Millennium Development Goals Targets Research Articles

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE: ADDRESSING SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (2000-2015)

The practice of the apartheid system in South Africa has been widely condemned for perpetuating enduring socio-economic inequality and for its detrimental impacts on the lives of millions of citizens. While many studies have strongly affirmed this assertion, socio-economic inequality continues to arguably engender a long-lasting struggle among the black and colored communities in post-apartheid South Africa. This places a burden on the country’s successive governments to implement long-term policies that can rectify the plight of the people. Consequently, the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 becomes an important reference tool for the African National Congress (ANC)-dominated government, which has initiated and implemented policies to combat inequality in the post-apartheid era. This study examines the roles and measures taken by the ANC government to address racially discriminated economic and social inequality within the framework of the MDGs. Using qualitative research methods, the study explores the background framework of the MDGs and analyzes socio-economic measures implemented by successive ANC governments between 2000 and 2015, focusing on areas such as education, poverty eradication, and healthcare. Primary and secondary sources are utilized to provide insights and support the analysis. The findings reveal that the ANC-dominated government effectively incorporated the frameworks of the MDGs into its formulation and execution of policy measures to eradicatesocial inequality in South Africa. The study concludes that the effective implementation of these measures has yielded considerableprogress, effectively addressing multifaceted issues such as poverty, healthcare, education, and unemployment. This conclusion alignswith the official South African MDG report, which unequivocally highlights the several achievements of MDG targets through policyimplementation from 2000 to 2015.

Assessment of Solar Energy Technologies in Meeting the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals Under an Interval-Valued Fermatean Fuzzy Environment

Renewable energy sources, particularly solar energy, play a vital role in achieving the 2030 agenda and sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa. While not explicitly addressed in the millennium development goals (MDGs), renewable energy, including solar energy technologies, indirectly contributed to MDGs targets in Africa. Nevertheless, the absence of quantifiable assessments regarding the impacts of solar energy technologies, potentially attributed to limited implementation in the developing world, motivates this paper to evaluate their potential impact in Africa. The analysis, based on a two-level criteria framework and utilizing the interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methodology, identifies the top three potential impacts as the reduction of CO2 emissions, monetary savings, and the diminishment of air pollution.

Reducing Maternal Mortality Rate Through Utilization of Agricultural Products and Antenatal Care with Agronursing Perspective

In Indonesia, the number of deliveries assisted by health personnel is still relatively low. Pregnancy checks (Antenatal Care = ANC) can motivate pregnant women to give birth to health workers. This study aims to determine the role of ANC in selecting birth attendants. This cross-sectional study used secondary data from the KKG Project Benefit Evaluation Survey (Family Health and Nutrition)—efforts to Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate Through Utilization of Agricultural Products and Antenatal Care in Agronursing Areas. Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is the death of a woman during pregnancy or 42 days after giving birth. Indonesia is a country with a significant increase in the number of maternal mortalities of 359/100,000. This achievement still needs to catch up to the 2024 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target, which is 183/100,000 KH, so this has made Indonesia experience a crisis in maternal health services. The low readiness of the mother to fulfill nutritional quality and conduct antenatal care can be a big problem in the birth process. Therefore, it is important to carry out socialization to reduce the maternal mortality rate by utilizing agricultural products to improve maternal nutrition through antenatal care. The purpose of doing community service for pregnant women is to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate in Indonesia. Community empowerment is carried out by conducting lectures between researchers and participants.

Qualitative Assessment of Challenges in Tuberculosis control in Public Health Facilities of Bule Hora Town, Ethiopia; Health Workers’ and Tuberculosis control Program Coordinators’ Perspectives, 2020

