Millennium Development Goals: A Concern Over Sub-National Variations

Stephanie Rossouw,Don J Webber

doi:10.19030/iber.v10i3.4108

Abstract

Millennium development goals (MDGs) were agreed upon by 192 countries in the year 2000 and are due to be achieved by 2015. This paper highlights that MDGs deal with national averages and their achievement may hide sub-national variation. Sub-national variation in the ability to achieve development goals should be expected because government spending would achieve such goals faster if it were targeted at areas where the required improvements are smaller, as is often the case in city-regions. Rural and dispersed populations may gain little from MDGs, at least in the short run. Data analysis of South African Magisterial Districts highlights this issue.

Highlights

E ight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed upon at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 by 192 countries in order to improve the living conditions of the world‟s population
The MDGs originated in the United Nations, country driven and nationally owned efforts are necessary for their achievement
The ability of individual countries to achieve MDGs will be dependent on the distance between current levels and the goals

Summary

INTRODUCTION

E ight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed upon at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 by 192 countries in order to improve the living conditions of the world‟s population. Areas of critical concern include (i) increases in income inequality; (ii) improvements in the incomes of the poorest 10 and 20 per cent of the population are not enough (the Poverty Head Count Index is estimated to be only 43.2 per cent); (iii) gender inequality in educational institutional attendance (for the 15 to 24 year old age group, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) for illiteracy values is less than one); (iv) no decreases (and in some instances) in HIV prevalence in the 30 to 40+ year age group; (v) no substantial decrease in the number of malaria cases since 19995; (vi) access to improved sanitation facilities is only about 60 per cent for the general population and in excess of 30 per cent (as a percentage of urban population) for the slum population (AEO, 2009) Many of these issues are associated with location and have clear spatial-patterns within. The first MDG is to halve extreme poverty and with such a large amount of people still living on less than US$2 a day in mainly rural areas, this goal does not seem attainable for these regions unless migration to urban areas is strongly orchestrated

DISCUSSION

15. Global report

Findings

Manchester