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Thursday, October 28, 2010
TEN years have passed since the United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration, which gave rise to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In September 2000, world leaders endorsed the Millennium Declaration, a commitment to work together to build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world. Since then, countries around the world have worked tirelessly to reach these goals.
A few countries in Asia have been very successful in implementing these goals; others have made satisfactory progress and a few are still lagging behind the rest. Bangladesh received the UN award for its remarkable achievements in attaining the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in reducing child mortality.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received the award at a colourful function at New York's Astoria Hotel on September 19. Nepal, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Rwanda also received awards. But that does not mean that we are in a good position. Consulting a few different sources one can begin to understand what's going on in Bangladesh with regard to the MDGs.
Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: With regards to poverty, Bangladesh is on track. But when it comes to achieving full, productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, we have made slow progress. That figure has gone up from 48% in the base year to 58.5% (current status).
Here, our target is ensuring employment for all. When it comes to removing hunger our progress has been very satisfactory. But the issue of child malnutrition, which is still around 50%, needs closer scrutiny and is one area where we can still do a lot to improve the situation.
Achieving universal primary education: This is a sector where progress has been commendable. Most regions of Bangladesh have primary enrolment ratios above 85%, and many even above 91%; in comparison to the base year percentage of 60 this is a great leap forward.
However, we must also keep an eye on dropout rates, and even though in 2009 the primary completion rate was close to 80% there is little scope for complacency. Adult literacy is also on the rise and that bodes well for our future, with rates going up from 37% in the base year to 72% now.
Promoting gender equality and empower women: The target is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015, while also empowering women. The ratio of girls to boys in primary education, secondary education and tertiary education shows that we have mixed success.
Though the proportion of seats held by women in the national Parliament has increased, our target remains for it to eventually be 33%. On the flip side, the share of women in wage employment in the non-agriculture sector is quite low. We should try our best to even the playing field for them.
Reducing child mortality: The picture is mixed here. We have to consider the target from three different positions. They are under five mortality rate, infant mortality rate and proportion of one-year-old children immunised against measles.
There were 146 mortalities per thousand live births in base year, and in 2010 that number was down to 67. But our target of 48 is still to be achieved and we have only five years to do so. The number of one-year-old children immunised against measles went up from 54% in the base year to 88%, the last year for which information was readily available. Infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births) target is 31. But now it is 45.
Improving maternal health: Here, progress is now satisfactory. The target is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015, but the ratio in Bangladesh has declined from 547 to 348 per lac.
Most of these deaths could have been avoided if care and access to emergency obstetric care was more readily available. Achieving this target (144) will be very challenging, but not out of reach. We have the structural facilities and just need to develop a system to use them properly.
Combatting HIV/AIDS and other diseases: This is an area of great concern. Only 15.8% Bangladeshis aged 15 to 24 have some knowledge of HIV/Aids. Malaria is also a worry. It has been said that the death rate associated with malaria per lac population was 0.37 in 2000 and now it is 0.11. If that is to be believed then we seem to be on track there.
Ensuring environmental sustainability: We have not really taken this issue fully. There is much that we can do differently. The first being putting it on our list of national priorities along with education and health, because it is just as important. Consumption of ozone depleting CFCs in metric tons was 195 is base year. The target is 0 but now it is 155. It's a great challenge.
Developing a global partnership: It seems like Bangladesh is not sufficiently active in developing global partnerships. At present, Bangladesh is trying to build regional partnerships, and while that may be a good sign there is still much left to be done on the international scale. We need to be more active here.
The Millennium Development Goals that have to be achieved by 2015 correspond to the world's main development challenges. The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.
Reaching the targets will be a great challenge for Bangladesh. But it is not impossible. We have to give emphasis on employment, women empowerment, and education. These are the focal points. If we can develop in these areas then it will be easier to reach the MDGs targets.
Sayeed Arman is a Journalist and Human Rights Activist. Email: sayeed.arman@gmail.com
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