How likely does it seem that the Millennium Development Goals will be met by 2015?

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How likely does it seem that the Millennium Development Goals will be met by 2015?

        The United Nations, the international organization composed of many countries all over the world, founded in 1945 with the aims to promote peace, security and economic development. The introduction of the Millennium Development Goals is one of the major steps the UN has made to achieve some of their aims. They were established from the ideas presented in the Millennium Declaration, adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state and governments, during the UN Millennium Summit, in September 2000. The goals include 8 separate targets agreed in the 1990’s, set to be reached by the year 2015, the MDG’s were commissioned to monitor the development gap, and as a way to measure any progress made towards reducing it. Numerous different issues stand in the way of achieving the eight millennium development goals by 2015, resulting in an extensive amount of time before the development gap is narrowed once and for all.

        Each separate MDG has its own sub-aims, making it easier to measure the progress of each goal. There has been varying levels of progress with each of the millennium development goals, however with the exception of Sub Saharan Africa; all regions are on track to achieve MDG1 ‘Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty’. The main issue facing the achievement of this particular MDG is the economic strength of certain countries, and in addition the climate and geographical features of each country need to be taken into consideration. It is clear that some countries will be able to reach their aims by the year 2015, while other will be left behind. Global economic depressions affect many countries, in particular the LEDC’s, the 2009 global economic depression cost sub-Saharan Africa’s people £12.8 billion, which as a result makes certain MDG’s very hard to achieve. Due to certain countries struggling to manage and tackle oncoming issues, the help from other is required in the form of aid. The World Bank is said to increase its support to agriculture to between $6billion and $8billion a year over the next three years, up from $4.1 billion annually before 2008, under it’s Agriculture Action Plan to help boost incomes, employment and food security in many low income areas. Although due to technological and scientific advances, such as second-generation GM drought resistant and salt-tolerant crops, the food security of certain countries will be increased. Despite economic growth averaging 6% in sub-Saharan Africa countries by 2008, 980 million people still live on less than $1 per day. In Uganda, certain amounts of progress has been made already, it is likely to halve the number of people living on less than $1 a day by the year 2015, currently half of the population lives in poverty, so the target of 28% is in reach. Another example is found in Bangladesh, it has the worlds 1/3 largest number of people in poverty, of the total population in Bangladesh, and half of them live in poverty, with a total of 50 million in extreme poverty. This is a huge issue for Bangladesh as the population is rapidly increasing in size, achieving and meeting the MDG’s is seen as an enormous challenge. Huge issues face countries trying to achieve MDG1, certain economic and geographical factors affect the outcome, so no matter how much aid is given to the countries requiring help, the problem will  not be ‘cured’, it is simply being supported.

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        The third Millennium Development Goal, to promote gender equality and empower women is said to have been achieved already in Thailand and Bangladesh, with countries such as Kenya, Malawi and India lacking behind. The Earth Institute, Ericsson and Millennium Promise, launched ‘Connect to Learn’, a non-profit organisation, focussing on education and improving the access to, and quality of secondary education for schools globally, especially for girls. This links with MDG2, achieving universal primary education, Connect to Learn, provides scholarships to attend secondary school and covers tuition, books, uniform as well as broadband technology. In support of the aim to improve ...

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