Millennial Development Goals Research Articles

Africanizing the SDGs: A key factor for enhancing sustainability consciousness within South African universities

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be viewed as the aftermath of the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs). This is due to the fact that the seventeen (17) SDGs are designed to continue the work expected to have been done by the MDGs. In other words, the failure of the MDGs to eradicate poverty birthed the SDGs. However, the SDGs seem not to be achieving the desired result. This has led to the projection for the need for a decade of action. In the African context, the questions of why the MDGs failed and the SDGs tend to be failing are yet to be asked. By projection, if the questions are not asked and answers are not provided, the projection of the decade of action may also fail. Hence, the reason for this conceptual paper which was targeted at exploring the possibility of considering the Africanization of the SDGs as remedy to ensuring sustainable development in the African continent. Different relevant sources were identified, reviewed and analysed. The findings from the reviewed and analysed sources showed among others that for Africanization of the SDGs to be a reality and practicable, glocalization must be embraced. Meanwhile, there will be need to question the use of Eurocentric curricula in African institutions of learning.

Analysing the Impact of Sudden Capital Inflow Shocks on Kenya's Economic Growth: A Quarterly Time Series Analysis (2008 - 2022)

Economic growth indicates the ability of a country to alleviate the poverty rate, reduce the unemployment rate, attain a surplus in balance of payments, and achieve a sustainable increase in gross domestic product (GDP). To achieve improved and continued growth of the economy in a country, there is a need to consider the stability of macroeconomic factors. Therefore, this study sought to examine the effect of capital inflow shocks on Kenya’s economic growth. The study employed a correlational design using time series quarterly data for a period of fourteen years, spanning from 2008 to 2022. The unit root test realized that capital inflow shock was stationary at levels since p-value<0.05. Correlational analysis results revealed that capital inflow shock had a significant, positive impact on the growth of the economy in Kenya, with a numerical result of 0.7001 and a p-value of 0.0000. Further, the regression analysis results gave a correlational coefficient of 0.3022 and a p-value of 0.0000. Thus, the study recommends that the government reform the existing policies to favor foreign investors and to avoid depending so much on externality to reduce susceptibility to external shocks. In order for Kenya to fulfill the millennial development goals, the government must foster an atmosphere that will attract foreign investors through programs like public-private partnerships (PPP), tax regulations, and other incentives to boost capital inflows.

The Influence of Game Media on Children's Knowledge and Attitudes in Diarrhea Prevention at SDN Kembang Tanjong Sub-District

Diarrhea is an environment-based disease and occurs in almost all geographical areas in the world. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are improvements to the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs). SDGs target number three, namely healthy and prosperous life, is to ensure a healthy life and improve the welfare of all people of all ages. The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of snakes and ladders game media on children's knowledge in diarrhea prevention at SDN Kembang Tanjong District. This research is quantitative research with a quasi-experimental research design (pseudo-experiment) using a non-equivalent control group design. Gender. In this study, the results of frequency distribution based on the characteristics of respondents totaling 80 people were as many as 40 people (50%) were male and as many as 40 people (50%) were female. Based on the results of the distribution of efficiency based on class characteristics, as many as 16 people (20%) are in class IV (four), as many as 28 people (35%) are in class V (five) and as many as 36 people (45%) are in class VI (six). The results of the analysis using the Wilcoxon test with a confidence level of 95% using snake and ladder game media with a p-value of knowledge value of 0.000 ? 0.05 so that it can be concluded that there is an influence of health education with snakes and ladders game media on children's knowledge in preventing diarrhea in children at SDN Kembang Tanjong District.

