Goal #1End Hunger & Extreme Poverty
Introduction
Over the years, we've been inundated with the statistics and the pictures of poverty around the world-so much so that many people in both the North and South have come to accept it as an unfortunate but unalterable state of affairs. The truth, however, is that things have changed in recent years. The world today is more prosperous than it ever has been. The technological advances we have seen in recent years have created encouraging new opportunities to improve economies and reduce hunger.
The targets
Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals sets out by the year 2015:
1. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.
2. Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.
3. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Did you know?
Did you know that in our world today:
- One third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes. That’s 270 million people since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US. (Reality of Aid 2004)
- Every year more than 10 million children die of hunger and preventable diseases – that’s over 30,000 per day and one every 3 seconds. (80 Million Lives, 2003 / Bread for the World / UNICEF / World Health Organization)
Achieving the Goals
Doctors at a local health clinic in Brazil learned the reason their patients who regularly came in with health problems related to poverty stopped coming was due to a national anti-hunger program that gave children three meals a day.
“It was simply that these children were starting to eat better,” says Nélia Maria Cruz, the clinic’s chief.
The children were among thousands who have benefited from Fome Zero (“Zero Hunger”), a national effort to eliminate hunger in Brazil.
The program’s formula is simple: Give each Brazilian the opportunity to have at least three meals a day. It might not seem like such a bold challenge but approximately one quarter of Brazil’s 170 million people currently live below the poverty line.
To meet the immediate needs of everyone who goes hungry in the country, the government needs to provide emergency help to 11 million families, according to official estimates. At the same time, the effort must include long-term actions to enable the population to manage on its own, so that in the future every family is able to buy its own food.
by Rogerio Waldrigues Galindo from Perspectives in Health
Goal News
Senegalese Entertainer Baba Maal promoting MDG Goals 4 and 5 at an event organized by the UN Country Office to support the MDG Campaign. The event was jointly organized with the National Civil Society Consortium.(CONGAD)
Senegal launches Parliamentary MDG Committee to monitor MDG Performance. This was a join event by the UN Millennium Campaign and the UN Country Team, lead by the RC.
DAKAR (AlertNet) – African solutions to African problems is the mantra of governments across this continent. But what about the goodwill ambassadors that fly around speaking about the issues that touch Africa most deeply, should they be African too?
Just days before an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Cameroon and Senegal in Dakar, the United Nations named Senegal’s captain, Mamadou Niang, a champion of the U.N.
As cities around the world struggle to meet the basic needs of their booming populations, many are falling behind when it comes to water, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement marking World Day for Water.
“Urbanization brings opportunities for more efficient water management and improved access to drinking water and sanitation,” Ban said. “At the same time, problems are often magnified in cities,” he added.
The ‘AIDS and MDGs’ approach
“Over the past three decades, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reminded us of the fundamental linkages between health and development more broadly.
