Progress Made: An Update on SDGs in Ethiopia

In 2015, 193 UN Member states agreed to work domestically and with other countries to make the world a better and more sustainable place. The resolution that the states signed on September 25, 2015 outlines a path towards sustainable development first precipitated by the Rio+20 Conference in 2012. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals try to pick up where the Millennium Development Goals left off in eradicating poverty and inequality.

It has now been two years since that conference took place, and countries have had the chance to assess themselves and see which goals they can achieve and where they can succeed. In July 2017, representatives from certain countries met up again, this time to report some of their findings on a number of goals. The SDGs in Ethiopia that are most important are goals one, two and five.

Concerning the first goal of no poverty, Ethiopia has made immense strides in the past decade and even more since they adopted the SDGs. The poverty rate was 38.7 percent in 2004, but declined to 29.6 percent in 2010. In 2011, the rate declined another 6.2 percent to 23.4 percent by the end of 2015. These improvements came about as a result of government measures to promote economic growth, such as the Growth and Transformation Plan, as well as anti-poverty organizations working all over the country.

Ethiopia’s progress on the second goal, zero hunger, has also been positive, despite the drought that affected the country’s food supply. The country continues to support programs to bolster small farmers. The country also implemented Climate-Resilient Green Agricultural Development in order to slow their greenhouse gas emissions while promoting growth in the agricultural sector. Different organizations also continue to help Ethiopia become more food secure, like The Hunger Project, which works to decrease food insecurity while also mobilizing communities to become self-reliant.

Finally, the fifth goal of gender equality has also seen improvements. In many countries, women tend to lack political agency. In Ethiopia, the number of female representatives in Parliament reached 38.7 percent, while at regional and district levels women’s representation reached 48 percent in 2016.

Updates on the SDGs in Ethiopia may not paint a perfect picture, but they illustrate a positive look at a country moving towards a better future. Progress in the areas of poverty, hunger, equality and sustainability help Ethiopia model the SDGs in action. This progress is emblematic of a country and world moving away from poverty and toward progress.

– Selasi Amoani

Photo: Flickr

Progress Made on Poverty in Oman

Since 2000, Oman has made strides towards eradicating poverty levels and providing a more stable environment for its people. Oman has met eight of its Millennium Development Goals thus far and is setting its sights on more progress in the future to eradicate poverty in Oman.

Oman is a Middle Eastern country bordering the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman and is east of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It is twice the size of the state of Georgia and just slightly smaller than Kansas.

According to the National Center for Statistics and Information’s Millennium Development Goals indicator, Oman has met eight of its Millennium Development Goals which include: reducing extreme poverty and hunger rates, decreasing child mortality rates, implementing universal primary education and fighting diseases like HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

Extreme poverty and hunger in Oman have been cut in half between 1990 and 2015. In addition, the child mortality rate has dropped by 29 percent since 1990. However, the number of underweight children under five is still too high, at 9.7 percent, although it is a significant decrease from 23 percent in 1990.

Oman has also achieved the goal of ensuring that boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. In 1990, 89.8 percent of students that completed the first grade also completed primary school – by 2014 that number grew to 99.1 percent. Because of that, the literacy rate in teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 has grown to 98.9 percent.

Overall, the actions made by Oman, and the collaboration of other countries around the world, have produced optimistic results in regard to poverty in Oman. The success story of Oman and the many other nations who have met their current Millennium Development goals is proof that many countries are taking steps in the right direction.

– Dustin Jayroe

Photo: Flickr

UN Report Shows Progress on Poverty

This past week, the U.N. released a report on the successes and failures of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report revealed that more than one billion people have successfully broken out of poverty since 1990. It showed China and India playing key roles in this significant reduction of and progress on poverty.

The report also showed that in addition to a sharp drop in extreme poverty, the MDGs have facilitated other major successes. Presently, just as many girls as boys are enrolled in primary schools around the globe. Simple steps like installing bed nets in parts of the developed world have prevented approximately six billion deaths from malaria.

Experts say that the most important MDG contribution has been the creation of a measuring system that depicts what countries have done for their people, and what issues they have neglected. Concrete measurements of well-being—like how many children are clinically malnourished—provide the most helpful insight on the most pressing needs.

The report stated that the world’s most populous countries, China and India, played a central role in global poverty reduction. Economic progress in China helped the extreme poverty rate in Eastern Asia fall from 61 percent in 1990 to a mere four percent in 2015.

By the same token, development in India helped extreme poverty in Southern Asia decline from 52 percent to 17 percent over the same time period. Additionally, Southern Asia’s rate of poverty reduction has accelerated over the past seven years.

While these remarkable gains should not be understated, there is still much more to be done. In India, an estimated 600 million people still defecate out in the open, which dramatically heightens risk of serious disease, especially for children. Additionally, jobs are still not keeping pace with the country’s population growth.

Despite much progress, certain MDG targets were still missed, including a two-thirds reduction of child mortality and women’s deaths in childbirth. Persisting gender inequality was acknowledged as “one of the starkest failures” in the report, as women are still more likely to be poor than men.

This is not to say that progress has not been made on both fronts, but to encourage an even greater collaborative effort in the future. The MDG target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty was achieved ahead of the 2015 deadline five years ago. This is the kind of efficiency we must continually strive for.

