In the western Kenyan village of Sauri, near Lake Victoria, the crops don’t fail, nearly all the children attend school, malaria is almost non-existent and medical care is free.

If this doesn’t sound like a typical sub-Saharan village, it’s because Sauri – along with 13 other settlements throughout the African continent – is a ‘Millennium Village’; a place previously mired in poverty, but hand-picked by economist Jeffrey Sachs and injected with $1.5m (€1,034m) over five years in order to reach the United Nations’ eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The development targets, which include eradicating extreme hunger and poverty, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health while combating HIV/Aids and malaria, have a deadline of 2015. By this date, the hope is that all African villages will be on a similar path in terms of Sauri’s development progress. Extreme poverty should be history. But with just five years to go, what is the likelihood that these goals will be achieved?

Making progress

With UN member states committed to the goals, there came a flurry of MDG-inspired initiatives, foundations and campaigns, many spearheaded by film stars and celebrities, all seemingly united in their dedication to lifting Africa out of the doldrums. Governments, too, were forced to participate by including the targets in their development plans – the MDGs became a prerequisite for donor aid.

“[African] governments have had to make access to healthcare, education and water services central to what is good policy. The MDGs have influenced all of this,” says Nairobi-based Charles Abugre Akelyir, deputy director for Africa of the UN Millennium Campaign. He points to the second and third goals – achieving universal primary education and promoting gender equality – as areas where most countries have made progress. He cites Ghana as a prime example where these two goals have inspired startling changes: nearly all kids of primary school age are going to school, with the enrolment of girls overtaking that of boys. The next challenge is to ensure they continue on to secondary school.

Campaigners argue that gains in one target often boost progress in another. For example, by beating malaria and saving money on medicine, families have more to spend on food and education, thus helping alleviate poverty.

The international charity World Vision’s recent campaign, Child Health Now, focuses on reducing child mortality (the fourth MDG) by preventing some six million children dying from preventable diseases annually. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the simple priority is to supply clean water and teach parents about the dangers of diseases like diarrhoea. “The things that will save millions of children are not expensive”, says Jan Butter, head of global advocacy communications and external communications manager at World Vision. “Rehydration salts for kids with diarrhoea, education, clean, safe drinking water, and bed nets. These are the community-based initiatives we are working on, which can save lives.”

Of all the targets, perhaps the one to attract the most attention has been the fight to eradicate malaria. Across Africa, malaria kills nearly a million people each year, and damages economies by keeping people out of work. US-based charity Malaria No More works in 14 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, including Liberia, Angola, DRC, Senegal and Uganda. It claims its 2007 bed-net distribution campaign in Mali means the country “now has the highest mosquito net utilisation rate in Africa.”

Challenges ahead

But it’s not so easy to overhaul entire health systems; something that requires government commitment and funds. Most African nations are finding it tough to beat maternal mortality, for example. In fact, since the goals were launched in 2000, maternal mortality has increased in virtually all countries across the region. And ending extreme hunger and poverty, the biggest target of all, has fared even worse. According to the

UN, hunger levels amongst the bottom 40% of income earners in Africa have either worsened or remain unchanged.

So are Millennium Villages like Sauri the answer to reaching the MDGs? Critics of Sachs’ heavy-spending development model argue that it’s not sustainable, and fosters a culture of donor dependency that does nothing to achieve self-sufficiency (which is the overriding aim of the experiment). But others disagree. “The project is not ‘throwing’ money at the community,” argues Nairobi-based Joelle Bassoul, of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). “Actually, when you break it down, it’s quite small. The total investment in each village is $110 (€76) per person per year, over five years.”