Introduction: The Millennium Development Goal target of halting and reversing TB incidence has been achieved on a global scale. Mortality from TB has fallen by 47% since 1990. Despite these gains, however, TB still remains a major worldwide health crisis. According to a recent WHO report, there where in 2018, an estimated 10 million people fell sick with tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. 5.7 million Men, 3.2 million women and 1.1 million children. Poor health systems pose many barriers to effective tuberculosis (TB) control. This study aimed at exploring health workers and TB control program coordinator’s perspectives on health systems challenges facing TB control in Bule Hora Town, Oromia Region, southern, Ethiopia. Objective: To identify challenges of health care workers and tuberculosis control program co-ordinator towards tuberculosis control at Public health facilities of Bule Hora town-2020. Method: Qualitative study was conducted at Public health facilities of Bule Hora town, Ethiopia. Four in-depth interviews with TB control program coordinators and two focus group discussions among 8 health workers were conducted. Purposive sampling was used to recruit study participants. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyze main themes. Results: We identified that shortage of laboratory reagents, Shortages of TB diagnostic tools and intermittent supply of anti-TB drugs, shortage of trained and motivated health care staffs, Poor community TB mobilization and collaboration between health institutions were challenges facing the TB control program performance in the study area. Conclusion: Ensuring no proper supply of anti-TB drugs, laboratory reagents and Shortages of TB diagnostic tools to all health facilities is essential. Continuous updated training of health workers on standard TB care and data handling, developing and implementing a sound retention strategy to attract and motivate health professionals to work in study areas are necessary interventions to improve the TB control program performance in the study area.

Individual and Systemic Factors of Under-five Mortality in Nigeria: A Cox Proportional Hazard Model

Despite considerable efforts to reduce under-five mortality nationwide, Nigeria has fallen short of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of 67 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2015. Of all the documented factors of under-five mortality, little evidence exists on the impact of systemic barriers and individual factors (maternal health-seeking behaviour) on under-five mortality in Nigeria. The study used a nationally representative sample from Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2013 dataset. The target population was 20,192 women aged 15-59 years who had given birth to 31,480 children five years before the survey. Stata software was used for data analysis. The risk of death was estimated using Cox proportional hazard models and results are presented as hazards ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Findings from the overall Model I-IV revealed individual factors (maternal health-seeking indicators) as significant factors of under-five deaths (p < 0.05). Children whose mothers received antenatal care coverage (ANC) outside health care facilities (HCF) (HR: 1.60, CI: 1.0-2.4, p < 0.05); or delivered outside HCF (HR: 1.02, CI: 0.7-1.5, p < 0.05) had elevated hazard risk of death before age five. Conversely, children who were presented for postnatal check within two weeks of delivery (HR: 0.60, CI: 0.5-0.8, p < 0.05), or delivered within the longer birth interval (HR: 0.67, CI: 0.6-0.8, p < 0.001) had significantly lower hazard risk of death before age five. As part of systemic factors, children whose mothers were covered by health insurance scheme had significantly (HR: 0.52, CI: 0.2-1.2, p < 0.001) lower risk of death when compared with their counterparts without health insurance coverage. The study emphasized the need to revitalize strategies and programs to improve women health seeking behaviour and investment in the health sector through health insurance, infrastructure, and supplies.

On Multi-Level Modeling of Child Mortality with Application to KDHS Data 2014

One of the dominant challenges affecting low and middle countries is the regard of child mortality. It had been a millennium development goal to reduce infant and child mortality by two-thirds in 1990 mortality levels by the year 2015. Therefore, the aspiration to recognize the causal factors of under five child mortality poses a crucial aspect of research. In principal, remarkable progress has been made in bringing down mortality in children under 5 years of age. The global under five mortality rate declined by 59 per cent, from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 38 in 2019. In Kenya, the infant mortality rate in 2021 is 32.913 deaths per 1000 live births, a 3.36 per cent decline from the year 2020. It was 34.056 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2020, a decline of 3.24 per cent from the year 2019. In Nyanza Province, Kenya, has the highest infant mortality rate (133 deaths per 1,000 live births) while the lowest in Central Province (44 deaths per 1,000 live births). Despite all that improvement, the world is still doubtful to achieve that millennium development goal target number four, of diminishing child mortality. Our study aims to scrutinize on vital covariates affecting child mortality in Nyanza, Kenya. The principal purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the effect of demographic and socioeconomic variables on child mortality. We carried out a series of model evaluations to ascertain the best model under various scenarios bearing in mind the presence of dependencies due to Clusters and households. Then, performed a linear mixed effects model with the best fit based on data from Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS 2014) which was collected by use of questionnaires. Child mortality from the, KDHS 2014 data, was analyzed in an age period: mortality from the age of 12 months to the age of 60 months. The study reveals that, number of children under 5 in household, number of births in last 5 years, modern family planning and contraceptive use had an exceptional impact on child mortality.

