Global Economic Issues

Although many of these goals seem like they will not be reached in 2015, the fact that most are showing improvement and that some really are feasible is reason for some optimism. I had assumed, before seeing this report, that some parts of the developing world simply weren’t improving and were becoming even more impoverished. Although I believe this is still true of many localized regions, it’s comforting to see that overall poverty rates are decreasing.

Also, one of the things I find most interesting about these statistics is just how much more rapidly Eastern Asia has improved compared to the rest of the world over only about two decades.

“Meeting the goals is everyone’s business. Falling short would multiply the dangers of our world – from instability to epidemic diseases to environmental degradation. But achieving the goals will put us on a fast track to a world that is more stable, more just, and more secure.” We have seen this from The End of Poverty, via Sachs’ story about Malawi and the price of HIV/AIDS medication. Here’s a thought about how secure the world could be: if we somehow fulfill the Millennium Development Goals, everyone should be able to reap the benefits (even people in other countries resorted to scamming citizens in developed countries should be able to stop once they see their communities have more money).

As for the first goal (of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger), we still need to assist Sub-Saharan Africa (where we hear some about the situations in Africa). However, something else we need to consider is to stop (as a country) being somewhat unconcerned with foreign aid.

(I realize this is only partially related, but the connection is interesting. In the movie About Schmidt, one of the characters [Warren] sponsors a Tanzanian child via a television commercial. Near the end of the movie, Warren receives a letter from a nun in Tanzania thanking him for his donations–the child he sponsored needed eye surgery, and the child was able to get the surgery thanks to Warren.)

Regarding the number of refugees and displaced people across the world, I believe some of the reasons why the number increased the entire decade (2000-2010) are the increased number of natural disasters (earthquakes and floods) and the increase in corrupt rulers in countries (and even in the news today–such as Tunisia, Bahrain, etc.).

After looking at all the progress that has been made on the MDG’s i was rather impressed by how close some of these goals were from being accomplished.

When you take into account major setbacks like climate change, numerous natural disasters, armed conflicts and political unrest that we have seen as of late, and the effects of a global financial crisis all hinder the achievement of these goals in ways that we cannot understand just by looking at how far along some of the goals are.

what i thought was most interesting was that the MDG’s focus heavily on “the empowerment of women” and believe that educating young girls is one of the best ways to overcome poverty and hunger. It seems that Greg Mortensen is not the only one who sees that large benefits that stem from the education of young girls.

Even though some goals seem like they are a long way off from being met, there have been amazing accomplishments. The fact that the income of $1.25 a day has been reduced from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005 is amazing. It isn’t surprising that the areas experiences the most economic growth are China and India. This update briefly touched on the financial crisis’s effect on the attainability of the Millennium Goals and it seems pretty incredible that the goals aren’t being reworked to be more attainable in light of the crisis. However, it did point out the while the goal is a job for every person including women, unemployment rates have been rising. It seems unlikely that this goal will be met.

This report is important for showing the progress that has been made thus far with the MDG’s because it is easy to forget about or neglect things that take 15 plus years to complete. People need to be reminded and feel encouraged about the project which is why positive quantifiable evidence and data like this is so crucial.

Overall, I was very impressed with the overview of the report. The MD is much further along than I had thought and it was reassuring to hear about the progress that has been made. While it sounds like many of the goals won’t be completed by 2015, it seems like the majority of them are well under way and there has been substantial progress made in each area. For example, the decrease in child deaths from 12.8 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008 is amazing and I think this is a statistic to be proud of. I am confident that if it weren’t for the financial crisis of 2007/08, the majority of these goals would be getting completed on time. Therefore, I am hopeful that the MD progression is once again picking up pace and many of the gaols will be attained at some point within the next decade.

Looking through a lot of these goals, it’s amazing to see how much progress was made with the resources the MGD has been given. Obviously these resources are minimal at the least and with the promised investments by the bigger nations there is no doubt that many of these goals could be reached in several of the countries. I was rather impressed by the 19% decrease in overall poverty especially within a 15 year timeframe. It really puts into perspective that these goals can be achieved, maybe not by the MGD’s timeframe but definitely within our lifetime. The one area I feel still needs much improvement is the education/ enrollment rate of the children within Sub-Saharan Africa. I feel like this is a huge factor as to why the population still hasn’t gotten out of the turmoil they currently are in. If children aren’t able to become educated, they can’t get out into the work force and bring back their earnings to support their future families. With education comes knowledge and that knowledge could bring about more educated Africans that can give back to their communities and help their peers. I think education is the key to helping Sub-Saharan Africa.