Wednesday, September 5, 2012

THE WORLD: MDG

UN can’t do it alone, MDG requires a cumulative and concerted effort
 
There were 1.4 billion people (25% of the world population) living below the poverty line in 2005 ($1.25 a day), a marked improvement from 1.9 billion people (50% of world population) in 1981. But much of this betterment was purely of Chinese citizens. Female literacy rose considerably from 60% to 74% for age 15 years and over, between 1990 and 2004. In the same period, male literacy grew to 86% from 77%. There was an improvement in sanitation too, with 1.2 billion more people gaining access to it in the period. However, 2.6 billion people were still deprived of it as of 2004! Recently, Obama said that poor countries should not depend on foreign aid. Indeed, China’s poor have reduced to 278 million from 452 million over the past decade, and not due to foreign aid! Sub-Saharan Africa remains at the same level as it was 10 years ago – poverty there has reduced by only 1% despite gigantic aid from US and EU.

Annan initiated MDG, but slowly and surely, not only is this term becoming submerged into the background of global issues, the fact also is that the UN itself doesn’t seem to be quite serious in forcing developed nations openly to contribute towards achieving the goals. Clearly, this should be an issue more important for the UN than environment.
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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