Goals -- Some Progress for

¶ … Goals -- Some Progress for Sub-Saharan Africa When the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were established and agreed upon in 2000-2001, the objective of the international community was to "…spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty" (Ban Ki-Moon, 2008). Those goals, according to the Secretary-General of the United Nations -- writing the Foreword to the "Millennium Development Goals Report 2008" -- "…encompass universally accepted human values and rights" (Ban Ki-Moon).

The problems reflected in each of the UN goals are significant and the challenges are enormous, but the MDG approach was projected to be powerful enough and the international commitment fervent enough to overcome the challenges. As for poverty, the MDG Report 2008 points out that "poor people are caught in a vicious circle"; poor mothers are more likely to die giving birth to a child and children of poor families "…are more likely to be malnourished" and hence "more susceptible to an early death from childhood diseases" (MDG Goals Report).

Eradicating extreme poverty has other implications because: a) poor children "receive less education and some may receive none at all"; b) "gender imbalances are more pronounced among the poor" and females from poor families are often excluded from "recognized development benefits and opportunities"; and c) the poor not only have meager incomes, they are the most "deprived of health, education and other aspects of human well-being" (MDG Goals Report 2008).

Education could lift millions of poor children from abject poverty to a livable level of life, but sadly, in Sub-Saharan Africa "only a quarter of children of secondary age are in secondary school" (MDG Goals Report 2008). Part of a basic education is achieving literacy, and the ability to read opens up numerous social, economic, and cultural doors for poor children. Gender equality begins at the level of giving girls equal opportunities to an education, the MDG Goals Report 2008 points out.

Receiving some education helps girls get better-paying jobs and serves as a tool for understanding the challenges they face. Reducing child mortality is important but that means making the environment save and sustainable (MDG #7) because most childhood deaths are due to "pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles" (MDG Goals Report 2008).

The problems related to maternal health are enormous: the MDG Report states that "Ninety-nine percent" of the half a million deaths that occurred during pregnancy happened in the "developing regions" (1 in 22 pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa die during childbirth compared with 1 in 7,300 in developed nations). Global partnerships in development are key to giving poor countries a jumpstart in their economies.

Combating AIDS, malaria and other diseases is a vitally important aspect of the MDG because, according to the MDG Report 2008, "every day nearly 7,500 people become infected with HIV and 5,500 die from AIDS." Also, the newest most effective treatment strategies for fighting malaria are "underutilized" and as to tuberculosis, there were an estimated 14.4 people infected from 2005 to 2006 and an estimated 1.7 million people died of tuberculosis (two-thirds of those deaths and infections were reported in Africa, China, and India) (MDG Report 2008).

TWO: The Sub-Saharan populations have suffered enormously due to ramifications from all eight of the Millennium Development Goals. As to poverty, there are numerous conflicts (wars) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) at any given time, and conflict has created millions of refugees, all of whom can be considered living in desperate poverty. In Somalia, for example, "one in 10 is internally displaced" by conflict. According to the World Bank data, over 50% of people in twenty SSA countries are living on less than $1.25 per day. That is a serious problem.

Education, the second MDG, is sadly unavailable to millions of children in SSA. In fact, the World Bank (http://devdata.worldbank.org) reports that in ten countries in SSA less than 50% of children complete primary education. Some SSA countries include extreme, extreme poverty and lack of educational opportunities, like Central African Republic (24% of children receive primary education), Chad (31%), Guinea-Bissau (27%), and Burkina Faso (33%). As to gender equality in education, it is terribly unjust for females in SSA, according to the World Bank figures.

To wit, in several SSA countries, the ratio of girls to boys in school is less than 80% (eight girls to every ten boys who have a chance at an education). In Chad, there are 6.4 girls to every 10 boys in primary education; in Guinea-Bissau there are 6.5 girls for every ten boys in school. Child mortality is a horrific problem in SSA: in 30 of the 47 countries the rate of child mortality is at least 1 in ten (for children under 5 years of age).

In Sierra Leone, for example 262 out of every 1,000 children die before the age of five (World Bank data). Maternal health is a very serious problem in SSA; over thirty countries report more than 500 mothers out of every 100,000 either die during pregnancy or during childbirth. There are some frighteningly stark numbers among those 30 countries; to wit, in Sierra Leone an estimated 2,100 women die during this critical period in their lives (World Bank data). And in Somalia the number of women dying annually during pregnancy or childbirth is 1,400 per 100,000.

In five SSA countries the number of people between the ages of 15 -- 49 who have contracted HIV is 15% or higher. In South Africa, for example, 18.1% of the population in that age group has HIV; in Botswana the percentage of people with HIV is 23.8%. As to tuberculosis, in South Africa 948 people out of every 100,000 have TB; in fact in the great majority of the 47 SSA countries more than 250 people per 100,000 have TB.

Most western citizens would be shocked to learn that in eight SSA countries less than half the people have access to clean, safe water. In Somalia, only 29% of the population has access to decent water sources, according to the World Bank data. THREE: The MDG Report 2008 points to some successes in terms of achieving goals. At the very least, attempts to control malaria have been expanded (in 16 of 20 SSA countries "insecticide-treated net use" for children under 5 years of age has "at least tripled since around 2000").

In SSA, poverty is still a nagging social and moral issue; the MDG Report indicates that the percentage of people living on less than a dollar a day was 55.5% in 1997 and was 51.4% in 2007. In 1990, 54% of SSA people were malnourished, and b y 2006 that fell to 46%, some improvement (MDG Report). In educational progress, the World Report (WR) shows that in.