Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the International Children's Peace Prize Winners Launch Remember2015

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Archbishop Tutu together with the International Children's Peace Prize Winners and the Dutch foundation KidsRights announced the start of a new movement called Remember2015 (http://www.remember2015.com). This new movement reminds the world of its promise to children through the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000.

In 2000, leaders of 189 countries signed the Millennium Development Goals.  This document promised a better future for children by 2015.

Remember2015 is to recreate awareness and encourage all to get involved.  We need to place children's rights high on the agenda of world leaders. Until now progress on the Millennium Development Goals is not enough.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Asked for a reaction about this new movement during the ceremony of The Children's Peace Prize 2012 Archbishop Tutu said, "Fantastic, fantastic and I hope we always will remember the promises we made, because our world depends on it." The Archbishop continued that world leaders have seen what young people can do referring to changes recent years initiated by young people and warned "We better listen to them."

The Millennium Development Goals

The promise made in 2000:

• The number of  children living in extreme poverty (living on less than 1.25 USD a day) will be halved in 2015.
• All children will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
• The number of young children dying will turned down to maximum 4 million a year.
• (Remember2015 acknowledges that every child that dies is one too many)

Following The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012 by the United Nations:

• 1 in 5 children in the developing world is underweight due to extreme poverty.
• At least 61 million children worldwide do not go to primary school.
• Over 7.6 million young children die every year.
• In the last 12 years over 100 million children under the age of 5 died

About KidsRights

KidsRights, a Dutch children's rights organization stands up for vulnerable children everywhere, offering them direct support tailored to their needs and focusing attention on their position and their rights. KidsRights offers a platform to children who, without help, often find it difficult to make the world sit up and listen. http://www.kidsrights.org

Aid Cuts Threaten Millennium Development Goals, Warns UN

LONDON — The Secretary General of the United Nations has warned that declining aid donations mean many of the UN Millennium Development Goals are likely to be missed.  The UN says official development assistance in 2011 was less than half the $300 billion needed annually to meet the targets set in 2000.  Researchers say up until now good progress has been made in tackling poverty and improving healthcare.

Margaret Gift has brought her son Simplicious for a check-up at a mobile health clinic in the remote village of Chikhwawa in Malawi.  His diarrhea can be treated on the spot.

Health workers say Malawi has made rapid progress in cutting child mortality - one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals or MDGs - partly due to decentralizing healthcare.  UNICEF's Victor Chinyama says that makes health workers more accessible.

"These are people who live within the communities and are able to provide basic treatment to children for some of the most common illnesses, such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea," said Chinyama.

Since 2000, there has been an estimated 40 percent fall globally in the number of children dying under the age of five - good progress towards the goal of two-thirds reduction.

Launching the 2012 MDG Gap Task Force Report, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned gains are at risk because of a $167 billion shortfall from donors.

"Last year, official development assistance declined for the first time in many years.  I repeat my call to the international community: do not place the burden of fiscal austerity on the backs of the poor," he said.

Professor Anne Mills of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine specializes in the health economics of developing countries.  She says the fall in donations is alarming.

"If that continues into the future, then I certainly think it's of major concern.  Ultimately that may have an impact in terms of maternal deaths, neo-natal deaths and child deaths," said Mills.

Mills says child and maternal health has improved significantly since 2000.  But she says the global financial crisis is having an impact.

"We can see increased arguments about the value of aid as we see in the UK.  We've also seen that for some of the donor countries, the increase in aid is beginning to plateau off," she said.
 
Another of the Millennium Development Goals calls for the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water to be halved by 2015.  That appears to be on track thanks to programs like this one in Mali, which aims to bring clean water and improved sanitation to half a million school children.

One of the students, Youssouf Dissa, says that when he came home he spoke to his grandfather and grandmother and explained what he had learned at school, especially the importance of washing hands before eating.

Health professionals appear to agree that the Millennium Development Goals have led to widespread improvements in healthcare and poverty relief.  But with a 2015 deadline, there are warnings that the financial crisis could bring a halt to that progress.

