The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) & Global Issues

The United Nations has established eight goals also called as Millennium Development Goals or MDG’s and hope to complete them by 2015.

The eight goals are as follows:

1.Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

The UN is trying to bring up countries which are below the poverty line to atleast make one dollar a day and to reduce hunger. For this there are many methods that are being used some of which include donations from people who can afford to send money for water to countries like Africa and also food to under developed countries.

It is argued that the most crucial obstacle for attaining universal primary education there is a persisting gap between the percentage of boys and the percentage of girls entering first grade. Needless to say, the culprit is the patriarchal mindset that, to some extent, has yet to be exorcised from secular and religious institutions worldwide. For this cause there are many Christian missionaries and other NGO working throughout the world to make every child atleast complete his primary elementary education.

Gender inequality is both cause and effect of extreme poverty, lack of education, and unprotected sex. In other words, there is a positive feedback loop linking gender inequality with extreme poverty, lack of education, and unprotected sex. Given the commonality of geographic distribution, there must be cultural-religious values that make this feedback loop very strong. These cultural-religious values may differ in other respects but share a common mindset.

On an average around 10+ million children die each year for preventable medical reasons. Over 50% of the early (under 5) deaths are due to under nutrition. This happens mostly in areas of extreme poverty and virulent gender inequality. Child mortality rates are inversely correlated with maternal health care. High children mortality rates and poor maternal health coincide are tightly connected with the patriarchal mindset.

There are four phases of maternal health care: before pregnancy, during pregnancy, childbirth, and after childbirth. If mothers cannot take care of their own health, it is unreasonable to expect that they will take care of their children's health and development.

There can be no doubt that human trafficking contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Nor can there be any doubt that gender inequality is the root cause of the HIV pandemic. Millions of people have died, entire countries have been destroyed. HIV/AIDS is a global holocaust, with victims being sacrificed to the idol of sexual domination.

An integral part of this theme is SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, a dynamic process which entails the reconciliation of sustainability and human, social, and economic development. The well-being of humanity requires the responsible stewardship of the human habitat.

In partnership, wealthy countries working with developing countries can

create an environment in which rapid, sustainable development is possible.

In Brief:

• Most poor women suffer both poverty and patriarchal abuse (MDG1)
• The largest fraction of the poorly educated are girls and women (MDG2)
• Fertility rates are higher in regions of virulent gender inequality (MDG3)
• Child mortality rates are higher in regions of virulent sexual violence (MDG4)
• Maternal health is poorest in regions of virulent gender violence (MDG5)
• HIV/AIDS is rooted in the patriarchal abuse of human sexuality (MDG6)
• Attaining sustainability requires human solidarity and, specifically, cross-gender solidarity (MDG7)
• Sustainable development requires human solidarity, and cross-gender solidarity is the foundation for all forms of human solidarity. Therefore, cross-gender solidarity is crucial for building a global partnership for development (MDG8)

References

[http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv03n08.html]

[http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/ext/GMIS/gdmis.do?siteId=2&menuId=LNAV01]

[http://www.mdgmonitor.org/goal3.cfm]