Early Stages of Global Neurosurgery

The year 2015 was pivotal for the growth of global neurosurgery. In January, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), replacing the expiring Millennial Development Goals. The SDGs were more comprehensive, having 17 Goals with 169 associated targets; a significant number of these included the necessity for surgical care to achieve the targets. 1
 In early Spring 2015, publication of Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development - The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery created a paradigm shift in the understanding of surgical needs worldwide, particularly in access to safe, timely and affordable surgical care for billions of individuals and large gaps in global surgical health workforce.2 At around the same time, Disease Control Priorities 3rd Edition, Volume 1, Essential Surgery laid out the economic case for surgical care, particularly in low resource settings.3 In May, the 68th World Health Assembly unanimously approved WHA resolution 68.15 on strengthening emergency and essential surgical care as a component of universal health coverage.4 
 The adoption of SDGs and WHA 68.15 provided the political impetus toward making surgical care a global priority, DCP3 created the health economic basis for global surgical care, and the Lancet Commission developed the factual needs basis for greatly enlarging global surgical service delivery.
 The World Health Organization (WHO) is the health technical arm of the UN. The WHA is composed of the health ministers of all UN Member States (countries) and is the governing body of WHO, setting the global health agenda and steering WHO’s work. The WHO Emergency and Essential Surgical Care (EESC) Programme5 was given the mandate to implement WHA resolution 68.15; a task that could only be achieved through extensive worldwide partnerships, such as the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), which has official working relations as a non-state actor with WHO.6
 September 9-12, 2015, the 15th Interim Meeting of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) met in Rome, Italy.7 For the first time, a neurosurgeon was Lead of WHO EESC, creating a unique opportunity for optimally augmenting this WHO/WFNS partnership going forward. The Foundation for International Education in Neurosurgery (FIENS) held a session during this meeting, further highlighting future prospects.

Trends in Attention to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations

In 2015 the United Nations put forth 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are intended to be largely achieved by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals are a larger follow-up to the United Nations’ Millennial Development Goals (MDGs), agreed to 2000, which were the first attempt by the UN to create metrics for improving societies that were to be used across the world (From MDGs to SDGs, n.d.). This study is on trends in attention to the SDGs, as indicated by trends in the production of academic articles on the topical areas of each of the 17 SDGs. Research related to the Sustainable Development Goals is important to see what is being prioritized and what needs to get more focus (Fayomi, 2018). The sub-goals of the SDGs are called “indicators.” Key topics and terms of the SDGs and their indicators can be used in searching Google Scholar year by year to ascertain cardinal and ordinal measures of trends in article publication related to the SDGs. This is based on the premise that attention to a particular SDG in academic literature is a valid indicator related to action by nations, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations on the SDGs. This research aims to investigate changes in the relative attention paid to SDGs by academics as indicated in the absolute and relative numbers of articles produced over the period 2010-2020 as indicated by their listing, year by year, in the Google Scholar database. Key terms were extracted from the sub-goals of the SDGs and utilized as search terms. Two search terms were used for each SDG, ad based on the data, we then focused in on the most relevant one for each SDG to examine in comparison with the others. We compare the located continuities, changes in a relative number of items produced (change in ranking) over this time frame. Theories that might be tested in future research on the source of change in the relative ranking of the SDGs are put forth.

The Right to Health in Evidence-based Policymaking

The right to health is included in United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) number 3, “Good health and well-being”. This goal aims to ensure healthy life and to promote well-being for all, at all ages. The SDGs, which build on the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs), provide a significant expansion to the development agenda. Inclusive development is part and parcel of the SDGs. Evidence-based policymaking studies provide explanations of normative and legitimate expectations for policymakers, namely, to use scientific evidence and specific indicators in their policymaking process. The right to health, as constructed, in evidence-based policymaking discourse is in contention. This paper addresses the various types of meaning Indonesian policymakers attach to the right to health through their discourses in norms of health policy. This study provides an analysis of discourses, regulatory analysis, and historical narratives (based on analysis of health regulations and newspaper articles) pertaining to evidence-informed policy in the health sector in Indonesia from 2009-2017. Our findings elucidate how the right to health manifests in the processes of evidence-based policymaking. We do so by way of a two-pronged analysis, i) discourse analysis at the macro level in Indonesia about the right to health as a norm and ii) health policymaking at the micro level, in the Indonesian district of Gunungkidul,within the region of Yogyakarta.

