THE United Nations is today (July 7) launching the 2011 Global Millennium Development Goals Progress Report in Geneva and concurrently in many other countries to raise awareness on the progress thus far and further acceleration required to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
The global MDG report noted that important progress has been made in reducing global poverty and hunger around the world. Alongside significant improvements in health, education, and other areas, the report also highlighted critical ‘road blocks’ that have persisted, requiring sustained efforts both globally and nationally, to realize some of the 2015 targets.
The status of progress country-by-country differs significantly, and the paths taken to achieve these goals have also varied widely per local context, commitment and cost involved.
In all regions of the world, success has been realised where declining rates of poverty have been matched with improvements in primary school enrolment, more women with more education and in decision making positions, greater access to safe drinking water, and millions of lives saved as a result of successful interventions in the fight against malaria, HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis. This multi-pronged approach, which demonstrates sound policies and investments in human development, has enabled these pro-poor results to hold and not roll back. Globally, since 1990, more than 400 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, while nearly 2 billion people gained access to clean drinking water. The global fight against diseases is yielding significant gains - in the last 20 years, there has been a 20 per cent decline in the number of AIDS- and malaria-related deaths.
UN Resident Coordinator, Kanni Wignaraja said “Zambia has shared in many of these successes, particularly in its efforts to improve primary education and health. In order to move to the next level of progress and to sustain gains made possible through sustained economic growth that the country has experienced, we look to further human development investments in agriculture that will yield decent jobs and a focus now on secondary and higher education”.
Both net enrolment and the number of pupils reaching Grade 7 has grown steadily over the past few years and the targets of secondary school completion and quality must now be the focus.
According to the report, Successes have been seen in Zambia’s fight against HIV and AIDS, and with prevalence rates now at 14.3% of the population, The report cites Zambia as one of the countries that has surpassed its MDG target in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“This, however, leaves no room for complacency, with much work remaining particularly in addressing the root causes of HIV which sustain high levels of vulnerability in sectors of the population with new infections, on average 200 people per month.
The prevalence of underweight children has fallen to 14.6%, not far from the 2015 goal of 12.5%. The global report provides evidence and pointers to reducing maternal mortality and child and infant mortality rates, that are still some distance away, per the national data here in Zambia”, said Wignaraja. “Women giving birth in Zambia remain at high risk, with a maternal mortality rate of 591 per 100,000 live births. The MDG goal to be realized in 4 years is 162 per 100,000 live births.”
The global report shows that progress on the MDGs has been uneven and the overall gains mask local specific disparities in most countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest urban households are 12 times less likely than their richest neighbours to have access to piped drinking water supply. Similarly, in rural areas, children
are twice as likely to be underweight as their urban cousins. Countries in, or emerging from, conflict, are likely to lag 40 to 60 per cent behind other low and middle-income countries in achieving most of the goals.
Wignaraja said, “Zambia has noted many successes in its efforts to achieve its national MDGs goals. The effectiveness of the goals are that they need to be adapted and realised in each local context beyond global and national averages. Not all countries will follow the same path. Globally the focus is on the ends, however, locally, we must also focus on the means. To accelerate and sustain the required rate of poverty reduction in Zambia, the application of a broad based job creation effort, particularly in rural areas, is
key”.
She further noted that expanding education and business opportunities for women and closing the gender gap in decision-making positions will also go a long way to ensure a more gender balanced progress along the MDGs for Zambia.
Moving forward, the UN report notes the importance of focusing on equity and inclusion in the reach and acceleration towards the MDGs in the coming four years, and then going beyond. For countries like Zambia, this means that the poorest and most marginalized groups often in rural settings are made the focus of policy choices, and national development investments and programmes. And in the lead-up to Rio+20, the evidence from all countries north and south, show that any acceleration of growth efforts must also happen in an environmentally conscious fashion, if such is to be sustainable over the longer term. This means moving towards a cleaner, greener and more affordable economy for all.
The UN has launched a number of major partnerships and initiatives, such as Countdown to Zero, a global plan toward the elimination of new HIV infections among children; UN-Redd to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable livelihoods and scaling up nutrition; global strategy for women’s and children’s health, among many others.
Wignaraja said the United Nations Country Team in Zambia was committed to working in partnership with the government, the private sector, NGOs and civil society and cooperating partners, to support Zambia realize its MDGs and its vision 2030.
