The global goals are something I can - and will - be passionate about. If you have never heard of the global goals, shame on you. It is a series of targets made by the United Nations to end extreme poverty and tackle climate change, for EVERYONE.
Today, I want to look back at the forerunner of the Global Goals, the Millenium Developments Goals, to see how far we've come.
First, a bit of history. In September 2000, leaders of 189 countries (all but six countries in the world) signed the Millenium Development Goals. This is a set of 8 goals that they wanted to reach by september 2015. The goals included banishing extreme poverty and hunger, gender equality and reducing maternal deaths, to name a few.
(Check the full list of Millenium Development Goals HERE)
It sounded, at least to me, impossible. Halve the number of people living on less than a doller a day? Reduce child mortality by two thirds? Reduce maternal death by three quarters? In only fifteen years?
That's exactly the kind of attitude that doesn't improve the world (after all, you're less motivated for a goal that you don't think you will reach) but the world got pretty far.
So, looking back, to what extend did we reach the Millenium Development Goals?
Goal number one: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
Did we do it? Well...
In 1990, 47% of the people in developing countries lived in extreme poverty (on less than 1.25$ a day). In 2015 that percentage is...14%. It is less than half, which is astonishing. Globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 863 million in 2015. That's a 55% drop! Amazing.
With undernourishment, we're not quite so far. 23.3% of the people in developing countries was undernourished in 1990. Nowadays, that percentage is only 12.9 percent. Still, it's great progress.
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| Sub-Saharan Africa |
Did we reach it? Not quite.
Since the goal was to give all boys and girls complete primary education, I can't say we reached the goal, but here are the statistics: In developing countries, 83% of the children enrolled in primary school in 2000. Nowadays, that is 91%. The number of out-of-school children (worldwide!) has dropped with 43%, from 100 million in 2000 to 57 million in 2015.
A special note for Sub-Saharan Africa: the net enrolment increased with 20% between september 2000 and september 2015. Well done!
Goal number 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.
Did we reach it? ALMOST!
Gender equality was definitely promoted and woman are powerful as ever these days. The sub-goals for goal number three were to
- have an equal number of girls and boys in primary school.
- have the same rights for men and women.
I couldn't find the statistics about this, but since people of all right are still fighting for gender equality, I don't think men and women have the same rights yet. However, it's safe to say that women today are better off than they were in 1990.
For the boy/girl ratio in primary school we can look at the gender parity index (GPI). The closer it is to 1.00, the closer we are to gender equality. The GPI differs greatly from country to country, and it is not available in every country. The GPI is definitely not 1.00 worldwide, but judging from this map made by UNICEF I say we're on the right track.
Goal number 4: Reduce child mortality by two thirds.
Did we reach it? Not quite.
Not two thirds, unfortunately. The global under-five mortality rate went from 90 deaths per 1000 live births in 2000 to 43 deaths per 1000 live births in 2015. That's a reduction of about 48% percent, almost half, which is still amazing. Especially because this is despite the growing population.
Notable is that while we haven't reduced child mortality by two thirds, the rate of reduction has more than tripled globally. Which means that we are improving rapidly!
Goal number 5: Improve maternal health.
Did we reach it? No.
The UN wanted to reduce maternal death by three quarters durning the period 1990-2015, and they wanted all woman to have access to reproductive healthcare. In reality, de maternal mortality ratio has dropped from 380 deaths per 100.000 live births in 1990 to 210 deaths per 100.000 live births in 2015. That's almost a 45% drop. Not quite what we hoped for, but still pretty impressive.
And not all woman have access to the right healthcare. Globally, 71% of births were assisted by skilled health personnel in 2015 whereas in 1990 that was 59%. While it's improvement, this number should be 100% and it bugs me that we're not quite there.
Goal number 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.
Did we reach it? No
This is a pretty vague goal. More specific is that the UN wanted to stop the spreading of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other serious diseases by 2015, give everyone in need treatment for HIV/AIDS by 2010. The vagueness of 'other diseases' already made it impossible to reach the goal (we can't have a disease-free world that quickly), but the facts are not quite so positive.
New HIV infections dropped by 40% between 2000 and 2013, from (an estimated) 3.5 million cases to 2.1 million cases. That is, in my opinion, still way too high.