Twelve-month contraceptive discontinuation, associated factors and its consequences in Nepal

Introduction: Contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) remained stagnant in Nepal in the past ten years and Nepal failed to achieve the millennium development goals target on CPR in 2015. Since CPR is based on the use of contraceptives, it is extremely important to assess contraceptive discontinuation rates to find the reason for this stalemate in the country.
 
 Method: The 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey contraceptive calendar data was used to get all the episodes of contraceptive use within one year. It was used to find discontinuation rates by methods, reasons, and associated factors. Pearson’s chi-square test was used to compare discontinuation rates across predictor variable categories and a multivariate logistic regression model was used to find independent factors of discontinuation rates.
 
 Result: Nepal reported a twelve-month contraceptive discontinuation rate of 64.4% along with higher discontinuation of modern methods (pill, intra-uterine device, injectable and male condom) and traditional methods (rhythm and withdrawal) than India and Bangladesh in 2016. Most women cited ‘side effects’ and ‘wanted more effective method” as the main reason for the discontinuation of modern methods whereas ‘method failure’ and ‘desire to become pregnant’ as the main reasons for the discontinuation of traditional methods. The bivariate analysis found age, province, education level, and wealth indices as the main predictor whereas multivariate analysis found province and education level as the independent factors of twelve-month discontinuation rates in Nepal.
 
 Conclusion: Stagnant unmet need for family planning and higher contraceptive discontinuation were responsible for the stagnation of the contraceptive prevalence rate in Nepal since 2006. Province and education were independent predictors of the twelve-month discontinuation rate in Nepal in 2016. Further analysis of discontinuation “while in need” is needed to assess the family planning plans, policies, and programs of Nepal at the national, provincial, and local levels to improve the contraceptive prevalence rate in the country.

Comparing the Efforts, Evaluations, Perceptions, and Wishes of Citizens and Governments Regarding the MDGs and SDGs: A Case Study from Abuja, Nigeria

While the global community has long worked to ameliorate the livelihoods of people and promote environmental sustainability around the world, many social, economic, and environmental issues remain unsolved. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sought to end poverty but ended with mixed results depending on the country. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are more ambitious, sought to address remaining problems and other issues extending beyond the scope of the MDGs by 2030. The SDGs cover a wide range of areas, from fulfilling basic needs to environmental sustainability, although their prioritization differs from person to person. It is critical to understand how people recognize the MDGs and prioritize SDGs in order to determine efficient means of achieving SDGs. Thus, this study assesses citizens’ perceptions and needs in Nigeria, illustrating gaps between official evaluations of goal progress and people’s thoughts about these global agendas. Economically speaking, Nigeria is the largest country in West Africa; still, it did not meet all of its MDG targets by 2015. This study found differences between the official report and people’s observations. People generally considered MDG 2 and MDG 6 to have been attained despite official evaluations asserting that these goals had made only weak progress. The study also found that people’s expectations are generally high on goals related to economic sustainability but low on goals related to environmental sustainability. Interestingly, it is found that the Nigerian government has the most concrete strategies related to social sustainability. The results suggest that the needs perceived by the government are distinct from those perceived by the Nigerian people. They also highlight the fact that the importance of environmental sustainability must be recognized by Nigerians if they are to meet their SDG targets by 2030. Of course, it is difficult for any countries facing social and economic issues to allocate significant resources to environmental sustainability, especially amid violent conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the symptoms of climate change. However, to get back on track in the years that remain and make significant progress toward environmental sustainability, it is important to heighten cooperation among ordinary people while obtaining a better understanding of their needs.

A Brief Data on Water Demand Assessment for Sustainable Potable Water Supply in Yergalem Tula Kebele, Ethiopia.

