Reality Check: Missing the Millennium Development Goals?

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Monday, March 22, 2010 04:08 GMT

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What have world leaders promised?

A new video from the United Nations Millennium Campaign and United Nations Development Programme highlighting what world leaders have promised.

In September 2010, the United Nations will host the largest gathering of heads of state since the Millennium Summit in the year 2000. At their last Summit, 189 world leaders pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, in order to eradicate extreme poverty and its root causes by the year 2015. With just five years left until the deadline, the upcoming summit represents the international community’s last chance to develop breakthrough plans to achieve the Goals. We must tell heads of state in no uncertain terms that we expect them to deliver on their promises.

DEVELOPMENT: Political Will the Missing Link for MDGs
By Chryso D'Angelo
UNITED NATIONS - Despite numerous factors that threaten the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 - a global financial crisis, a food crisis, climate change, natural disasters – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week that his main concern is "political will".
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WEST AFRICA: Stopping the Polio Virus
By Brahima Ouédraogo
OUAGADOUGOU - The World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners hope to eliminate the circulation of the polio virus in West Africa as soon as June by launching the first round of national synchronised immunisation days against the debilitating disease.
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HEALTH-US: Maternal Deaths on the Rise
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Despite the fact that the United States spends more on maternal health than any other country in the world, deaths in childbirth among U.S. women are on the rise and already surpass the morbidity rates in most developed countries.
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DEVELOPMENT: Bad Water More Deadly Than War
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - Bad water kills more people than wars or earthquakes, declares Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).
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Q&A: Tapping Women's Enterprise to Topple Rural Poverty
Paul Virgo interviews YUKIKO OMURA, new vice president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development
ROME - Employees at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) may have cause to fear for their jobs after Yukiko Omura was appointed vice president of the United Nations' rural poverty agency in February.
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POLITICS-RWANDA: Woman Vies for Top Job
By Stanley Kwenda
KIGALI - On average women constitute 18.8 percent of representatives in parliaments across the world according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). This gender imbalance has been subject to much feminist criticism and many campaigns for change have been staged to address the status quo. The situation is however different in Rwanda.
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EDUCATION-SIERRA LEONE: Government Ignores Demands for Additional Teachers
By Lansana Fofana
FREETOWN - Ismail Conteh has been teaching for the past year-and-a-half at a primary school in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown – without receiving a single cent. He is one of hundreds of teachers recruited by schools to match the ever-growing number of pupils.
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NAMIBIA: "If You Kiss for Five Minutes You Get It"
By Servaas van den Bosch
WINDHOEK - "At home we have a bar," says grade seven learner David Bravo* (14). "When my mother puts on the music I cannot concentrate on (my) schoolwork anymore. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I just sit there and watch the people."
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AFRICA: Corruption Carries High Cost, World Bank Says
By Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON - Poverty is on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and various forms of corruption threaten to undermine the impact of investments made to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the continent, said the World Bank in a report released Monday on Africa's development.
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DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Rapid Population Growth Threatens Development
By Susan Anyangu-Amu
NAIROBI - Margaret Atieno, a 38-year-old mother of six, says she wanted to avoid her last pregnancy. But consistent stock-outs of contraceptive devices at her health care centre in rural Siaya, western Kenya, gave her no choice but to fall pregnant once again, albeit the fact that she did not want another child.
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HEALTH: U.S. AIDS Fund Flat-Lining, Groups Complain
By Sananda Sahoo
WASHINGTON - The debate between those who favour investment in AIDS treatment and those who favour investment in its prevention came to the forefront Thursday at a U.S House of Representatives hearing on U.S. investments in HIV/AIDS in Africa.