“In doing so, the principles of equity, sustainability and resilience will lead the way,” said Wignaraja.
The global MDG report noted that important progress has been made in reducing global poverty and hunger around the world. Alongside significant improvements in health, education, and other areas, the report also highlighted critical ‘road blocks’ that have persisted, requiring sustained efforts both globally and nationally, to realize some of the 2015 targets.
The status of progress country-by-country differs significantly, and the paths taken to achieve these goals have also varied widely per local context, commitment and cost involved.
In all regions of the world, success has been realised where declining rates of poverty have been matched with improvements in primary school enrolment, more women with more education and in decision making positions, greater access to safe drinking water, and millions of lives saved as a result of successful interventions in the fight against malaria, HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis. This multi-pronged approach, which demonstrates sound policies and investments in human development, has enabled these pro-poor results to hold and not roll back. Globally, since 1990, more than 400 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, while nearly 2 billion people gained access to clean drinking water. The global fight against diseases is yielding significant gains - in the last 20 years, there has been a 20 per cent decline in the number of AIDS- and malaria-related deaths.
UN Resident Coordinator, Kanni Wignaraja said “Zambia has shared in many of these successes, particularly in its efforts to improve primary education and health. In order to move to the next level of progress and to sustain gains made possible through sustained economic growth that the country has experienced, we look to further human development investments in agriculture that will yield decent jobs and a focus now on secondary and higher education”.
Both net enrolment and the number of pupils reaching Grade 7 has grown steadily over the past few years and the targets of secondary school completion and quality must now be the focus.
According to the report, Successes have been seen in Zambia’s fight against HIV and AIDS, and with prevalence rates now at 14.3% of the population, The report cites Zambia as one of the countries that has surpassed its MDG target in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“This, however, leaves no room for complacency, with much work remaining particularly in addressing the root causes of HIV which sustain high levels of vulnerability in sectors of the population with new infections, on average 200 people per month.
The prevalence of underweight children has fallen to 14.6%, not far from the 2015 goal of 12.5%. The global report provides evidence and pointers to reducing maternal mortality and child and infant mortality rates, that are still some distance away, per the national data here in Zambia”, said Wignaraja. “Women giving birth in Zambia remain at high risk, with a maternal mortality rate of 591 per 100,000 live births. The MDG goal to be realized in 4 years is 162 per 100,000 live births.”
The global report shows that progress on the MDGs has been uneven and the overall gains mask local specific disparities in most countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest urban households are 12 times less likely than their richest neighbours to have access to piped drinking water supply. Similarly, in rural areas, children
are twice as likely to be underweight as their urban cousins. Countries in, or emerging from, conflict, are likely to lag 40 to 60 per cent behind other low and middle-income countries in achieving most of the goals.
Wignaraja said, “Zambia has noted many successes in its efforts to achieve its national MDGs goals. The effectiveness of the goals are that they need to be adapted and realised in each local context beyond global and national averages. Not all countries will follow the same path. Globally the focus is on the ends, however, locally, we must also focus on the means. To accelerate and sustain the required rate of poverty reduction in Zambia, the application of a broad based job creation effort, particularly in rural areas, is
key”.
She further noted that expanding education and business opportunities for women and closing the gender gap in decision-making positions will also go a long way to ensure a more gender balanced progress along the MDGs for Zambia.
Moving forward, the UN report notes the importance of focusing on equity and inclusion in the reach and acceleration towards the MDGs in the coming four years, and then going beyond. For countries like Zambia, this means that the poorest and most marginalized groups often in rural settings are made the focus of policy choices, and national development investments and programmes. And in the lead-up to Rio+20, the evidence from all countries north and south, show that any acceleration of growth efforts must also happen in an environmentally conscious fashion, if such is to be sustainable over the longer term. This means moving towards a cleaner, greener and more affordable economy for all.
The UN has launched a number of major partnerships and initiatives, such as Countdown to Zero, a global plan toward the elimination of new HIV infections among children; UN-Redd to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable livelihoods and scaling up nutrition; global strategy for women’s and children’s health, among many others.
Wignaraja said the United Nations Country Team in Zambia was committed to working in partnership with the government, the private sector, NGOs and civil society and cooperating partners, to support Zambia realize its MDGs and its vision 2030.
“In doing so, the principles of equity, sustainability and resilience will lead the way,” said Wignaraja.
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