Progress for Children: Achieving the MDGs

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the global community committed to achieving changes on a massive scale for the world's people. With a view to building a more peaceful, prosperous and just world, the heads of government have identified eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be met by 2015. The eight MDGs were: 1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; 2) Achieve universal primary education; 3) Promote gender equality and empower women; 4) Reduce child mortality; 5) Improve maternal health; 6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; 7) Ensure environmental sustainability; and 8) Develop a global partnership for development.
The MDGs have also identified targets against which progress for children would be measured, and in view of which the global community would be held accountable.
The UNICEF report "Progress for Children --- Beyond Averages: Learning from the MDGs" indicates that since 2000, the MDGs have helped drive tremendous progress for children, proving how much can be achieved by galvanising global efforts around concrete, common goals. Today, a child's chance to survive and thrive is much greater than it was when the global community committed to the MDGs. This report also shows significant progress in areas such as child survival, nutrition, mother-to- child transmission of HIV and primary school enrolment, among others. Undoubtedly, these are impressive achievements, but they are only part of the story. Millions of children in greatest need have been left behind - the most marginalised and vulnerable children whose future the MDGs were designed to safeguard.
In relation to MDG-1, this eleventh edition of 'Progress for Children' report shows that nearly half of all deaths in children under five are attributable to under-nutrition. Being undernourished puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections. In addition, the link between under-nutrition and infection can create a potentially lethal cycle of worsening illness and deteriorating nutritional status. Extreme poverty has declined across all regions, with faster progress in East Asia and the Pacific. Although extreme poverty has also been declining in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of people living in extreme poverty are still in these two regions. More than half of the children under age 12 living in low income countries live in extreme poverty.  
For MDG-2, the report indicates that although the target of universal primary education will not be met in 2015, remarkable progress was made in lowering the number of out-of-school children (OOSC). Globally, between 1999 and 2012, the number of primary-school aged children out of school decreased by 45 per cent. South Asia made the greatest progress in reducing the absolute number of OOSC - from 36 million (1999) to 10 million (2012). Disparities are seen in learning outcomes. Data reveal significant gaps in children's learning performance between the richest households and the poorest. In case of MDG-3, this document indicates that globally, in 2015, 69 per cent of countries with data will have achieved gender parity at the primary level, while 48 per cent will have achieved it at the secondary level. While increased primary-school attendance rates were accompanied by reduced disparity between boys' and girls' attendance, the gender gap remains large - particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty and other forms of social disadvantage increase gender disparities.
For MDG-4, the report shows that the global under-five mortality rate has dropped by more than half since 1990. The rate of under-five mortality is decreasing faster than at any other time during the past two decades, with the global annual rate of reduction more than tripling since the early 1990s. Despite such achievements, by the end of this year, almost 6 million children will have died before their fifth birthday - most from preventable causes. A mother's education remains a powerful determinant of inequity. Children of mothers with no education are on average about two and a half times more likely to die before their 5th birthday compared to children of mothers with secondary or higher education. The MDG-5 document indicates that the number of women and girls who died each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth fell from 523,000 in 1990 to 289,000 in 2013. This 45 per cent decline in maternal deaths is impressive given the rapid population growth in many of the countries where maternal deaths are the highest.
For MDG-6, the report informs us that globally investments in the HIV/AIDS response have generated positive results. Improved care and treatment options have increased the lifespan of people living with HIV/AIDS. The disease-related deaths decreased rapidly between 2001 and 2013 among all age groups except adolescents (aged 10-19), where there was no decrease. HIV remains the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age (aged 15-49) globally. Malaria prevents children from going to school and their parents from engaging in productive activities. In 2014, 97 countries worldwide had ongoing malaria transmission, most of which were in sub-Saharan Africa.
The MDG-7 targets related to nutrition, education and gender equality. This report indicates that since 1990, 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation, but the 2015 target has been missed for almost 700 million. The world has increased access to improved sanitation facilities, but there are significant disparities in the rates of progress achieved across regions. All regions have made faster progress in rural sanitation, but coverage of improved sanitation remains substantially higher in urban areas. The last part of this report focuses on early childhood development and child marriage.  Early childhood, which spans the period up to 8 years of age, is critical for cognitive, social, emotional and physical development. Investing in early childhood care, development and education can be a powerful way to reduce gaps that often put children with low social and economic status at a disadvantage. Child marriage often compromises a girl's development by resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupting her schooling, limiting her opportunities for career and vocational advancement and placing her at increased risk of domestic violence. The practice of child marriage is slowly declining, with the most dramatic progress occurring among girls married before age 15.
Every child deserves a fair chance in life as our future depends on it. It is high time we learned from the MDGs, which will help us stop the vicious cycle of intergenerational disadvantages and create a beneficial cycle of opportunities for every child.

The writer is an independent researcher.
[email protected]

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Progress for Children
--- Beyond Averages: Learning from the MDGs
Published by Unicef, June, 2015
 ISBN: 978-92-806-4806-5; pages 72