Targets of the Millennium Development Goals Part 1/3

Over the recent years the rich countries, with a few exceptions like the United Kingdom, have given less and less their income in foreign aid. The Millennium Development Goals are designed to reverse that trend, to set clear and measurable targets for developing countries to meet.

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Transcript

Targets of the Millennium Development Goals Eveline Herfkens: The Millennium Development Goals provide us for the first time in history with a shared vision among all of us including at the highest political level of what development is about – and who should be doing what to put an end to poverty. Hilde Frafjord Johnson: The beauty of the Millennium Development Goals actually is that we agreed to do our bit. The rich countries have to improve significantly and so do the poor countries – there’s no way we can achieve this without both doing their job. Prof Adil Najam: Ours is the very first generation in history that had the possibility and the ability to feed every hungry person on earth. We had the technology, we had the food, we just didn’t have the will and that’s where the MDGs come in. Male: Over recent years the rich countries – with a few exceptions like the UK - have given less and less of their income in foreign aid. The Millennium Development Goals are designed reverse that trend - to set clear and measurable targets for developing countries to meet in return for foreign aid. The idea is that taxpayers who finance foreign aid have a right to see results. Poul Nielson: The trick is that by setting the targets of the MDGs, we are creating an agenda of things to achieve. The raw material of making that possible is basically an input of money. This money is found in one place only, in the pockets of taxpayers in the rich North. Male: The MDGs – it’s hoped – will persuade taxpayers to deeper dip into their pockets – either because they care, or because they’re concerned at what could happen if they don’t. Eveline Herfkens: Even if people would not care, it is important to realize that indeed globalization means diseases travel, crime travels, drugs travel, terrorism travels, so we are in this all together. Male: These are the kind of people the MDGs are meant to help. Over ten thousand slum-dwellers in Metro Manila owe their living to scavenging on the Payatas rubbish tip. In developing countries like the Philippinnes over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day. So Millennium Target Number One is cutting that number by half – and eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Prof Adil Najam: I think it can certainly be achieved. It would be just one step, in some ways it’s an easy target and the sad part is even though it is an easy target it is so difficult to achieve. Male: But it could be achieved with political will as the next program in the stories of life shows. China has some of the poorest and most remote villages in the world where cameras don’t often go. But China claims to have lifted 250 Million people above its basic poverty line of 66 cents a day. Jane Weru: Target number one is achievable. It would be achieved if each one of us plays our part and does what they're supposed to. If in developing countries, we develop policies that support this goal. And they put money where our mouths are. And also in the developed world if policies do and are developed that can support this goal. Male: In a Chinese school, they’re still working at 10 at night. On the rules, acceptance notes for the students from universities. But to have a chance of a university, children first need a primary education. And in some poor countries like India, many don’t even have that. So MDG number two, achieving universal primary education by 2015, a target that’s about more than just learning to read and write. Poul Nielson: The difference between having a school or not having a school means much more than the teaching of the children. The fact that millions of teachers become civic leaders, they stand up so they represent culture and hope of rising above the poverty. They just want to teach and represents in a poor country. Male: In some countries, teachers are so scarce children are having to teach themselves. In India, these children are organizing their own education, street kids improvising street classrooms. And in the Island of Sri Lanka, scared by civil war, life has filmed children who’ve rebuilt their schools themselves. But around the world, there are many children who don’t have the resources to help themselves. And for whom primary education remains a distant dream. Eveline Herfkens: Putting free primary education in place is something all countries – even the poorest - should be able to do if you get your budgetary priorities right – so there’s no excuse for that. Male: Why is it not happening? Eveline Herfkens: It’s a question of political will, and that’s what it’s all about. Male: But surely a government shouldn’t have to be told - by a bunch of bureaucrats in New York – to educate its children? Eveline Herfkens: No, they should be told by their own people. Hilde Frafjord Johnson: I haven’t up to now met any minister or President that doesn’t believe that providing education for all is extremely important. Male: But some of them don’t do it. Hilde Frafjord Johnson: And that’s because they lack financial resources. And that’s because they lack the capacity. Male: But isn’t it sometimes because they can’t be bothered – it’s not a political priority –rather spending the money on defense. Hilde Frafjord Johnson: Yes, some leaders are not sufficiently committed. And those, there’s no other way than putting hard pressure on them. And also? Male: So the MDGs may have to come with pressure as well as pleas? Hilde Frafjord Johnson: Of course, of course. And we’re doing that. Male: In war-torn Afghanistan young girls are now returning to school after the fall of the Taliban. Empowering women is increasingly seen as crucial for development. It’s Millennium Development Goal Number Three. Many women aren’t waiting to be liberated from oppression, abuse and gender bias. In Luak in Kenya a Catholic Church shelters fifty widows who have rebelled against the tradition of wife inheritance. Wife inheritance means the wives of dead men being passed onto relatives – often along with the virus that causes AIDS. In Nepal Life visits Sita, determined to help women protect themselves against AIDS. And in Bangladesh, Shati, a young photographer, campaigns for other girls to follow her example - to stay at school, join a profession and resist being married off too young. Shatti: I’m taking pictures. And I’m going to many places. Lots of people know me as Shati, the photographer. Hilde Frafjord Johnson: To educate girls and educate women is the best investment in purely economic terms that one can do in any poor country. And the reason basically is – one birth control: educated women and girls get fewer children. Second, taking care of the family’s health and their own health benefits the economy. Thirdly, they actually do send their girls to school – men that are only educated don’t do that – and their kids to school, all of their children. And fourthly they can be participants in the economy to a much larger extent as being educated.