How the MDGs have changed the world: eight leaders reflect

Article source
The Guardian

On Monday 18 August there will be just 500 days left for the millennium development goals to be met.

The historic commitment to achieve eight targets, which range from tackling extreme poverty to combating HIV/Aids and securing universal primary education, have been the focus of much debate and critique. But as the 2015 deadline looms, we asked global development’s influencers and campaigners to reflect on how the MDGs have changed the world, giving concrete examples of transformation.

MDG 1: Eradicating extreme poverty
Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development
As we work to end extreme poverty, we’re embracing a new model of development, one grounded in innovation, country leadership, and measurable results. This approach has helped accelerate progress towards the MDGs. In Honduras 24,000 people moved above the extreme poverty line as daily per capita income shot up 237 % between 2012 and 2013 alone. Bangladesh, one of the poorest states, has produced its first-ever rice surplus. With these kinds of results, it is possible to end extreme poverty in our lifetime.

MDG 2: Achieving universal primary education
Julia Gillard, board chair of Global Partnership

The MDGs made education a priority for many countries. As a result, tens of millions of children gained access to school for the first time and learning improved. In Cambodia, for example, 98% of all primary school children now complete school – in 2003 only 66% did. The Global Partnership’s innovative partnership approach and investment of $3.9bn (£2.3bn) in basic education in the poorest countries, has helped to drive the progress made over the past decade.

MDG 3: Gender equality
Jessica Neuwirth, founder of Equality Now

In Afghanistan girls were banned from school by the Taliban when the MDGs were adopted, now girls represent 40% of school children (pdf). But in most countries going to school is still more of a privilege for girls than a right. In some countries it is dangerous, even life-threatening. While there has been progress, we remain far from the 2015 goal of eliminating all gender disparity in education, hindered by harmful practices such as child marriage and prostitution. Governments should be held accountable.

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
Dr Mickey Chopra, associate director of programmes and chief of health, Unicef

The MDGs have boosted efforts to reduce preventable child deaths. Now 17,000 fewer children under five die every day than in 1990 – 6.6m per year compared to 12m(pdf). Thanks to innovative, simple solutions like oral rehydration therapy or insecticide treated bednets, even children living in the world’s poorest countries have better survival chances. In Bangladesh and Liberia, for example, under-5 deaths have plummeted by at least two-thirds since 1990.

MDG 5: Improving maternal health
Toyin Saraki, founder and director of Wellbeing Foundation Africa

By affording us a platform to measure progress and identify success factors, the MDGs have greatly enhanced the way we work for the improvement of humanity. Specifically, MDG 5 has helped us coordinate local and global efforts to prevent maternal deaths. For example, through an integrated approach to adolescent, sexual, reproductive and maternal health, including family planning, HIV/Aids management and improved access to midwives, Nigeria has achieved a 52% reduction in maternal mortality ratio (pdf) from 1990 to 2013.

MDG 6: Combating HIV/Aids and disease
Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, director of HIV department at World Health Organisation

The MDGs have highlighted the critical role of health in alleviating poverty and ensuring sustainable development. They have driven action in a number of key health areas, including HIV. Access to HIV treatment has expanded rapidly. In 2000, virtually nobody with the disease in low and middle-income countries had access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy, but by the end of 2013, access had been increased dramatically to reach an estimated 11.7m people.

MDG 7: Environmental sustainability
Yeb Sano, Philippines climate change commissioner

The MDGs have allowed the Philippines to look at development in a more holistic context, even anchoring climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction – which we have used as our main measure for resilience, together with the ecological footprint. However, the MDG on ensuring environmental sustainability has become an extremely arduous if not impossible goal to reach, with more countries evading ambitious climate action and the human ecological footprint ballooning way beyond the planet’s natural budget.

MDG 8: Global partnerships for development
Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings

Innovative partnerships are a hallmark of the MDGs, as they allow businesses to contribute their operational expertise to solving the world’s problems, rather than simply passing on profits. In Nigeria and Rwanda, an electronic warehouse receipt platform and a regional commodity exchange, powered by Nasdaq OMX, that’s transforming agricultural practices. Coca-Cola, in looking to strengthen Ghana’s vaccine supply chain, shared its distribution and logistical expertise to ensure vaccines are delivered, down to “the last mile”. Partnerships have made a sustainable investment in Africa’s development that is the essence of ‘Africapitalism’.