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Millennium Development Goals

»Millennium Development Goals in The Gambia

The decade of 1990s was a remarkable period of time signaling the launching of the first Human Development Report in 1990 that urged the governments of the world to initiate people-centered development.
Through a series of Global Conferences and Summits and the subsequent respective follow-up Conferences, this ultimate goal was put forward when the world leaders and the United Nations System pledged enactment to global development during the twenty first century.  The declarations and resolutions of the United Nations Global Conferences and Summits have outlined the International Development Targets (IDTs).  The IDTs were first adopted by the OECD/DAC in 1996 and endorsed again in 2000.
At the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, one hundred forty nine (149) Heads of State and representatives of government from some 180 countries adopted the Millennium Declaration. In this Declaration, an augmented set of targets with corresponding indicators were agreed upon and now known as the Declaration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs are relevant to The Gambia’s development context as they set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, discrimination against women and environmental degradation as well as requisite global partnerships in support of such efforts. In effect, the objectives and pillars of the country’s second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP II) are very much correlated with the MDGs.

The challenges faced by The Gambia in meeting a number of MDGs reflect the absence of an integrated planning framework that can effectively monitor national and local progress towards the MDGs. The lack of such a framework is compounded by inadequate institutional capacity and serious resource constraints. Overall, The Gambia faces serious challenges in its efforts to reliably track the MDGs. There has also been a growing realization by senior government policymakers and other stakeholders that if The Gambia is to attain the MDGs, the capacity of administrative, financial and planning structures at the local level will have to be considerably enhanced. Effective and efficient delivery of these services is essential if the MDGs are to have a realistic chance of being attained by 2015.

The Government of The Gambia, at the highest levels, has committed itself to integrating the MDGs into its planning processes. In January 2006, the government decided to integrate the draft second PRSP (PRSP II) and the draft Medium Term Plan (MTP) into one unified planning framework for the country. In order to strengthen implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy, which is identified as the primary vehicle for attaining the MDGs. The government established a National Planning Commission (NPC) for coordinating the national Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) via the implementation of the PRSP, the NPC is the primary government agency charged with tracking MDG targets.

Some of the main findings of the MDG Reports are that MDG targets for poverty, gender equality, and HIV/AIDS were unlikely to be met if existing trends did not change. On the other hand, maternal health, hunger, and access to basic amenities such as safe drinking water were relatively more likely to be met by 2015.

Improvements to maternal health and child nutrition (MDGs 4 and 5), strengthening secondary education and eliminating gender disparities in school (MDG 3), general poverty reduction (MDG 1) and environmental preservation (MDG 7) and HIV/AIDS (MDG 6) are therefore among the areas emphasized in the country’s poverty reduction strategy. These are therefore the areas where The Gambia needs to catch up so as to achieve the aspirations of Vision 2020 in general and the PRSP II and MDG goals and targets in particular.

By the year 2015, all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to meet these 8 goals:

»Meeting the MDGs in The Gambia
Goal 1 m1Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Targets:

1- Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day
2- Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Progress in The Gambia

Off track - Target 1

On track - Target 2

 

 

Goal 2

m2Achieve Universal Primary Education

Targets:

3- Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

Progress in The Gambia

On track

 

 

Goal 3

m3Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Targets:

4- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Progress in The Gambia

Off track

 

 

Goal 4

m4Reduce Child Mortality

Targets:

5- Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

Progress in The Gambia

On track

 

 

Goal 5

m5Improve Maternal Health

Targets:

6- Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

Progress in The Gambia

On track

 

 

Goal 6

 m6Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

Targets:

7- Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
8- Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Progress In The Gambia

Off track - Target 7

On track - Target 8

 

 

Goal 7

m7Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Targets:

9- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
10- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
11- Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

Progress In The Gambia

Off track - Target 9

On track - Target 10

Off track - Target 11

 

 

Goal 8

m8Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Targets:

12- Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally
13- Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction
14- Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States
15- Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term
16- In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth
17- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
18- In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies—especially information and communications technologies

Progress In The Gambia

Off track

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