The disparities in our world are striking, and growing. The explosion of new wealth and the expansion of technology and progress in developed countries sit side-by-side with entrenched poverty in developing countries. Many of these challenges are “problems without passports”—economic, environmental, health, and political problems that don’t respect borders, and require international cooperation to overcome.
In his 2005 report, In Larger Freedom, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote, “Today’s is the first generation with the resources and technology to make the right to development a reality for everyone and to free the entire human race from want. There is a shared vision of development.”
That shared vision is the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. The MDGs were derived from the Millennium Declaration that 189 leaders unanimously adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. They represent a comprehensive approach to global poverty and its attendant problems.
The MDGs offer, for the first time, a program of action in which each and every country has roles and responsibilities, and whose progress can be and is being tracked to reach the deadline of 2015. There are eight specific goals, each with measurable targets. For example, the first goal—to “eradicate extreme hunger and poverty”—sets two targets: to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day and to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
With more than 1 billion people earning less than $1 a day, and 800 million people without enough to eat, meeting even the first MDG is an enormous task. And the other seven goals assign similarly bold targets for health, education, equality, the environment, financing for development, and governance. But leading experts and each of the countries that adopted the goals agree that the goals, while ambitious, are achievable.
Meeting the Millennium Development Goals will require the world to work together in ways it has not done so before. To meet the MDGs, developing countries will need to overcome corruption, become more transparent and accountable to their citizens, and prioritize programs that help the help the poorest. Developed countries will need to commit to increasing aid, improving aid delivery, canceling debt and reforming trade rules. Above all, developing and developed countries will need to work together, with the realization that our fortunes and fates are tied together.
Discussion Questions
- What are the eight Millennium Development Goals?
- Do you think they are achievable by 2015?
- Do developed countries have a moral obligation to help the world’s poorest or is it in their self-interest? Which is a more powerful motivator for governments? Which is a more powerful motivator for citizens?
- How should the U.S. work with the UN to help the world’s poorest reach the goals by the target date of year 2015?
- Is aid or trade reform more important? Can one go without the other? What can aid and trade reform accomplish separately, compared to what aid and trade reform can accomplish together?
- President Bush has proposed that development assistance be targeted to countries that demonstrate a commitment to stamping out corruption, adopting free-market reforms, and advancing democracy. However, many of the world’s poor live in countries that do not meet these criteria. Should aid be conditioned in the manner President Bush proposes, or is there a moral imperative to eradicate poverty under all circumstances?
- The U.S. currently contributes about 0.22% of national income to overseas development assistance, below the internationally agreed official development assistance target of 0.7%. As a percentage, U.S. contributions lag behind other developed countries, though they still exceed other countries in terms of total dollars contributed. Is the current level enough, or should the U.S. increase its aid?
- How did so many poor countries fall into debt? Does debt forgiveness help raise the standard of living in the developing world, or does it just reward corrupt governments and ineffective approaches to poverty alleviation? What are the benefits and downsides of writing off debts incurred through prior loans to developing countries?
Further Resources
For more information and resources on the Millennium Development Goals, please visit www.thepeoplespeak.org.
|