In spite of Ethiopia's abundant water resources, such as rainwater, groundwater, river, and lake, there has been an increase in the demand for potable water during the past decade. Since 1990, Ethiopia has only achieved 57 percent of the Millennium Development Goal target for access to safe drinking water. Inadequate access to clean potable water and sewerage services and lack of good hygiene practices have a negative impact on health and nutrition, such as diarrheal disease which is one of the leading causes of mortality among children under the age of five in Ethiopia. The objective of the present study is to assess the water demand in Yergalem Tula Kebele, which will be used in the sustainable potable water supply design for the city. The water demand analysis is based on a geometric method of population forecasting with an annual growth rate of 3%. The total water demand (domestic and nondomestic water demands) projection has also been made and the per capita water demand of 25 liters for a distance of 0.5 km from the water distribution point for rural piped water supply system is adopted, as per GTP-II minimum service level. The mode and level of services considered for community water supplies include public fountains and institutions (i.e., schools and health centers/posts) with stand water points.

The UN MDGs in Indonesia: Analyzing Its Failure in Eradicating Poverty in Indonesia

The United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an international development movement oriented towards human welfare and global poverty eradication with measurable goals and targets, had hit the deadline by 2015. Its implementation reaped various contestations and claims regarding its success and failures in eradicating poverty in Indonesia. The Indonesian government claimed to have succeeded (on the track) in meeting the MDGs targets in eradicating poverty by reducing half of the number of Indonesians who earn one dollar per day (purchasing power parity/PPP) for the period 1990-2015. Meanwhile, the reality on the ground showed the contrast. Many Indonesian people lived in poverty and had minimal access to public health and education facilities. UNESCAP reported that Indonesia was one of the countries in the Asia Pacific region, which was alarming to achieve the MDGs. Based on such contradictions regarding the MDGs' poverty eradication mission in Indonesia, this article aims to examine why the MDGs program had not been able to overcome the problem of poverty in Indonesia? This article employs norm life cycle (dynamics) theory to investigate the problem behind UN MDGs' inability to overcome poverty in Indonesia. UN MDGs were considered a global norm in this article, substantiating the poverty eradication mission. Using the norm life cycle theory theorizing the three stages of norm development, starting from norm emergence, cascade, and internalization, this article reviews and investigates how Indonesia had dealt and performed in each of those norm life cycle stages within the framework of global poverty eradication norm. Based on the theoretical approach used, this article argues that the inability of UN MDGs to resolve poverty in Indonesia was due to the excessive use of statistical and quantitative basis of poverty eradication efforts rather than a more qualitative and welfare building approaches. Moreover, a systemic problem existed upon MDGs' coordination and implementation on the Indonesian government and donor countries/institutions. It included the lack of commitment to official development aid (ODA) realization, renegotiation and elimination of Indonesia's foreign debt, and rampant corruption in the national development and poverty eradication funds.

African’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Innovations and Economic Growth- Towards region integration: Empirical Evidence of Dynamic GMM Panel Data Approach.

Current literature on economic growth and development uniformly affirms the consensus that Information and Communication Technology ICTs (here defined as the composite index using 11 indicators as developed by (ITU)) is indispensable for economic growth and enhancing a wide range of development indices. It is common knowledge today that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) -whether embodied in human skills, capital goods, practices and organizations—are the key drivers of economic growth and sustainable development of nations and regions. The integration, growth and competitiveness of the economies of the East African Community (EAC) depend on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and innovation.
 This paper examines the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use on economic growth using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator within the framework of a dynamic panel data approach and applies it to five East Africa community Countries (EAC) countries over the period 2000 to 2018.The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between real GDP Growth and ICT Development index (as a composite index measured by the number of indicators which are, ICT readiness reflecting the level of network infrastructure and access to ICTs, ICT intensity reflecting the level of use of ICT in the society and ICT (skills) impact reflecting the result/outcome of efficient and effective ICT user). This implies that if these countries seek to enhance their economic growth, they need to implement specific policies that facilitate ICT development.
 The five Partner countries of the EAC should make closer cooperation strategies, systematic and significant regional integration arrangements in the generate and application of new knowledge and technological innovations, their ambitions to grow their economies, achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets, deepen economic and political integration and attain sustainable development.

