Goals For Africa Campaign

Some of Africa’s most renowned musicians have joined the United Nations in part of an awareness and advocacy campaign developed by the United Nations System in South Africa for a commitment to achieve the 8 Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The ‘8 Goals for Africa’ song features 8 of Africa’s best known musicians: Yvonne Chaka Chaka from South Africa, Angelique Kidjo from Benin, Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe, Eric Wainaina from Kenya, Baaba Maal from Senegal, and the Soweto Gospel Choir from South Africa. World renowned jazz musicians Hugh Masekela and Jimmy Dludlu from South Africa are also instrumentalists on the track.

End poverty by 2015 is the historic promise 189 world leaders made at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 when they signed up to the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world´s poorest people. Ten years later our leaders are meeting again on 20 September in New York to review the progress, it is up to us to make sure world leaders keep their promise.

Music composer Jimmy Dludlu said: “I was inspired by this initiative. We want to help promote the Millennium Development Goals and I am optimistic that the song will convey a message of peace, hope and promise of a better future,” said Dludlu, who attended the launch along with Masekela and Chaka Chaka.

8 Goals for Africais also recorded as a music video, which is being screened throughout the World Cup, across all the fan parks and public viewing areas in South Africa.

-Molly Mcneill

SOURCE: 8 Goals For Africa Campaign

President Obama Urged to Attend Global Education Summit

This summer, South African President Jacob Zuma will host a global summit on education in Johannesburg, South Africa. The summit is being held in conjunction with the 2010 edition of the World Cup, whose official message is "1 Goal: Education for All." This message is expected to be seen by more than 3 billion people over the course of the games. On June 1st, more than 40 community leaders signed and sent a letter to President Obama urging him to attend this meeting and fulfill his campaign promises to make global education a key part of US foreign policy. President Obama has pledged $2 billion to the Global Fund for Education and reaffirmed the US's commitment to the Millennium Developed Goals, one aspect of which involves universal primary school education. The benefits of education have many wide-reaching effects. HIV/AIDS infection rates are reduced by 50% when people finish primary school. If quality education if available to an entire population, GDP will rise by an expected 1% per year.

-Matthew Thwaites

SOURCES: Global Campaign for Education Article on Global Education Summit