[Download] "Point: UN MDGS and U.S. Aid to Africa: Worthy Causes (Report)" by International Social Science Review ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Point: UN MDGS and U.S. Aid to Africa: Worthy Causes (Report)
- Author : International Social Science Review
- Release Date : January 22, 2007
- Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 186 KB
Description
In September 2000, the United Nations introduced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), establishing concrete targets for addressing eight of the developing world's most serious ills. The UN MDGs, to be achieved by 2015, include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, promoting gender equality, and ensuring environmental stability, among other ventures. In addressing the issue of realizing these goals, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared, "We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals--worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries--but only if we break from business as usual." (1) "Business as usual" at the UN has often been the target of intense criticism, particularly among American conservatives who lambaste the "Blue Helmets" as an "investment in failure." (2) Because some associate the UN with failure, the MDGs are often dismissed as objectives impossible to achieve or even superfluous. This is a false assessment of the situation. There is certainly an abundance of negative data regarding the present state of affairs in sub-Saharan Africa, but progress towards the UN MDGs has already been achieved, and advances will continue to be made in the coming years. If one examines the UN's 2006 MDG Progress Report, achievement is evident. The percentage of people living on a dollar or less a day (the definition of extreme poverty) has fallen in sub-Saharan Africa, more children are attending primary school, and there are more assisted births. (3) While some view these improvements as marginal at best, they are improvements nonetheless. Marginal gains, of course, are not the goals of the UN, but Annan's optimism regarding greater progress is not unfounded. If the developed world were truly committed to the UN MDGs, then sub-Saharan Africa would be well on its way to meeting those standards by 2015. This does not mean that all of the UN MDGs will have been fully accomplished within that time frame--that would truly be an extraordinary achievement; however, by establishing lofty goals the UN acts to counter complacency, an attitude of developed nations who in the past excused themselves from both committing resources and addressing solutions, arguing that Africa's problems are unsolvable. Significant progress will be made towards achieving the UN MDGs in sub-Saharan Africa because the resources will be available and the costs are reasonable, successful models for development already exist, and there is a new era of leadership and accountability taking hold on the continent.