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The Millennium
Development Goals have become the
principal global scorecard for
development. In September 2005 the
United Nations World Summit
reaffirmed the principles in the
2000 Millennium Declaration and
recognized the need for ambitious
national development strategies
backed by increased international
support. |
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Financing the needed investments. Financing the investments needed to achieve the Goals remains a challenge for the domestic resources of developing countries and the aid budgets of developed countries. Developing countries need to pursue good governance and sound macroeconomic policies, and rich countries need to increase their support for developing countries with good policies. Some developed countries have adopted timetables to increase official development assistance to 0.7 percent of gross national income by 2015 and to reach at least 0.5 percent by 2010, while ensuring that at least 0.2 percent goes to the least developed countries. The World Summit also called for increased debt relief or restructuring for countries with unsustainable debt burdens that are not part of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. |
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The challenge of measurement. Many
of these strengthened goals and
targets are not easily measured.
Reliable, direct measures of the
incidence or prevalence of many
diseases are unavailable. And
because models and data sources are
still evolving, estimates may not be
comparable over time or across
countries. Gaps remain even for the
well established measures of
poverty, education, mortality, and
health care, and major investments
in statistical systems will be
needed to fill them, by developing
countries themselves and
international agencies. |
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Expanding targets to support the
goals. The World Summit resolution
draws attention to four issues that
should receive greater prominence
over the next five years: |
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• Reproductive health, integrating
reproductive health into strategies
for achieving the goals of improving
maternal health, reducing child
mortality, promoting gender
equality, combating HIV/AIDS, and
eradicating poverty.
• Combating disease, intensifying
the fight against HIV/AIDS by
“providing sufficient health
workers, infrastructure, management
systems, and supplies to achieve the
health-related [goals] by 2015” and
calling for renewed efforts to come
“as close as possible to the goal of
universal access to HIV treatment by
2010.”
• Employment, strengthening the
focus of the goals on employment by
making it “a central objective of
our relevant national and
international policies as well as
our national development
strategies. . . .”
• Environment, extending the areas
of concern in at least three
dimensions: biodiversity,
development of indigenous people,
and protection from natural and
human-caused hazards. The resolution
calls on all states to
“significantly reduce the loss of
biodiversity by 2010.” |
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The next
five years.
When the
Millennium
Development
Goals were
promulgated
in 2000, the
international
community
reached back
a decade to
establish a
baseline.
Nothing
could be
done to
alter the
course of
those
preceding 10
years. In
the
succeeding
five years
the world
took stock
of its
commitments
and took the
first steps
to
accelerate
progress
toward the
goals. But
without
measures
that
accelerate
change, many
countries
may fall
short of the
targets set
for 2015.
That is why
the next
five years
are so
important.
By 2010 we
will know
whether the
goals can be
achieved. If
by then we
have not
committed
the
necessary
resources,
adopted
reforms, and
implemented
effective
new
programs, it
will be
difficult to
make further
course
corrections. |
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