8.3C - MDGs and SDGs
Progress against the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been mixed in terms of individual countries, global regions and targets; the UN post-2015 development agenda expands on MDGs, setting new goals to include sustainable development.
The UN MDGs ran from 2000 to 2015, and aimed to improve the lives of people living in developing countries (especially South Asia and Africa) through global response. They consisted of 8 goals and subsidiary targets. Examples are:
- To halve the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day
- To halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
- By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005 and at all levels by 2015
- Reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate
- Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio
They were ambitious goals and targets, focused on meeting basic needs in terms of health, income, food supply, water and sanitation. How successful were they?:
- the health target prevented 20 million deaths between 2000 and 2015
- 6.2 million deaths from malaria prevented, 37 million deaths from TB prevented
- infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 53%
- The rate of children dying before the age of 5 has fallen from 90 to 43 per 1000 (52% decrease)
- numbers living in extreme poverty fell by 54%, from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015
- undernourishment fell from 20% to 13% between 2000 and 2015
- primary school enrolment increased from 83% to 9!%
- maternal mortality fell from 330 to 210 deaths per 100,000 live births
- parliamentary representation of women increased in nearly 90% of countries
- improved access to sanitation for 2.1 billion
Drawbacks to the MDGs
These are huge gains, but:
- Only one of the goals (no. 7, halving the number of people without safe access to drinking water) has been achieved.
- Also, some countries, especially China, account for a large slice of this 'success' and can mask more limited progress in parts of South Asia and Africa.
- East Asia and Latin America have made better progress than other developing regions.
- 500 million of those the fall in extreme poverty came from China
- Gender inequality has not improved as much as hoped, and conflict in many countries (Somalia, Yemen, DRC) has set progress back.
- The poorest, and those disadvantaged because of gender, age, disability or ethnicity were not benefitted
- All but one MDG focused on poverty reduction rather than wealth creation (Hans Rosling criticised this)
- By 2015, 800 million people still lived in extreme poverty and hunger, and 800 million lived in slum housing in cities.
Sustainable Development Goals
The SDGs replaced the MDGs for the period 2015-2030. They are 17 global goals that apply to all countries, not just developing countries (as with the MDGs). They too set targets for basic needs, but in addition have to focus on sustainable development, including:
But, they are not legally binding.
- clean energy -> renewable, low carbon
- decent work -> for a decent wage, avoiding exploitation
- sustainable cities -> for more than 50% of the world's population living in urban areas
- protecting oceans and ecosystems.
But, they are not legally binding.