Why Should I Care About the MDG's?

Apparently, 140 of the world’s leaders believe we should care about the MDG’s (Millennium Development Goals). The three-day MDG summit entitled “We Can End Poverty by 2015,” is being held in New York at the United Nations General Assembly this week. 

To launch the summit, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon addressed a packed room which included Presidents from Germany to Israel to Swaziland, to name a few.

“We are here because ten years ago, meeting here at the highest level, the international community promised to spare no effort to free the entire human race from want,” he said.

“There is more to do for the mother who watches her children go to bed hungry – a scandal played out a billion times each and every night. And more to do for the worker far from home in a city slum, watching jobs and remittances disappear amid global recession. You all know where we stand — the gaps and the gains, what works and what doesn’t work.”

The United Nations has admitted that several of the eight MDG goals which include empowering women, ending hunger/poverty, promoting maternal and child health, building partnerships, boosting child education (especially for girls), improving environmental standards and combating HIV/AIDS may not be achieved by the deadline set for 2015. The MDG’s were created in 2000 with the aim that countries would swiftly mobilize to tackle and achieve the targets in fifteen years time. It seems a far stretch now considering Africa, not surprisingly, remains at the top of the list as the continent less likely to achieve many, if not all of the goals. 

Over 20,000 children continue to die each day from illness, with a majority of the deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of new mothers die in childbirth and from a lack of maternal care in countries like Zambia and Malawi.  

The UN is optimistic that two targets will be achieved in five years time including providing safe drinking water to the world’s poor, up by 50 percent, and reducing by half, the number of people who live on $1.25 or less each day. And MDG celebrity spokesperson, musician Bono, has demanded a more positive attitude when examining MDG achievements claiming millions of more children are now in school due to debt cancellation in developing countries.

This may all be true, but critics of the goals say corruption and greed must first be tackled in Africa and Asia, if developed countries are to truly feel good about themselves in helping to bring about social and economic equality to the world. Five years just seems like too little time to meet such lofty goals. 

Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank underlined that much work needs to be done. 

“We want a world where all citizens have access to opportunity and hope. But success has been uneven, and the triple-blow of the food, fuel and financial crisis has slowed or stopped progress towards the MDG’s in many countries around the world. Sixty-four million more people are living in extreme poverty in 2010.”

President Obama is expected to address the Assembly this Wednesday. He will most likely defend the administration’s record by underscoring the United States commitment to the goals. His Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice has underlined the administration’s pledges in 2009 of sixty-three billion for global health and three and a half billion for global food security.