Miles to go before we sleep
NINE years have gone by since the United Nations adopted the Millennium Declarations, which gave rise to the Millennium Development Goals. Since then, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region have been working hard to reach these goals. Some countries of this region have been very successful, others have made satisfactory progress, while some other are making less progress to reach all the goals by 2015. Many countries have prepared their own reports on progress towards the MDGs. UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific (Escap), UNDP and ADB have gone into a partnership to present a regional picture of MDG achievement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Here is an overview of progress of MDGs made by the Asia-Pacific region goal by goal.
Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: On the poverty target, the Asia-Pacific region has made dramatic progress. Between 1990 and 2005 in the 23 countries offering sufficient data, the proportion of people living on less than $1/day fell from 32 to 17 percent. Here, overall poverty reduction will inevitably be swayed by the achievements of China and India, while 17 other countries, including Armenia, Bangladesh, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Mongolia are on track.
The second target is to remove hunger: For 27 countries, the proportion of people consuming less than the minimum dietary energy requirement fell between the early 1995s and 2005, but only slightly from 18.7 to 14.2 percent. The worst position is in Tazhakistan, with 55 percent of the population going hungry, followed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with 36 percent. Another important indicators is child malnutrition, which is disturbingly high in countries like Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and 40 percent of India.
Achieving universal primary education: Here progress has been satisfactory. Most countries in the region have primary enrolment ratios above 85 percent, and many above 90 percent. Of the 33 countries with sufficient data available to estimate trend, 10 have already reached the goal and 13 others are on track. However, dropout rates can also be high. For example, about half of the children dropout before grade five in India, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Myanmar.
Another measure of success is the primary completion rate, which, for the region as a whole between 1998 and 2008 rose 89 to 95 percent, though those figures give an over-optimistic picture since the number is swollen by over-age children.
Promoting gender equality and empowering women: Elimination of gender disparity in education is proceeding well, but progress in participation and empowerment needs to be accelerated. The target under this goal focuses on eliminating gender disparity at all levels of education. At the primary education level, 26 countries have already achieved the target. Bangladesh and China have made particularly rapid progress. Of the five countries that are regressing, the most serious situation is in Afghanistan and Pakistan. At the second level many countries have achieved the target.
Reducing child mortality: Here the picture is mixed. The first target is to reduce the mortality rate by two-thirds. For this indicator the 49 countries with data available are divided into two halves. Half have already achieved their targets and all have child mortality rates below 40 per 1,000 live births. The other half, however, are in a very different position, only four are on track to meet the target, 9 are off track, making progress slowly, while three are regressing. In 2005 the largest number of child deaths was in India (2.3 million) followed by China (650,000) and Pakistan (481,000). China has been making sufficient progress but India and Pakistan are slow.
Improving maternal health: Here the progress has been far too slow. The target is to reduce maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters between 1992 and 2015, but the ratio in the average Asian developing countries has only declined from 395 to 318. Even more alarming, of the 42 countries for which data is available maternal mortality has gone up in 22 of them. Around two-thirds of Asian maternal deaths, takes place in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The highest maternal mortality rates are in Afghanistan, Nepal and Timor-Leste. Each year, across the region around are quarter of million women die as a result of a normal life cycle event -- pregnancy and childbirth. Most of these deaths could have been avoided if care and access to emergency obstetric care.
Combating HIV/Aids and other diseases: HIV/Aids is also an area of great concern. The target is to halt the spread of the epidemic by 2015. Overall, however, the region is off-track. Between 2003 and 2005, the prevalence among those aged 15 to 49 in the average Asian country rose from 0.39 to 0.45 percent. Asia-Pacific region has over nine million people living with HIV/Aids, and each year half a million people die. There are also worries about malaria, although there is insufficient data. It is serious in Indonesia, India and Lao People Republic.
Ensuring environmental sustainability: The first target is to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs. Based on their progress in preparing national sustainable development strategies, only five countries are early achievers and 10 are on track. Here, the picture is also mixed. Forested land increased in 13 countries, remained unchanged in 17 and decreased in 18. Deforestation has been excessive in Bangladesh, Micronesia Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Developing global partnership: There are five sub-regions to develop in a global partnership for development. But the Asia-Pacific region is not being sufficiently active in developing a global partnership. At present, they are just going ahead to build a regional partnership. Here it is important to note that the most developed countries always seem to avoid the developing and least development countries. So it is big challenge for this area.
The Millennium Development Goals that have to be achieved by 2015 respond to the world's main development challenges. The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. Reaching the targets will be a great challenge for Asia. It is also a great challenge for Bangladesh.
Sayeed Arman is a Journalist.
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