However, over 6.2 million malaria deaths have been averted, an estimated 37 million lives have been saved by tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and measels vaccination have prevented nearly 15.6 million deaths. All in the period 2000-2013!
The world is not yet disease-ridden, but we are working on it.
Goal number 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Did we reach it? Well...
We are still losing a lot of biodiversity and we are still losing a lot of resources. Ecological organisations have to work extremely hard, with global warming etc. waiting to attack. We are still far from that perfect world.
(Although, according to the MDG report of the UN, 98% of ozone-depleting substances have been eliminated since 1990!)
However, 147 countries have met the drinking water target (halve the number of people without access to clean drinking water and working sanitation), 95 countries have met the sanitation half of that sub-goal and 77 countries have met both! 1.9 billion people have gained access to piped drinking water, and 2.1 billion people have gained access to working sanitation. In 2015, 91% of the population is using clean water, different from the 76% in 1990. The number of people without access to clean water has dropped by 62.5%! That's absolutely amazing. I love that.
Also part of this goal was the attempt to improve the lives of at least 100 million people living in slums. That goal failed miserably. In 1990, approximately 650 million people lived in slums. In 2012/2013, that number was estimated to be 863 million people.
However, if we look at it in percentages:
In 1990, world population was 5.263.000 where
as in 2012 that was 7.052.000. Which means that the percentage of people living in slums is pretty much the same. (It went down from 12.35% to 12.24%). There's lots to improve there, but at least it hasn't gone up.
as in 2012 that was 7.052.000. Which means that the percentage of people living in slums is pretty much the same. (It went down from 12.35% to 12.24%). There's lots to improve there, but at least it hasn't gone up.
Goal number 8: Develop a global partnership for development.
Did we reach it? No.
While worldwide trade has improved, it hasn't really done so in the places where it is needed. (Specifically the developing countries.) There is no open, rule-based, non-discriminatory trading and financial system worldwide. And though I couldn't find concrete statistics on this, I am willing to bet that developing countries' debts have been comprehensively dealt with and that essential drugs are not affordable in all countries. We now know that there are still people living on less than a dollar a day, and those people can't afford much medicine, if at all.
On the bright side, official development assistance (from the developed countries) has reached a peak point of $135.2 billion, and that's pretty great.
In conclusion, we didn't really reach any of the ambitious goals, but it is now proven that real progress can be made. It is a slow process, but it is there. The world has become a better place in those fifteen years.
On the other hand, it is also proven that there is still a whole load of horrible-ness in the world. Still, one in ten children that should be in primary school doesn't attend. Still, one in eight people go hungry. This is something that all of us should take a moment to think about, and this is something all of us need to help with.
I hope you enjoyed reading this. Feel free to use the content of this post (that's encouraged! Spread the news!) but make sure to mention its source.
Sources that I used to write this post:
The UN MDG report. Read it! It's enlightening and there are a lot of interesting graphs in there.
The MDG wikipedia site.
This paper on slums.
While worldwide trade has improved, it hasn't really done so in the places where it is needed. (Specifically the developing countries.) There is no open, rule-based, non-discriminatory trading and financial system worldwide. And though I couldn't find concrete statistics on this, I am willing to bet that developing countries' debts have been comprehensively dealt with and that essential drugs are not affordable in all countries. We now know that there are still people living on less than a dollar a day, and those people can't afford much medicine, if at all.
On the bright side, official development assistance (from the developed countries) has reached a peak point of $135.2 billion, and that's pretty great.
In conclusion, we didn't really reach any of the ambitious goals, but it is now proven that real progress can be made. It is a slow process, but it is there. The world has become a better place in those fifteen years.
On the other hand, it is also proven that there is still a whole load of horrible-ness in the world. Still, one in ten children that should be in primary school doesn't attend. Still, one in eight people go hungry. This is something that all of us should take a moment to think about, and this is something all of us need to help with.
I hope you enjoyed reading this. Feel free to use the content of this post (that's encouraged! Spread the news!) but make sure to mention its source.
Sources that I used to write this post:
The UN MDG report. Read it! It's enlightening and there are a lot of interesting graphs in there.
The MDG wikipedia site.
This paper on slums.