Agua para consumo humano: Costa Rica en el contexto mundial al año 2017

Este estudio tiene como objetivo describir los avances de cobertura y calidad del agua para consumo humano en Costa Rica, y su comparación con los países de América y el mundo. Se describieron y compararon los conceptos de Fuentes de Agua Potable Mejoradas utilizadas por el Programa Conjunto de Monitoreo (PCM) dentro del marco de los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio y el nuevo concepto de Servicios de Agua Potable Gestionados de Manera Segura, según los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible. Se describió la cobertura y calidad del agua para consumo humano en Costa Rica, aportada por el Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas (LNA). En cuanto a los avances en agua potable gestionada de manera segura, se compararon los datos de Costa Rica con los del resto de mundo. Además, se describieron las estrategias de Costa Rica para cumplir con la universalización de los servicios de agua potable al 2022 y al 2030. Los resultados indicaron que Costa Rica alcanzó, según el LNA, un 91,2% de agua gestionada de manera segura y según el PCM el 90%. Es fundamental continuar con estrategias como las impulsadas por el LNA, incluidos: los Planes de Seguridad del Agua, la vigilancia de la calidad del agua en: viviendas, centros de salud y centros de educación. Por último, se recomienda a las otras regiones del mundo aplicar lineamientos similares a los aplicados en Costa Rica para mejorar los servicios de agua potable.

Eco-Innovation and Industry 4.0: A Big Data Usage conceptual model

Driven by Cyber Physical Systems, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things and Automation, Industry 4.0 is expected to revolutionize the world. A new era beckons for enterprises of all sizes, markets, governments, and the world at large as the digital economy fully takes off under Industry 4.0. The United Nations has also expressed its desire to usher in a new era for humanity with the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG’s) replacing the Millennial Development Goals (MDG’s). Critical to the achievement of both of the above-mentioned ambitions is the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. Big Data Analytics, an important arm of Industry 4.0, gives organizations the ability to eco-innovate from a resource perspective. This paper conducts an analysis of previously published research literature and contributes to this emerging research area looking at Big Data Usage from a strategic and organizational perspective. A conceptual framework that can be utilized in future research is developed from the literature. Also discussed is the expected impact of Big Data Usage towards firm performance, particularly as the world becomes more concerned about the environment. Data driven eco-innovation should be in full motion if organizations are to remain relevant in tomorrow’s potentially ultra-competitive digital economy.

Higher education in the sustainable development goals framework

AbstractAgenda 2030 for sustainable development focuses attention on lifelong learning opportunities for all. The new targets expand on their predecessors, the Millennial Development Goals, by both widening and deepening the scope of system‐wide quality education systems. Whilst the Millennial Development Goals focused attention on universal primary attainment, the Sustainable Development Goals introduce tertiary education into the global development agenda. Higher education was an important consideration in the 2000 Dakar framework, but it was not included as a target. Instead, it appeared indirectly as a supportive pathway to other goals such as youth skills or quality teacher. Now, higher education plays a key role as a means to achieving Goal 4 on education: inclusive, equitable and quality education for all. This article evaluates the introduction of higher education into the development agenda and the introduction of the SDGs into the parallel but fragmented multilateral and university agendas. It concludes by specifying two factors that are essential if higher education is to play a revitalised role in the sustainable development framework: publicly‐funded research and regional higher education partnerships.

HIV and Nurses: A Focus Group on Task Shifting in Uganda

The HIV prevalence rate is 7.4% in Uganda, where the HIV-related President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and United Nations millennial development goals have not been met. This is partially due to a critical shortage of nurses and other health care providers. Task shifting is a World Health Organization strategy to address the shortage of human resources for health by shifting work from one cadre of health care worker to another, often less-trained, cadre. We conducted three focus groups with nurses in Uganda to better understand perceptions of their preparation for and implementation of task shifting. The focus group included nurses from diverse work settings. Data analysis revealed that nurses were proud of the work they were doing but were challenged by the lack of consistent and appropriate support. We found a need for additional policies, regulations, and consistent preparation for nurses who work in environments with task shifting.

