1. The Millennium
Development Goals
Post Graduate Diploma in
Development Evaluation, UCU,
September 2012

2. Topic Outline
1. Introduction
2. Background to the MDGs
3. The MDGs
4. MDG,s and Health
5. Progress on the health related MDG’s
6. Resources for Updates

3. Introduction
• The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• Setting the development agenda “a
framework for the entire UN system to work
coherently towards a common end”
• developed in consultation with developing
countries
• reflecting the multi-dimensional nature of
development

4. 2. Background to the MDGs
September 2000 – UN Millennium Summit World
leaders – 140 signed up to set of time bound and
measurable goals and targets for combating
• poverty
• Hunger
• disease
• illiteracy
• environmental degradation
• discrimination against women
• 8 Goals and 18 Targets

5. 3. The MDGs
• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and
• hunger
• Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
• proportion of people whose income is less
than
• $1 a day.
• Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the
• proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

6. Exercise
1. Discuss the rationale of the MDG’s
2. Identify weaknesses' of the MDG framework
and argument
3. Review the frame work while making
suggestions

7. • Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children
• everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able
to complete a full course of primary schooling.
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and
• empower women
• Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary
• and secondary education, preferably by 2005
and
• in all levels of education no later than 2015

8. • Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990
• and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between
• 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.

9. • Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
• diseases
• Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to
• reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to
• reverse the incidence of malaria and other
major
• diseases.

10. • Target 14: Address the special needs of
• landlocked countries and small island developing
• states.
• Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt
• problems of developing countries through
national
• and international measures in order to make debt
• sustainable in the long term
• Target 16: In cooperation with developing
• countries, develop and implement strategies for
• decent and productive work for youth.

11. • Target 17: In cooperation with pharmaceutical
• companies, provide access to affordable
essential
• drugs in developing countries.
• Target 18: In cooperation with the private
sector,
• make available the benefits of new
technologies,
• especially information and communications
• technologies.

12. MDGS AND HEALTH
The Millennium Development
Goals (MDG), which emerged from
the United Nations Millennium
Summit in 2000, is increasingly
recognized as the over-arching
development framework.

13. Exercise
• Discuss the opportunities and challenges for
health in the MDG’s

14. Opportunities for health in the MDG’s
1. They provide a common set of priorities on
how to tackle poverty.
• This unprecedented level of agreement
between national governments,
• international agencies
• and the United Nations system
• helps to ensure that the needs of poor people
remain at the top of the development agenda.

15. 2. Health is at the heart of the MDG’s ,
with the recognition that better health is central to
the global agenda of reducing poverty as well as an
important measure of human well-being in its own
right.
3. They set quantifiable and ambitious targets
against which to measure progress.
• These provide an indication of whether efforts to
improve health are on track,
• and a means of holding decision-makers to
account.

16. 4. It’s possible to calculate what it would
probably cost to achieve the MDG,
• and this, in turn, draws attention to the
massive funding gap between what is
available and what is needed.
5. The eighth goal calls for a global partnership
for development,
• recognizing that there are certain actions rich
countries must take if poor countries are to
achieve goals 1 to 7

17. Challenges for health in the MDG’s
1. The need to strengthen health systems.
• Without more efficient and equitable health
systems,
• countries will not be able to scale up the
programmes for disease prevention and
control that are required to meet the specific
health goals — of reducing child and maternal
mortality and rolling back HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis and

18. • 2. health is prioritized within overall development
and economic policies.
• This means looking beyond the health system and
addressing the broad determinants of ill health —
low levels of education,
• poverty,
• unequal gender relations,
• high-risk behaviours,
• and an unhealthy environment —
• as well as raising the profile of health within
national processes for poverty reduction and
government reform.

19. 3. To develop health strategies that respond to
the diverse and evolving needs of countries.
• The MDG indicate desirable outcomes in
terms of overall improvements in human
wellbeing.
• This means designing cost-effective strategies
to address those diseases and conditions that
account for the greatest share of the burden
of disease, now and in the future.

20. 4. To mobilize more resources for health in poor
countries. Currently, low-income countries cannot
‘afford’ the MDG and aid is not filling the gap.
• There has been a sharp increase in development,
however there is still a big funding gap for the
developing world to achieve their targets
• The United Nations Millennium Project recently
estimated that meeting all the MDG would
require an estimated U.S.$135,000 million of
official development assistance in 2006, rising to
U.S.$195,000 million by 2015.

21. • To improve the quality of health data in order
to measure each country’s progress towards
the MDG.
• At a global level, the demonstration of
progress can help to generate further
resources and sustain political momentum for
health-sector investment.
• At country level, reliable information can help
ensure that polices are correctly orientated
and targeted at those most in need.

22. Progress on the health related MDG’s

23. Exercise
• Compare Uganda’s progress to other countries
in the same region

24. Resources
• Annual updates
• UN
• www.un.org/millenniumgoals
• Progress Chart:
• http://mdgs.un.org
• Cyber SchoolBus
• http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus