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Population, Poverty and Global Development Goals: the Way Ahead
THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA: DEFEAT POVERTY Follow-up to
the Millennium Summit in 2000 has concentrated the efforts
of the international community and the United Nations system on
ending poverty. The Millennium Development Goals include
most of the goals agreed in 1994 at the International Conference
on Population and Development and subsequent conferences-
including better health, increased life expectancy, prevention
of HIV/AIDS, universal basic education, and reductions in maternal,
infant and child mortality.
The Millennium Declaration process recognized the importance
of the development goals and indicators adopted at previous
global conferences and is striving for harmonized national strategies
for implementation.
GOALS OF THE ICPD AND QUANTITATIVE BENCHMARKS
The ICPD endorsed a set of interdependent population and
development objectives, including sustained economic growth in
the context of sustainable development, and gender equity and
equality. Countries were urged to include population factors
in all development strategies, and to act to eliminate gender-based
violence and harmful traditional practices including female
genital cutting.
Quantitative goals in three areas were adopted:
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION Elimination of the gender gap in primary
and secondary education by 2005, and complete access to
primary school or the equivalent by both girls and boys as quickly
as possible and in any case before 2015;
The Millennium Summit accepted
these targets and added elimination of gender disparities
to all levels of education by 2015 (1).
MORTALITY REDUCTION Reduction in infant and under-5
mortality rates by at least one third, to no more than 50 and
70 per 1,000 live births, respectively, by 2000, and to below 35 and
45, respectively, by 2015; reduction in maternal mortality to half
the 1990 levels by 2000 and by a further one half by 2015 (specifically,
in countries with the highest levels of mortality, to below 60
per 100,000 live births);
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STATEMENTS BY THE COMMISSION ON MACRO-ECONOMICS AND HEALTH |
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"Investments in reproductive health,
including family planning and access to
contraceptives, are crucial accompaniments
of investments in disease control.
The combination of disease control and
reproductive health is likely to translate into
reduced fertility, greater investments in
health and education of each child, and
reduced population growth."
"If these conditions [communicable diseases]
were controlled in conjunction with
enhanced programmes of family planning,
impoverished families could not only enjoy
lives that are longer, healthier and more
productive, but they would also choose to
have fewer children, secure in the knowledge
that their children would survive, and
could thereby invest more in the education
and health of each child. Given the special
burdens of some of these conditions on
women, the well-being of women would
especially be improved."
"The evidence also suggests that
approaches required to scale up the health
system to provide interventions for communicable
diseases and reproductive
health will also improve care for the NCDs
[non-communicable diseases]."
"Experience shows, moreover, that family
planning services are most effective
when they are a part of comprehensive programmes
for reproductive health, that
include family planning, safe pregnancy
and delivery, and the prevention and treatment
of reproductive tract infections and
sexually transmitted diseases."
"Rapid population growth has multiple
and complex effects on economic development.
At the household level, investments
per child in education and health are
reduced when households have many children,
that is, when fertility rates are high. At
the societal level, rapid rural population
growth in particular puts enormous stress
on the physical environment (e.g., deforestation,
as forests are cut for firewood and
new farm land) and on food productivity as
land-labour ratios in agriculture decline.
Desperately poor peasants are then likely
to crowd cities, leading to very high rates of
urbanization, with additional adverse consequences
in congestion and in declining
urban capital per person (e.g., policing
services, water and sanitation, etc)."
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The Millennium Summit simplified the under-5 mortality
reduction (to one third of 1990 levels by 2015) and accepted the
parallel three quarters reduction of maternal mortality.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Provision of universal access
to a full range of safe and reliable family planning methods and
to related reproductive and sexual health services by 2015.
ICPD+5 The five-year review of ICPD in 1999 agreed on new
benchmarks, which have been adopted in many nations:
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The 1990 illiteracy rate for women and girls should be halved by
2005. By 2010 the net primary school enrolment ratio for children
of both sexes should be at least 90 per cent;
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By 2005, 60 per cent of primary health care and family planning
facilities should offer the widest achievable range of safe and
effective family planning methods, essential obstetric care,
prevention and management of reproductive tract infections
including STIs, and barrier methods to prevent infection; 80 per
cent of facilities should offer such services by 2010, and all
should do so by 2015;
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At least 40 per cent of all births should be assisted by skilled
attendants where the maternal mortality rate is very high, and
80 per cent globally, by 2005; these figures should be 50 and 85
per cent, respectively, by 2010; and 60 and 90 per cent by 2015;
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Any gap between the proportion of individuals using contraceptives
and the proportion expressing a desire to space or limit
their families should be reduced by half by 2005, 75 per cent by
2010, and 100 per cent by 2015. Recruitment targets or quotas
should not be used in attempting to reach this goal.
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COOPERATING TO FIGHT POVERTY |
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The Millennium Summit was the
start of an unprecedented effort of UN
Member States to put political will behind
core development goals and heightened
cooperation.
The International Conference on
Financing for Development in March 2002
endorsed recommendations on liberalizing
trade, expanding private-sector involvement
and directing debt relief. The
European nion and the United States
pledged to reverse the decline in official
development assistance.
The Secretary-General will report annually
to the General Assembly on progress
towards the Millennium Development
Goals. The 2002 report addressed armed
conflict and the treatment and prevention
of diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria.
A Global Millennium Project will
address key thematic areas, using expertise
within the UN community, academia,
development assistance and finance institutions,
and the private sector in developed
and developing countries. The Global
Millennium Campaign will mobilize public
support for anti-poverty efforts and attainment
of the MDGs.
The United Nations system has
improved the coordination of its activities
at the international, regional and national
levels. The United Nations Development
Group is coordinating policies of N
agencies and organizations. The Senior
Management Group meets weekly and
reviews policy issues. In May 2002, for
example, it dedicated a session to population
age structures and development
priorities.
UNFPA serves on an interagency group
formulating strategies for improved monitoring
of progress. The Fund is coordinating
efforts to improve data for national-level
monitoring. Every developing country is
expected to prepare at least one country
report by the end of 2004. The technical
task forces of the Global Millennium
Project will incorporate population and
reproductive health expertise supported by
the Fund.
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HIV/AIDS Recognizing that the HIV/AIDS situation is worse than
anticipated by the ICPD, the ICPD+5 review agreed that to reduce
vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection, at least 90 per cent of young
men and women aged 15 to 24 should have access by 2005 to
preventive methods-such as female and male condoms, voluntary
testing, counselling, and follow-up-and at least 95 per cent
by 2010. HIV infection rates in persons 15 to 24 years of age should
be reduced by 25 per cent in the most-affected countries by 2005,
and by 25 per cent globally by 2010.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND THE MDGS Many of the
Millennium Development Goals, including health goals, depend
on the universal availability of family planning and other
reproductive health choices, and on other issues related to population.
In the area of health, the Secretary-General's 2002 report on
progress towards the MDGs was strongly influenced by the work
of the Commission on Macro-economics and Health, set up by
WHO and the World Bank. Five different working groups spent two
years on studies and consultations about priority interventions concerning
the relation of health, and particularly the disease-related
aspects of health, their costs and expected economic impact.
The Commission recognized that population and reproductive
health are central to the attainment of the health goals of
the Millennium Summit and to the entire development agenda.
The ICPD in 1994 emphasized the interconnectedness of population
dynamics, the ability of individuals and couples to make
reproductive choices, better health, development, and poverty
reduction. The Commission shared this understanding, as excerpts
from its report show (see box 23). National and international
action plans for attainment of the Millennium Development Goals
should reflect these understandings.
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HOME:
STATE
OF WORLD POPULATION 2002: Population,
Poverty and Global Development Goals: the Way Ahead