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RIGHTS: Gender Confab Marked by Political Uncertainties
By Thalif Deen and Anna Shen*
UNITED NATIONS - When a two-week meeting on gender empowerment concluded at U.N. headquarters Friday, there were several lingering questions crying out for answers.
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DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Are Women the Magic Bullet for "Electoral Apathy"?
By Mohamadou Houmfa
YAOUNDE - A support network for women's political participation, is challenging head-on what it calls "electoral apathy", after noting a growing trend in electoral abstention.
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EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise
By Cam McGrath
LUXOR - Literacy programmes are teaching millions of Egyptians to read, but are struggling to keep up with the country's high population growth.
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KENYA: Proposed Constitutional Amendment Sets Back Women’s Rights
By Susan Anyangu-Amu
NAIROBI - Lillian Mutuku, a 34-year-old mother of three, describes her home in Katine area, in Kenya’s Eastern province Tala, as a harsh place to live. The soil is poor, she says, the sun beats down mercilessly and vegetation is sparse.
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RIGHTS: Africa's Success Stories in Gender Empowerment
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS - Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning - and wrongly so.
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EDUCATION-TANZANIA: Pregnant Teens Forced Out of School
By Arnaud Bébien
DAR-ES-SALAAM - Pregnancy is the leading cause of dropouts for school girls in Tanzania. And a national law forbidding young mothers to return to school after giving birth did not make it any easier for them to continue their education.
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EDUCATION-URUGUAY: Gardens of Knowledge
By Silvana Silveira
MONTEVIDEO - "Nature is wise, and if we take the time to observe it, we can learn so much" is the underlying philosophy of a number of innovative programmes being carried out in Uruguayan schools that are using gardens as a teaching resource, explained Edith Moraes, director of the national Primary Education Board.
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LATIN AMERICA: Abortion - Still Illegal, Still Killing, Despite Growing Awareness
By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS - Although most of the governments in Latin America today are described as progressive, abortion is only legal in one country, while in five countries it is banned under all circumstances, even when the mother's life is at risk.
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RIGHTS: "Famine Marriages" Just One Byproduct of Climate Change
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS - The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens.
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PERU: Suspension of Mining Operation Merely a Placebo
By Milagros Salazar
LIMA - Although the Peruvian government reported that it had suspended the exploration activities of the Afrodita mining company in the country's northern Amazon jungle region to avoid further protests by local indigenous people, officials took no actual steps to bring the firm's work to a halt.
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In 2000, 189 countries adopted the Millennium Declaration. Last year, world leaders convened in New York to access progress toward their commitments to reach the Millennium Development Goals on aid, trade and debt, governance, education, health and democracy by 2015. Much has been done. It is estimated, for example, that the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - set up at the 2001 Genoa Summit - has saved more than 2 million lives. However, there is still a long way to go to meeting the goals. IPS is covering the issues at stake and more.

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Versión en Español

Deadline 2015
Version française

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	A WAR ON POVERTY OR A WAR ON THE POOR? by Riccardo Petrella

	EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE RISKS OF INACTION by Yash Tandon

	CURRENT PACE TOO SLOW ON UN MILLENNIUM POVERTY GOALS by Thabo Mbeki

	UNQUENCHABLE THIRST: THE WORLD WATER BUSINESS by Riccardo Petrella

	TAILOR THE DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO LOCAL CONDITIONS by Benjamin Mkapa

	MDGS AT MIDPOINT : THE MONEY IS THERE, THE POLITICAL WILL ISN'T by Kumi Naidoo

	MILLENNIUM GOALS NOT ON COURSE : TIME FOR URGENT ACTION by Mary Robinson

	GLOBALISATION: NOT A ZERO SUM GAME BUT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL by Emma Bonino

UN Millennium Development Goals
Global Call to Action against Poverty
Millennium Campaign
UNIFEM - MDGs
MDG Monitor - Tracking the Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Project
United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service - Millennium Development Goals
MDGs Choike - a portal on Southern civil societies

IPS is not responsible for the content of external sites

IPS is providing the International Network of Street Papers with news about the MDGs. INSP aims to alleviate poverty and build a just civil society in the world.