The Role of Millennium Development Goals in Promoting

Keywords: MEG, Poverty, Health, Education, Bangladesh

Introduction

The Millennium Development Goals (Megs) represent a global commitment to tackle poverty, hunger, disease, education, inequality and environmental degradation. Since their launch In 2000 the Megs have been a useful tool for international development and to reach the targets by 2015 Is no mean achievement In September 2000, member states of the united Nations (UN) gathered at the Millennium Summit to affirm commitments towards reducing poverty and the worst forms of human deprivation.

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The Summit adopted the UN Millennium Declaration which embodies pacific targets and milestones in eliminating extreme poverty worldwide. To help track progress in the attainment of the 8 goals and 18 targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MEG) over the period 1990 to 201 5, experts from the united Nations Secretariat and International Monetary Fund (MIFF), Overseas Economic Cooperation and Development (COED) and the World Bank identified and selected a set of time-bound and measurable indicators.

Data series on the 48 MEG indicators are compiled to provide the basis for the preparation of progress reports by member states of the united Nations (ON) on the implementation of the UN Millennium Declaration. Governments from 147 countries of the world (191 countries in total) signed in New York in 2000 the "United Nations Millennium Declaration: Human Development - Primary Importance Goal".

This document reaffirms the commitment of the international community to the fundamental values of humankind - freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility - and emphasizes the importance of tackling major issues related to the consolidation of peace, observance of human rights, assurance of sustainable development, environmental protection.

General Objectives

This study is a partial requirement of the course on Bangladesh Studies. The general objective of the study is to develop a clear understanding about the Millennium development issues in Bangladesh.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the study are:

• To evaluate the goals, targets and monitoring indicators tailored to the social and economic context of Bangladesh.
• To find out the progress or current situation of Bangladesh at this context.
• To find out the barriers in achieving established targets.
• To asses the Priority actions which are to be undertaken in order to achieve established goals.
• An assessment of the monitoring and reporting capacities on the progress of achieving Meds.

Methodology

Millennium Development Goal (Meds) are expected to track progress of countries towards the achievement of internationally agreed time bound goals. The report is designed for international comparison especially with regards to building national capacity to benchmark and assess progress, to highlight achievements and gaps. The UN Development Group provides guidelines on the procedures for the preparation, the duration, size and format and the outline. The MEG is not an in-depth analytical review of policy reform, institutional change and resource allocations thus the length should range between 30-35 pages.

Nevertheless, Megs vary within this specification, reflecting the national development priorities on the basis of available data. The expectation is that the report would be based on secondary data. The report begins with the development context of the country and examines each goal, evolution, recommendation major challenges faced and how mach they can achieve in time. Secondary data were used in reporting on each of the eight goals.

In addition to these agencies, other major sources of data include the Federal Office of Statistics, Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Federal Ministry of Environment and Federal Ministry of Water Resources. In each Ministry, discussions were held with top officials and relevant data and publication were collected. Such documents in respect of each goal are identified in an annex at the end of this report. D. Literature view In the literature view we like to provide some complements about MEG of many organizations or intellectuals.

This is given below - UNDO, in collaboration with national governments, is coordinating reporting by countries on progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goals. The framework for reporting includes eight goals based on the UN Millennium Declaration. For each goal there is one or more specific target, along with specific social, economic and environmental indicators used to track progress towards the goals. Support for reporting at the country level includes close consultation by UNDO with partners in the UN Development Group, there UN partners, the World Bank, MIFF and COED and regional groupings and experts.

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs is coordinating reporting on progress towards the goals at the global level. There are many researcher & journalist put their opinion on MEG. For an Example - In September 2000 a Journalist Ivies Debtor Report that, UN General Assembly agreed to a Millennium Declaration. What was interesting about this declaration, as opposed to several other UN declarations, was that some specific timeliness were set out in a section on "Development and Poverty Eradication".

In December 2000, General Assembly asked Secretary General to prepare a roadman for implementing this declaration and by September 2001, such a roadman was available. Effectively, it is this document that first set out what came to be accepted as eight Meds:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. Achieve universal primary education;
3. Promote gender equality Combat HIVE/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
4. Ensure environmental sustainability;
5. Develop a global partnership for development.

At that stage, there were 18 targets and 48 indicators, with specific timeliness for all but goal 8.

However, three additional targets were added in 2005. Nor have the indicators been cast in stone. As of now, there are 21 targets and 59 indicators. The MEG system thus means the 8 goals, plus 21 targets, plus 60 indicators. It is important to make this point because Meds are usually thought of in terms of goals, which are necessarily too general. Another Journalist Careless Latin says that, "Success" or "failure" in attaining Megs is a function of target or indicator used more often the latter. Criticisms of MEG framework bear mentioning.

First, the bar was often set too high, impounded by the fact that while the base was 1990, the Megs weren't actually agreed to until 2000/2001. Second, progress towards Meds has been usually, though not invariably, gauged in terms of developing countries as a group. This ignores significant heterogeneity within this category and Meds would have been better targets had they been applied regionally or nationally. Last year, a World Bank study documented this varied progress across regions, with performance distorted by China and India. Indeed, within large countries, there are significant intra-country differences too.

Millennium Development Goals

• Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Target 1 . A: Halve, between 1990 and 201 5, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day 1. 1 Proportion of population below $1 (APP) per day 1. 2 Poverty gap ratio 1. 3 Share of poorest quintile in national consumption Target 1 .