EXAMINING GENDER-BASED INCLUSIVE EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONS IN THE KADJEBI DISTRICT, GHANA

Reports from various evaluations of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2 indicate that even though a great deal of success had been chalked, a lot more was yet to be attained. In 2013, just two years to 2015, which marked the end of the MDG target year, the Kadjebi District was declared a deprived district in terms of education. The paper employed the lenses of social exclusion/inclusion and theory of change. It examined the extent of gender participation in and achievement of other results of education development interventions, now derived from the Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) 4. Basically, the paper used quantitative data from a secondary source after the Kadjebi District was selected from a group of six deprived districts, using a simple random sampling technique. It emerged that Kadjebi is faring well in terms of interventions targeting access to JHS and SHS education by gender but not much progress in the area of indicators measuring quality of education. It is recommended that all stakeholders, particularly, NGOs that were undertaking the interventions, collaborate to diagnose the factors militating against achievement of the quality objective of their interventions and dwell on their respective competitive advantage to create the necessary synergies to be able to tackle these challenges head-on in the District. 
 
 Key Words/Descriptors: Education Intervention, Gender, World Bank, Sustainable Development Goals, Ghana.

Uncertainties in the path to 2030: Increasing trends of under-five mortality in the aftermath of Millennium Development Goal in Eastern Ethiopia.

BackgroundAlthough Ethiopia was applauded for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing child mortality, whether the gains sustained beyond the MDG era was rarely studied. In this study, we reported the trends and determinants of under-five mortality (U5M) from 2015 to 2020 in a population based cohort under the Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS), eastern Ethiopia.MethodsWe followed pregnant women and their pregnancy outcomes from 2015 to 2020. Each year, data related to death and live births among the follow up population was retrieved. Automated verbal autopsy (InterVA-4) was used to assign the cause of death and Stata 14 was used for analysis. U5M rate was calculated as death among under five children divided by all live births during the study period and described per 1000 live births along with 95% Confidence Interval (CI). A multivariable Cox proportional regression model was used to identify determinant of U5M using adjusted hazard ratio (AHR). Finally, P value <0.05 was considered for declaring statistically significant association.ResultsFrom January 2015 to December 2020, a total of 28 870 live births were registered under the Kersa HDSS, of whom 1335 died before their fifth birthday. The overall U5M rate was 46.3 per 1000 live births (95% confidence interval (CI) = 43.79-48.79), with significant increase from 27.9 in 2015 to 54.7 in 2020 (P < 0.041). Diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory tract infection including pneumonia, meningitis and encephalitis, and HIV related deaths were the leading causes of U5M. The hazard of death was higher among children born to poor household (AHR = 1.52; 95% CI = 1.27-1.81), rural residents (AHR = 6.0; 95% CI = 3.65-9.91), born to adolescent mothers (AHR = 1.41; 95% CI = 1.02-1.95), whose mother didn’t receive antenatal care (AHR = 1.43; 95% CI = 1.21-1.69), were born preterm (AHR = 14.1; 95% CI = 9.96-19.89) and had low birth-weight (AHR = 1.74; 95% CI = 1.39-2.18).ConclusionWe found high level of U5M rate with an increasing trend in the aftermath of the praised MDG4 achievement. Achieving the ambitious U5M of 25 per 1000 live births by 2030 requires addressing diarrheal disease, and respiratory tract infections, and HIV/AIDS. Reasons behind the persistent increase over the study period require further inquiry.

LITERATURE REVIEW : EFEKTIFITAS PELVIC ROCKING EXERCISE MENGGUNAKAN BIRTHING BALL TERHADAP KEMAJUAN PERSALINAN PADA IBU PRIMIPARA

Indonesia's Health Profile in 2019 in general, there was a decrease in maternal mortality during the period 1991-2015 from 390 to 305 per 100,000 live births, if it is associated with the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), namely reducing the maternal mortality rate (MMR) to 102/100,000 live births. the maternal mortality rate did not reach the MDGs target. Physiological efforts are made to prevent prolonged labor, such as pelvic rocking exercise using the birthing ball technique. This is also a method that really helps respond to pain in an active way and reduces the length of the first stage of labor in the active phase. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of pelvic rocking with a birthing ball on the progress of labor in primiparous women in 2020. This study uses Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR), which is a synthesis of systematic, clear, comprehensive literature studies, by identifying, analyzing , evaluating through the collection of existing data with an explicit search method and involving a critical review process in the selection of studies. In 6 journals, all journals perform pelvic rocking exercise techniques using the birthing ball technique when the mother enters the first stage of the active phase. The conclusion in this study is that all journals reviewed by researchers can be ascertained that all of these journals get the same results, namely stating that using the Pelvic Rocking Exercise technique with the help of a birthing ball can make delivery times for mothers go faster

Nutrition in Nepal: Three decades of commitment to children and women.