Timor Lorosae. Timor-Leste: The history and development of Asia's newest nation By Abraham Joseph and Takako Hamaguchi; Foreword by José Ramos-Horta Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 2014. Pp. xxii + 189. Map, Photographs, Index.

Timor-Leste: The history and development of Asia's newest nation By ABRAHAM JOSEPH and TAKAKO HAMAGUCHIJ Foreword by JOSfi RAMOS-HORTA Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 2014. Pp. xxii-i-189. Map, Photographs, Index. This work focuses on developments in the economy and foreign policy of Timor-Leste since its independence. The authors provide an overview of the country's national economic policies and initiatives and their outcomes while valorising its partnerships with the United Nations and key donor nations. The title of the book might be misleading, however, since the analysis lacks context, particularly on the dynamic nature of internal relations and their impact on the economic development and foreign policies of Timor-Leste. Furthermore, the country's relations with 'donor nations' and the UN are not critically assessed, but instead rather lauded. Yet, although these inherently asymmetric power relations between Timor Leste and its 'well-meaning big brothers' have received more critical analysis in recent writings (e.g. Caroline Hughes, Dependent communities: Aid and politics in Cambodia and East Timor, 2009; and my Timor Leste: Politics, history, and culture, 2010) one of the author's arguments seems to imply that the successes of Southeast Asia's newest nation are the result of foreign engineering and 'tutorship'; and thus to minimise the achievements of the people of Timor-Leste themselves. The book also does not make any mention of the numerous civil society and local NGO initiatives that are not only impacting but in some cases driving rural development. Even the challenges faced by Timor-Leste are presented in a muted manner; again lacking a nuanced analysis and thus predicting a rosy picture for the immediate future. To be fair, the authors' arguments are in line with the main goal of the book, which is to showcase Timor-Leste as an exemplary success story to other small nations. The people of Timor-Leste should be proud of all their achievements in developing and transforming their nation through their commitment to a peaceful postconflict reconstruction. These successes were not entirely achieved through the direction of their foreign advisers, donor nations, and the United Nations, but through their own sacrifices, hard work and commitment. Here again, the book does not seem to give enough credit to the Timorese. The book is divided into an introduction and nine main chapters. The chapters address key issues through the dominant discourses of the United Nations. Such UN discourses are thus transplanted into Timor-Leste and national policies seem to coalesce around these. The introductory chapter provides a summary of the economic developments and foreign policies of Timor-Leste since its independence up to 2012. The subsequent chapters provide an elaboration of this overview. Chapter 1 examines the economic history of the country, providing narrative explanations of the statistical data compiled by the UN showing a steady post-independence growth and developments in a number of economic sectors. The second chapter addresses Timor-Leste's framework for development and the ways it is in line with the UN's Millennial Development Goals (MDG). Through an examination of national policies for sustained economic growth, the authors highlight the establishment of the Petroleum Fund, and policies concerning land reform and capital development, as well as initiatives on business reforms and export promotions. Timor-Leste's policies on food security, anti-corruption, and the protection of vulnerable populations have made great strides towards the MDG. After a brief overview of the history of oil and gas exploration and related treaties, the following chapter is devoted to the consideration of the Natural Resources Endowment and the ways in which Timor-Leste has utilised the receipts from its oil and gas resources towards economic development. …

Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing (GAPFON) and Global Health.