B: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people 1. 4 Growth rate of GAP per person employed 1. 5 Employment-to-population ratio 1. 6 Proportion of employed people living below $1 (APP) per day 1. Proportion of win-account and contributing family workers in total employment

• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Target 2. A: Ensure that, by 201 5, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling 2. 1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education 2. 2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary 2. 3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men

• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 3. A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015 3. Ratios of wage employment in the non-agricultural sector 3. 3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Target 4. A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 201 5, the under-five mortality rate 4. 1 Under-five mortality rate 4. 2 Infant mortality rate 4. 3 Proportion of 1 year-old children unmissed against measles

• Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Target 5. A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 201 5, the maternal mortality ratio 5. 1 Maternal mortality ratio 5. 2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel Target 5. Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health 5. 3 Contraceptive prevalence rate 5. 4 Adolescent birth rate 5. 5 Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits) 5. 6 need for family planning

• Goal 6: Combat WIDTHS, malaria and other diseases Unmet

Target 6. A: Have halted by 201 5 and begun to reverse the spread of WIDTHS 6. 1 HIVE prevalence among population aged 15-24 years 6. 2 Condom use at last high-risk sex 6. 3 Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIVE/AIDS 6. Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years Target 6. 8: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIVE/AIDS for all those who need it 6. 5 Proportion of population with advanced HIVE infection with access to intervocalic drugs

Target 6. C: Have halted by 201 5 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases 6. 6 Incidence and death rates associated with malaria 6. 7 Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets 6. 8 Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti- malarial drugs

Evaluation of Bangladesh Meds

Bangladesh became independent in 1991. The independence of Bangladesh was recognized by the international community and our country became member of a series of prestigious international organizations. United Nations Organization is one of them. The Constitution of Bangladesh guaranteeing human rights and liberties, free development of human personality, Justice and political pluralism was adopted in 1994. All the citizens of Bangladesh are equal before the law and the public authorities regardless of their race, national origin, language, religious creed, sex, pinion, political affiliation or social origin.

The Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees each citizen the right to a decent life, the right to information, the right to education, the right to health care and the right to a healthy environment. Millennium Development goals is a step taken by the NUN for development. And Bangladesh also achieves some result in millennium development goals.

• Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 201 5, the proportion of people whose income is less than one US dollar a day. To achieve MEG 1, Bangladesh must reduce by 201 5 he proportion of population with income less than one US dollar (APP) a day from 58. Percent in 1991-92 to 29. 4 percent, and the proportion of people in extreme poverty from 28 percent in 1990 to 14 percent by 2015. Situational Analysis: Poverty reduction Bangladesh has made good progress since IFFY in reducing income poverty based on the national poverty line. The country was able to lower the overall incidence of poverty from 58. 8 percent in 1991-92 to about 50 percent in 2000, or one percentage point per year. Bangladesh good economic growth performance - with overall GAP growth averaging 5 percent and per-capita growth averaging 3. Percent per annum during PAYOFF-2001 - contributed much to this progress.

This was achieved despite a rise in inequality during the nineties - with overall Gin coefficient rising from 0. 259 in 1992 to 0. 306 in 2000 - which partly offset the positive impact of growth. In spite of the advancement, 63 million people are poor with one-third caught in hard-core or extreme poverty. Poverty gap (PEG) and squared poverty gap (SSP) Trends in the poverty gap show a drop from 17. 2 in 1991/92 to 12. 9 in 2000. This suggests that even among the poor a greater share of the people is now closer to the poverty line than at the beginning of the asses.

It is also worth noting however, that the distributional sensitive measures (PEG, SSP) declined relatively more rapidly than the poverty headcount rate. On average, rural areas did better than urban areas in reducing the depth and severity of poverty, which implies that growth in rural areas was more pro-poor than in urban areas. The urban poverty gap stood at 9. 5 percent 2000. Despite good progress in reducing the overall incidence of poverty in the nineties, the absolute number of poor continues to be nearly 63 million, with poverty engaging largely a rural phenomenon. An estimated 85 percent of the country's poor - 53. Million out of a total of 62. 7 million poor - live in the rural areas.

Progress in reducing poverty incidence in the nineties was equal across urban and rural areas, even though average per capita expenditures increased much faster in urban areas. A sector's decomposition of the change in national poverty incidence suggests that the rural sector, with 80 percent of the population, contributed 78 percent of the total decrease in national poverty incidence between 1992 and 2000. The urban sector undistributed about 13 percent, while migration from rural to urban areas, where poverty is lower, accounted for the remaining 9 percent decline.

• Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 201 5, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger Prevalence of underweight children The prevalence of moderately underweight children (6-71 months) has declined noticeably from 67 percent in 1990 to 51 percent in 2000, while that of severely underweight children of the same age group has been halved from 25 to 13 percent during roughly the same period. Also, the proportion of moderately underweight hillier under the age of five years reduced from 56 to 48 percent during the period 1997-2000.

Child malnutrition

Despite the progress achieved, child malnutrition in Bangladesh remains among the highest in the world, and more severe than that of most other developing countries, including the countries of sub-Sahara Africa. The proportion of underweight children in Bangladesh is 16 percent higher than 16 other Asian countries at similar levels of per capita GAP. Nearly half the children are underweight or stunted, with 13 to 19 percent being severely underweight or stunted in terms of being more than here standard deviations below the relevant INCH standards.

This suggests that children in Bangladesh suffer from short-term acute shortfall in food intake as well as longer-term under-nutrition. Much remains to be done in this vital area. There are also large differences in child malnutrition rates across economic groups. Child malnutrition is pervasive among the poor. More than 60 percent of the children 6-71 months old suffering from stunting, belong to the bottom consumption quintile. Contrary to expectation however, nearly a third of the children from the richest quintile also suffer from malnourishment. This suggests that factors other than income play an mordant role in this phenomenon.

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