The most recent estimates show that the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 per day fell globally from 36 percent in 1990, to just 15 percent in 2011. As of 2015, projections indicate that the global extreme poverty rate has fallen even further, to 12 percent.

At the launch of the report in Oslo, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proudly stated, “The report confirms the global efforts to achieve the goals have saved millions of lives and improved conditions for millions more around the world.” He encouraged the celebration of MDG successes across the global community.

Indeed, the report’s findings most certainly call for worldwide celebration. So too, however, they paint a picture of certain key areas in need of improvement. Looking ahead, findings such as these should help to pave the path for the post-2015 development goals agenda.

– Sarah Bernard

Sources: NY Times, Economic Times
Photo: NY Times

Solutions For Ending Extreme Poverty By 2030

Currently, 1.3 billion people around the world live in extreme poverty. These people live on less than $1.25 per day, which roughly equates to enough money to purchase food, clean water and fuel for two meals.

The Development Committee of the World Bank set the goal of ending extreme poverty by the year 2030 and there has been some progress toward helping those who live in poverty. In the last 30 years, the proportion of the world’s population that lives below the global poverty line has been cut in half.

This was a steady decline, going from 52 percent in 1980, to 43 percent in 1990, 34 percent in 1999 and the latest numbers state that the percentage of people living in poverty was last at 21 percent.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people living in poverty has declined from 58 percent in 1999 to 49 percent in 2010.

“Eradicating poverty in a generation is an ambitious but feasible goal,” stated the United Nations General Assembly.

The decline from 1.9 billion to 1.3 billion is a great change, but there are still 1.3 billion people living without the means to properly support themselves and their families.

However, there are tools that can help elevate people from poverty, including education, health care, water and sanitation, economic security and child participation.

When children receive a quality education, they gain the knowledge and life skills that they need to break the cycle of poverty. Studies have shown that a better-educated workforce, along with a highly trained workforce, is more likely to enjoy higher earnings. This can also allow them to access better healthcare.

Poverty and poor health are “inextricably” linked. The causes of poor health for those around the world can be rooted in political, social and economic injustices. Poverty increases the chances of poor health, which then in turn can trap communities into poverty. Marginalized groups and individuals who may be vulnerable are often affected the worst, deprived of information, money or access to health services that can help them prevent and treat diseases.

Diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria account for nearly half of all child death globally, and many other diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, have affected over a billion people worldwide, thanks in part to poor water and sanitation.

“Sanitation is a cornerstone of public health,” said World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. “Improved sanitation contributes enormously to human health and well-being, especially for girls and women. We know that simple, achievable interventions can reduce the risk of contracting diarrhoeal disease by a third.”

Preventing the spread of diseases also helps improve education for children, allowing them to be an added asset to their community. When children take part in their community, it helps engage them as citizens and aids them toward a higher economic prospect.

Allowing people to grow by giving them what every person should have allows them to grow economically, but by also providing ways to prevent and treat preventable diseases, the economies of developing countries will grow as well — thus shrinking the number of people who live in extreme poverty around the world.

– Monica Newell

Sources: Heath Poverty Action, Global Citizen, Prospect, WHO, New York Times
Photo: UN Foundation

What are the UN Millennium Development Goals?

Those new to The Borgen Project or unfamiliar with international policy terminology may not have heard of the UN Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs as they are often called, but these goals are helping to drive the development agendas of nations around the world. Thirteen years ago, 189 countries at the United Nations in New York adopted a resolution called the Millennium Declaration which affirmed a collective commitment to improving the social, economic, and political lives of all people. In the resolution, countries affirmed that “in addition to our separate responsibilities to our individual societies, we have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level.” World leaders affirmed their “duty to world’s people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs.”

The resolution affirmed six “fundamental values” and announced eight specific goals to be achieved by 2015. The values are

• Freedom
• Equality
• Solidarity
• Tolerance
• Respect for nature
• Shared responsibility

Those values in turn determined the eight Millennium Development Goals, the “key objectives” deemed to have “special significance” in the effort to “translate shared values into action.”  Specifically, the stated goals are to

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

According to the UN, these goals are intended to be a “blueprint for development institutions,” and the goals have “galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.” Progress toward Millennium Development Goals is being tracked in comprehensive annual reports that are country-specific. As evidence of this progress, the organization USAID points to the following statistics:

• Since 1999, 43 million more children in sub-Saharan Africa are receiving primary education
• Due to health programs and vaccinations, child mortality has fallen by 35% in the last two decades
• In Africa, malaria deaths have been cut by over 30% in the last decade
• Since 1990, 2 billion people have gained access to clean drinking water

April 5, 2013 marked the 1,000-day mark to the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals. (Read a report about this milestone here in the Borgen Magazine). The UN and its partner organizations are redoubling efforts to reach these goals,and to plan for concerted action to continue this progress after 2015. The UN calls the 2015 MDGs “the most successful global anti-poverty push in history.”

In determining the next set of goals for beyond 2015, the UN invites people to get involved in the process and vote for these future goals. Votes can be cast here on the UN site www.myworld.org.

– Délice Williams

Source: UNDP-Brightcove,UN,Borgen
Photo: Global Giving