In November 2013, the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), announced the creation of the Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing (GAPFON) to establish a voice and vision for the future of nursing and midwifery that will advance global health. The composition of the panel, first convened in March 2014, was purposeful in nature to ensure that the voices at the table represented individual expertise and experience from diverse backgrounds. Key issues identified at this inaugural meeting included the need for reform, advocacy, and innovations in leadership, policy, practice, education, and work environments. While the specific context through which these efforts will be addressed is nursing and midwifery, recognition of the interprofessional and collaborative nature of the world's healthcare needs and systems was kept at the forefront of all discussions. GAPFON intends to demonstrate how nursing and midwifery can contribute to strengthening health systems and attaining global health goals through the exchange of ideas and experiences across the different regions of the world. GAPFON is designed to be a catalyst to stimulate partnerships and collaborations to advance global health outcomes, and is a vehicle for thought leaders to share information, develop and influence policy, and advance interprofessional efforts toward those goals.Health professions from across disciplines have helped direct, define, and advance public health-and the role of health practitioners within public health-around the world for decades, establishing the current model for global health. As a result, health promotion policies and processes have been established, diseases have been mitigated, access to care has been facilitated, and a notion of "shared responsibility" for the world's health has been realized. Nursing and midwifery have played a key role in the innovation and cohesion required to establish, sustain, and implement this model of global health.As healthcare demands predicate the need for enhanced and/or new models of global health, nurses, midwives, and our healthcare colleagues from all professions need to bring a clear voice and vision for the future of global health. This is especially important as we address the United Nation's Millennial Development Goals (MDGs; United Nations, 2014), and also support the emerging Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development, 2014) as part of the post-2015 agenda.As with other healthcare professionals, nurses believe in and support the idea that an investment in health results in an enormous payoff, and that in our collective lifetimes, a grand convergence in health is within reach (Jamison et al., 2013). Additionally, globalization, in all its facets-economic, technological, and cultural- has created a world market for the nursing workforce (Shaffer, 2014). Opportunities continue to grow for nurses and midwives to have a strong role in shaping health at the policy and practice levels, even as challenges present themselves: demand for nurses exceeds supply; nursing and midwifery education and regulation differs across borders; and task shifting and sharing are increasing as some traditional nursing work is being undertaken by healthcare generalists that are less costly to employ. GAPFON recognizes all the possibilities for nursing to have an inclusive voice worldwide, to overcome barriers, and to help create a new narrative for nursing and a model for global health.With the support of Pfizer, Inc., our Founding Sponsor, and Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, in 2015 and 2016, GAPFON will address its core mission by convening a series of meetings in seven global regions:* Middle East (April 2015)* Asia/Oceania (June 2015)* The Caribbean (July 2015)* Central-Latin America (July 2015)* Africa (July 2016)* Europe (2016)* North America (2016)Each meeting will convene thought and action leaders from a variety of disciplines, including ministers of health, representatives from key nursing and midwifery associations, educational institutions, economists, regulatory bodies, other health professionals or health industries, pharmaceutical companies, and governmental leaders that are influential in global health. …

Interventions for the Prevention and Control of Sickle Cell Disease at Primary Health Care Centres in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.

With its population of 167 million, Nigeria has the highest burden of sickle cell disease (SCD) in the world with birth prevalence of 2% and 0.05% in adults due to deaths in early childhood. Sickle cell disease is thus a major contributor to Nigeria’s "under five" mortality figures. Failure to pay attention to such a widespread condition in the population is slowing progress towards Nigeria’s achievement of the Millennial Development Goals (MDG) 3-5. Although the Federal Government set up six MDG Sickle Cell Centres in 2012 in six geopolitical zones and equipped them with variant newborn high performance liquid chromatography equipment, these centres are not carrying out newborn screening in a systematic and standardized way and the equipment is not being fully utilized. There is no universal screening of babies for SCD and identification at the primary care level. The care of SCD has been confined to tertiary health care centres with few dedicated sickle cell clinics. The average age of presentation at these centres is eight years, and there is no formal referral system of patients through the lower levels of care. In developed countries, major benefits in the health and survival of patients with SCD have been achieved through the implementation of a few highly effective evidence-based interventions. A community-based intervention program is described which will provide parents, caregivers, and health care workers at primary health centres and ward levels with basic health education to look after patients with SCD, recognize early warning signs of complications, and institute appropriate referral mechanism to the comprehensive centres where advanced medical care can be given as necessary.

