You, I and The MDG - The Role We All Have to Play By Irem Bright Chimezie - Led Project Initiator

Introduction

I and the Millennium Development Goals

By Irem Bright Chimezie, Nigerian

 

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is a set of eight goals that were born from the September 2000 Millennium Declaration and are being recognized and pursued by 189 heads of state and governments.  The MDGs, in fact, reaffirms the global quest to fight poverty, illiteracy, hunger, lack of education, gender inequality, disease, and environmental degradation. The goals and targets firmly commit governments, from both rich and poor countries, to a deadline of 2015. 

The progress in achieving the MDGs rest heavily on specialized agencies in the United Nations system, but includes representatives from the World Bank and IMF as well.  Time-bound and measurable targets for each of the goals were based on 48 selected key indicators, aggregated at the global and regional levels.  For instance, Goal 6, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, has a target of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015, based on indicators such as infant mortality rate, and proportion of one year old children immunized against measles.

Information on the MDGs, and the campaign to include active citizen participation in the achievement of the Goals, is gradually gaining momentum.  Although the MDGs are now becoming a dominant feature in development discourse, there is still a lack of political will and financial support for national governments to fulfill their commitments, and above all, the lack of individual co-orperation and coordination of efforts towards achieving the goals.  Certain criticisms from civil society question the process and believe that quantifiable measures are not enough to assess the success or failure in achieving the MDGs.

Certainly, the collective influence of individuals and civil society plays an active role in successfully achieving the MDGs.  Current efforts should further be strengthened, as activities to link existing campaigns to the Goals, or bring together new public coalitions to heighten awareness of the Goals, are taking shape.  

In the end, if poor countries are expected to deliver on their end of the bargain, the developed countries should also fulfill their promises in terms of development assistance, market access, and debt sustainability.