South Asia has made significant progress in reducing child undernutrition. The prevalence of stunting declined by one third between 2000 and 2019; as a result, in 2019, there were 34 million fewer stunted children than in 2000, indicating that progress for child nutrition is possible and is happening at scale. However, no country in South Asia is on track for all nutrition targets of Sustainable Development Goal 2, and the region has the highest prevalence of stunting (33.2%) and wasting (14.8%) in the world. Nepal, the best performing country in the region, narrowly missed the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target to half the prevalence of child underweight between 1990 and 2015 and achieved the fastest recorded reduction in stunting prevalence in the world between 2001 and 2011. In 2019, UNICEF Nepal completed a series of papers to examine Nepal's progress on maternal and child nutrition during the MDG era. The series explores the trends, distribution and disparities in stunting, micronutrient deficiencies and feeding practices in children under 5 years and anaemia in adolescents and women. Besides, it reviews national micronutrient programmes (vitamin A supplementation, iron and folic acid supplementation and universal salt iodization) and Nepal's first Multi‐Sector Nutrition Plan, to illuminate the success factors and enduring challenges in the policy and programme landscape for nutrition. This overview paper summarizes the evidence from these analyses and examines the implications for the direction of future advocacy, policy and programme actions to improve maternal and child nutrition in Nepal and other similar contexts.

POLICY ANALYSIS OF VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT TARGETING POVERTY REDUCTION IN PAPUA PROVINCE

In Papua Province, poverty has become an important problem common in other regions in Indonesia and worldwide, especially in developing countries. The Millennium Development Goals targets have pushed the Indonesian government to emphasize poverty reduction programs throughout Indonesia. Rural areas in Papua, particularly villages, have been the target point for the poverty alleviation program because many in rural areas experience poverty that is worse than urban areas. Rural development is considered an effective method for poverty reduction. Meanwhile, the development program as a whole has neglected rural communities. In Papua Province, poverty reduction programs have been implemented ineffectively due to part of the village development program, the top-down approach of the government, and the absence of competent resources. So far, village development policies have been implemented without considering village potential, spatial arrangements, holistic approaches, and lack of budget allocations. In addition, the role of village government shows an ineffective performance. Thus, this study aspires to identify how much influence communication, resources, disposition, and bureaucratic structure have on poverty reduction in Papua Province. This study indicates that communication, resources, dispositions, and bureaucratic structures affect village development policies and influence poverty reduction in Papua Province. This research also shows that the lower the performance of the implementation of village development policies indicated by four variables, the less effective it is in poverty alleviation in Papua Province. In this study, a novelty that previous researchers have not found has been found, namely; that in the effectiveness of poverty reduction, it is necessary to develop an effective communication so that program implementation can run optimally, and it needs to be supported by the character or behavior of the implementers of the village development program.

Child Health Outcome Inequalities in Low and Middle Income Countries

ABSTRACT Prior to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era, considerable progress was made toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) health indicators. Despite these achievements, many countries failed to meet the MDG target levels, between-country inequalities in health outcomes did not improve, and many countries making progress in average indicator levels did so while at the same time seeing increasing within-country inequalities. We build on the existing literature documenting levels and trends in health inequalities by expanding the number of data-points under focus, and we contribute to this literature by analyzing the extent to which inequalities in child health outcomes are related to socioeconomic inequalities, and to aggregate income growth. The objective of this paper is to examine long-run trends in average population levels and within-country inequalities for two child health outcomes—the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and stunting—in 102 countries across 6 regions. We find that only about a third of countries in our sample managed to both reduce U5MR levels and inequalities, and only a quarter did so for stunting. The fact that inequality in service coverage seems to follow a more favorable trend than inequality in health outcomes suggests that policies aiming to reduce health inequities should not only foster more equitable service coverage but also focus on the social determinants of health. Moreover, there is no strong correlation between changes in health inequalities and income growth, suggesting that income generating development policies alone will typically not suffice to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

Estimating the Financing Required to Fulfill the Education Targets Set by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Sample Study of Punjab, Pakistan