Exploring the relationship between population density and maternal health coverage

BackgroundDelivering health services to dense populations is more practical than to dispersed populations, other factors constant. This engenders the hypothesis that population density positively affects coverage rates of health services. This hypothesis has been tested indirectly for some services at a local level, but not at a national level.MethodsWe use cross-sectional data to conduct cross-country, OLS regressions at the national level to estimate the relationship between population density and maternal health coverage. We separately estimate the effect of two measures of density on three population-level coverage rates (6 tests in total). Our coverage indicators are the fraction of the maternal population completing four antenatal care visits and the utilization rates of both skilled birth attendants and in-facility delivery. The first density metric we use is the percentage of a population living in an urban area. The second metric, which we denote as a density score, is a relative ranking of countries by population density. The score’s calculation discounts a nation’s uninhabited territory under the assumption those areas are irrelevant to service delivery.ResultsWe find significantly positive relationships between our maternal health indicators and density measures. On average, a one-unit increase in our density score is equivalent to a 0.2% increase in coverage rates.ConclusionsCountries with dispersed populations face higher burdens to achieve multinational coverage targets such as the United Nations’ Millennial Development Goals.

Why Programs Fail

Several generations of development programs have left the gap between rich and poor countries wider than ever. Decades of aid and foreign investment have extracted many times more wealth than they bring in. Seventeen years after the Earth Summit at Rio, carbon dioxide continues to increase. The non-proliferation treaty has left us with more nukes, more countries possessing nukes, more sophisticated nuclear weapons, more willingness to use them. The fanfare of the Green Revolution has died down, and farmers are still being displaced to cities that can’t accommodate them. The first homes of the Green Revolution are now importers of food. Agricultural yields have increased, but so has hunger. Millennial development goals will not be reached.…It is not that no programs work. There have been dramatic successes such as the eradication of smallpox, the near eradication of polio, the containment of plague.…There is a pattern of a sort: narrowly focused technical solutions reshuffle crises. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Contested Sovereignties and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a new global conservation funding project created in 2000 through start‐up funds from Conservation International, the World Bank, the Global Environmental Facility, and the MacArthur Foundation. It aims to protect the world's biodiversity hotspots, promote civil society, and assist in the Millennial Development Goals to eradicate poverty worldwide. This essay analyzes the CEPF through the making of the Mountains of Southwest China eco‐profile and in light of Hardt and Negri's much‐debated critique of globalization. While the CEPF imagines itself as a universal project with planetary ambitions, which move around the world empirelike, in China it has had to funnel its monies through a range of organizations connected to an increasingly anxious state. What results is a transformed global project, where the meanings of environmental activism, civil society, and grassroots resistance are up for grabs. The CEPF thus provides a window in the production of contested sovereignties in the bold new age of imperial sovereignty.

Proposed reductions of preventable deaths in rural Indonesia through stormwater harvesting and wastewater treatment

Worldwide, what is responsible for killing the most children each year? AcuteRespiratory Infection (2 million children). What is second? Diarrhoea (1.8 million children). Thisstatistic does not include the additional 300,000 adults who also die from this preventable condition.Diarrhoea kills more children that malaria, HIV and measles combined (UNDP, 2006). “In most ofthe developing world, unclean water is a greater threat to human lives than violent conflict. Rightnow almost half the population of the developing world suffer from diseases because of dirty waterand inadequate sanitation” (Peace Child International, 2006). While the Millennial DevelopmentGoals (MDG) and the United Nations provide an overarching view of the existing situations bycountry, the initial goal of this project is to investigating the specific existing conditions in ruralIndonesia, especially Southern Kalimantan, and how they relate to the MDG (UNDP, 2003).This will in turn allow site specific proposals in partnership with the local communities that areculturally and financially feasible. They will then be designed and constructed in conjunctionwith community education. The preliminary proposal is to use stormwater harvesting to providea clean water source in replacement of their current sources; seasonal wells, contaminated riversand swamps. In conjunction is the proposal to eliminate their exposure to open sewage throughsimple septic systems. Through these processes, the goal is to decrease the preventable cases ofsickness through increased access to clean up and decreased exposure to open sewage. This in turnwill reduce the associated deaths due to diarrhoea (WHO/UNICEF, 2009). The project is still inthe initial research and development stages as of March 2012 with the first project hoping to beundertaken by the end of 2012.