The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched by the United Nations will expire at the end of this year. Naturally the process of recounting the degree and extent of success is already on. Overall, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been remarkably successful in focusing attention and mobilising resources to address the major gaps in human development. The global community must build on the current MDGs, moving beyond meeting basic human needs in order to promote dynamic, inclusive and sustainable development.
MDGs are a set of time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions - income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion - while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability.
The world has made significant progress in achieving many of the MDGs. The number of people in extreme poverty, declined by an estimated 130 millions. Child mortality rates fell from 103 deaths per 1,000 live births a year to 88. Life expectancy rose from 63 years to nearly 65 years. An additional 8.0 per cent of the developing world's people received access to water. And an additional 15 per cent acquired access to improved sanitation services.
But progress has been far from uniform across the world or across the MDGs. Achieving the health goals looks difficult, particularly for Africa, as it lags behind despite the substantial progress it has made since 2000. There are huge disparities across and within countries. Within countries, poverty is greatest for rural areas, though urban poverty is also extensive, growing, and underreported by traditional indicators. Therefore, poverty reduction stays at the top of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda.
As far as Bangladesh is concerned, it has shown remarkable progress in areas of reducing headcount poverty and the poverty gap ratio, decreasing the number of underweight children under five years of age, attaining gender parity in primary and secondary education, reducing under-five mortality rates, increasing the net enrolment ratio at primary schools, lowering infant mortality rates and the maternal mortality ratio, increasing the proportion of one year-old children immunised against measles, improving immunisation coverage, reducing deaths from tuberculosis per 100,000 people and raising the proportion of people using an improved drinking water source.
The incidence of poverty is declining in Bangladesh at a rate of 2.47 per cent per year since 1991-92 and the target of halving the population living below the poverty line has already been achieved in 2012. Bangladesh has hit most of the UN Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) targets ahead of the 2015 deadline.
The country's employment rate for the 15+ year population is 59.3 per cent of the total population, but Bangladesh needs to create jobs for all by 2015. The adult literacy rate for the 15+ years population is only 58.5 per cent of the total population. According to the MDG target, the country needs to make all of its population literate by 2015. The country is still falling short of the target to arrest the primary school drop out rate at 3.6 per cent.
Bangladesh is being tagged globally as 'the land of impossible attainments' for poverty and extreme poverty reduction in recent years. The country has already achieved the targets meant for a hunger and poverty-free society under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The success in poverty reduction has been well-acclaimed by the international community. Many of the extreme poor have crossed poverty line over the last 22 years. It is also worth mentioning that 45 per cent of those extreme poor were pulled out of poverty within the last five years.
The Government has set the target to bring down poverty to 13.5 per cent by 2021. Extreme poverty will be totally eliminated from this country by 2018. The budget proposal contains various programmes worth Tk.15 billions to eradicate extreme poverty.
Recent years have seen a perceptible increase in interest in social safety nets in Bangladesh. Historically, public safety net efforts in Bangladesh have clustered around the twin themes of food rations and post-disaster relief. The third cluster has been informal safety nets at family and community levels to address issues of demographic and social shocks. In recent years, however, safety nets have transcended these historical moorings and have graduated to a mainstream social and developmental concern.
Bangladesh has laid special emphasis on making safety net programmes more target-oriented with a view to accelerating poverty alleviation process. The country is now on the verge of finalising the 'National Social Protection Strategy' (NSPS). At the same time, steps have been taken to prepare a list of hard-core poor and a 'National Population Register' for proper identification of beneficiaries of social safety net programmes. The underlying causes of poverty in Bangladesh are diverse and include vulnerability, social exclusion, and lack of assets and income opportunity. Risks and vulnerability are mainstream problems in the lives of the average Bangladeshi and are recognised as such by governments, individuals and communities.
Social Safety Net Programmes (SSNPs) in Bangladesh address basic needs of the people namely food, shelter, education and health. The prime programmes covered under SSNPs are: Food for Works (FFW), Vulnerable Group Development (VGD), Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF), old-age allowances, allowances for retarded people, allowances for widow and distressed women, grants for orphanages. Distressed people particularly women, children and disabled persons have been given priority under Social Safety Net. The SSNPs have been broadly categorised into two: Social Protection and Social Empowerment. They are implemented through both non-development budget and development budgets.
All this goes to indicate that Bangladesh is comfortably poised to meet the SDGs as well. As a matter of fact, counting will start from where it will be left off by MDGs. Policy formulation for SDGs may also be made in the light of success achieved in case of MDGs. There are, however, 11 indicators where progress has been lagging behind and it is most likely that some targets will not be achieved. The process of building the post-2015 development agenda seems to be struggling to reconcile present needs like the eradication of poverty, with more value-based goals for future.
saleh.akram26@gmail.com
MDG to SDG - sustaining a lasting growth
Saleh Akram | Published: September 20, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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