The report of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) regarding the progress made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by Punjab, Pakistan claimed that the province veered in its journey to achieve the universal primary education targets. Past evidence showed that the shortage of funds was one among several reasons due to which school education targets of MDGs were not met. Countries all over the world have now signed up for another set of comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which need to be achieved by 2030. At present, in Punjab, no attempt has been made to meet the targets set by SDGs. This study attempted to determine how much public spending is required to meet a subset of basic education goals, namely the completion of high-quality pre-primary, primary, and lower secondary education. This study only evaluated public spending on school education in Punjab. For this purpose, data was taken for the period 2008-2019. Based on the results, we must increase our education spending on school education by at least 10% in real terms, annually. Furthermore, if the recent trend of spending on school education continues, the rise in spending will only be 5% in real terms, due to which we will not be able to achieve school education-related SDGs in Punjab, Pakistan. At this time, the best thing that the government can do to stimulate progress in school education targets of SDGs is to provide the amount of resources especially when the race towards the attainment of the SDGs is on in all developing and developed countries.&#x0D; Keywords: expected years of schooling, financial requirements, linear regression, school education, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)&#x0D;

Meta-Analysis the Effect of Intrauterine Device Uptake on the Risk of Ectopic Pregnancy in Women of Reproductive Age

Background: Indonesia has a high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and has not met the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target. Maternal mortality in Indonesia is caused by bleeding, hypertension, infection with abortion, and prolonged labor. One of the causes of bleeding in the first trimester is ectopic preg­nancy. Several studies have shown an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy in women using intra­uterine contraceptives. Subjects and Method: A literature review was carried out in this study with a case control study design. The exposure was intrauterine contraception, and the outcome of the study was an ectopic pregnancy. The initial screening limits studies by time, language and appro­priate themes. Furthermore, the selection of research articles was carried out based on the content according to the topic, namely ectopic pregnancy and intrauterine contraceptives, the literature obtained was not duplicated, and each literature was reviewed. Statistical analy­sis was performed using Rev.Man 5.3 software with a random effects model. Value: the I² statistic was used to calculate hetero­geneity. Results: Pooled OR estimates from all studies are (RR= 1.53; 95% CI= 0.48 to 4.80; p= 0.47) with a heterogeneity of 85%. Conclusion: Based on a review of the litera­ture, it can be concluded that intrauterine contraceptives can cause ectopic pregnancy, but the results of the study still show quite varied OR. Keywords: intrauterine contraceptives, ectopic pregnancy, meta analysis Correspondence: Yulita Endah Mayaningrum. Masters Program in Public Health, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jl. Ir. Sutami 36 A, 57126, Surakarta, Central Java 57126. Email: yulita.maya95@gmail.com. Mobile: +6285817887585. Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2021), 06(02): 165-175 https://doi.org/10.26911/thejmch.2021.06.02.04

Linkage between water, sanitation, hygiene, and child health in Bugesera District, Rwanda: a cross-sectional study

Rwanda met the Millennium Development Goal targets for access to drinking water and sanitation. However, the WASH practices of high-risk communities are undocumented. Lack of information may hide disparities that correlate with disease. The purpose of this study was to assess WASH and childhood diarrhoea in Bugesera District. A survey was administered to caregivers. Water and stool samples were collected to assess physical and biological characteristics. Focus groups provided information on community context. Analysis included descriptive statistics, Chi-square, logistic regression, and thematic analysis. Piped water and unimproved sanitation were used by 45.28 per cent and 88.38 per cent of respondents. Most respondents (51.47 per cent) travelled 30–60 minutes per trip for water and 70 per cent lacked access to hand-washing near the latrine. Diarrhoea was less prevalent in children who used a toilet facility (p = 0.009). Disposal of faeces anywhere other than the toilet increased the odds of having diarrhoea (OR = 3.1, 95 per cent CI = 1.2–8.2). Use of a narrow mouth container for storage was associated with decreased intestinal parasites (p = 0.011). The presence of a hand-washing station within 10 metres of the toilet was associated with lower odds of intestinal parasites (OR = 0.54, 95 per cent CI: 0.29–0.99). Water and sanitation access, water handling and storage, and unsanitary household environment underlie high diarrhoeal disease prevalence.