THE UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

THE UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

On 8 September, 2000, 189 heads of State and Government gathered at United Nations headquarters in New York, at the dawn of a new millennium, to reaffirm their faith in the Organization and its Charter as indispensable foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous and just world (Preamble, UN Millennium Declaration). On this day they adopted the UN Millennium Declaration.  This adoption of the Millennium Declaration in 2000 by all 189 member States of the United Nations General Assembly was a defining moment for global cooperation  in the 21st century . The Declaration  outlines within a single  framework the key challenges facing humanity at the threshold of the new Millennium,  outlines a response  to these challenges, and establishes concrete  measures for judging performance  through a set of interrelated commitments, goals and targets  on development, government,  peace, security and human rights.  In recognition of the need to translate  this commitment into action, a broad  interagency consultation arrived at the Millennium Development Goals.

THE GOALS

The Millennium Development Goals (herein after referred to as MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member States and at least 23  international  Organizations have agreed to achieve by  the  year 2015 (wikipedia. Org. 29, June, 2010).  The Millennium Development Goals were developed from the   eight chapters of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. There are eight goals with 21 targets (www.un.org/Millennium goals/poverty. shtml), and a series of measurable indicators for each target (MDGmonitor). Below is an outline of these goals, their targets and indicators.

GOAL 1: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER

Target 1 A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than 1 dollar a day

·        Proportion of population below and 1dollar per day

·        Poverty gap ratio

·        Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 1 B: Achieve decent employment for women, men and young people

·        GDP Growth per employed person

·        Employment rate

·        Promotion of employed population below and 1 dollar per day

·        Proportion of family-based workers in employed population

Target 1 C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

·        Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age

·        Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary consumption.

GOALS 2: ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

Target 2 A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling : boys and girls.

·        Enrollment in primary education

·        Completion of primary education

·         Literacy of 15-24 year olds, female and male (MOG Monitor:  Goal 2).

GOALS 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN

Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably BY 2005 and at all levels by 2015.

·        Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education

·        Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector

·         Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament (MDG Monitor. Goal 3).

GOAL 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY RATE

Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under –five Mortality Rate.

·        Under – five mortality rate

·        Infant (under 2) mortality rate

·        Proportion of 1-year–old children immunized against measles (MDG Monitor: Goal, 4)

GOAL 5: IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH

Target 5 A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternity mortality ratio.

·        Maternity mortality ratio.

·        Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5 B:  Achieve by 2015, Universal access to reproductive health.

·         Contraceptive prevalence rate

·         Adolescent birth rate

·         Adolescent care coverage (at least one visit  and  at  least four visits)

·         Unmet need for family planning (MDG Monitor: Goal 5).

GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA, AND OTHER DISEASES

Target 6 A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.

·        HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24years

·        Condom use at last high-risk sex

·        Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of  HIV/AIDs

·        Ratio  of school  attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-    orphans aged 10-14 years

Target 6 B: Achieve, by 2010, Universal access to treatment for  HIV/AIDs for all  those who need it.

Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs.

Target 6 C: Have halted by 2015 begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

·        Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria

·        Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs.

·        Prevalence of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS     (Directly Observed Treatment short course (MDG Monitor: Goal 6).

GOAL 7: ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Target 7 A:  Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country polices and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resource.

 Target 7 B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss;

·        Proportion of land area covered by forest

·        CO₂ emissions, total, per capital and per 1 dollar

·        Consumption of 0zone-depleting substances

·        Proportion of total water resources used

·        Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected

·        Proportion of species threatened with extinction 

Target 7C: Halve, by2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation;

Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural.
Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation

Target 7D: by 2020, to have achieved improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

·        Promotion of urban dwellers living in slum.

GOAL 8: DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT

Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule–based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.

·        Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction –both nationally and internationally.

Target 8B: Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) includes;

·        Tariff and quota free access for LDC exports, enhanced programme of debt relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt, and more generous ODA (Overseas Development Assistance) for countries committed to poverty reduction.

Target 8 C: Address the special needs of kind locked developing countries and small island developing states.

·        Through the Programme of Action for  the  sustainable Development  of small Island Developing States  and the  outcome  of the  twenty –second special session of  the general Assembly

Target 8D: Deal Comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term indicators.

Target8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, Provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries.

Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis.

Target8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.

Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population

Personal computers in use per 100 population

Internet users per 100 population (MDG Monitor. Goal8).

IN SUMMARY, the millennium development goals focus on the following:
1.    Poverty and hunger.
2.    Primary education.
3.    Women empowerment and gender equality.
4.    Child mortality.
5.    Maternal health.
6.    HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis.
7.    Environmental sustainability.
8.    Global development.