GOAL 1:ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY & HUNGER

Target 1.A: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day

The target of reducing extreme poverty rates by half was met five years ahead of the 2015 deadline.

The global poverty rate at $1.25 a day fell in 2010 to less than half the 1990 rate. 700 million fewer people lived in conditions of extreme poverty in 2010 than in 1990. However, at the global level 1.2 billion people are still living in extreme poverty.

Target 1.B: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people

Globally, 384 million workers lived below the $1.25 a day poverty line in 2011—a reduction of 294 million since 2001.

The gender gap in employment persists, with a 24.8 percentage point difference between men and women in the employment-to-population ratio in 2012.

Target 1.C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

The hunger reduction target is within reach by 2015. Globally, about 870 million people are estimated to be undernourished. More than 100 million children under age five are still undernourished and

underweight.

More than 2000 unemployed Serbian youth get training and jobs

Where We Work » Eastern Europe » Serbia » More than 2000 unemployed Serbian youth get

training and jobs

 

After Aleksandar Jovanovic’s parents lost their jobs, his family was without any

income for months. Today, they are helping their son run his new car wash

business, which now provides the family with a steady income.

"I’m proud of my business," said Aleksandar, a 20-year-old from Novi Sad,

Serbia’s second largest city. "I called it 'The Green Oasis.' It’s my first job and my

friends are impressed.”

Aleksandar is one of more than 2,000 young Serbs who are getting job

opportunities through an initiative launched by the government and the United

Nations in Serbia to address youth unemployment – which currently stands at a

staggering 46 percent, according to national statistics.

The Youth Employment Fund, supported by the MDG-F, is working to increase

employment and improve the employability of disadvantaged young people

through grants, training and work placements in companies.

The initiative targets young people from Roma communities, rural towns and

villages, migrants, internally displaced persons and returnees, those with

minimal education between the ages of 15 and 30, and young people with

disabilities.

So far, 167 young people have opened their own businesses, and more than 650

have found new jobs, after training sponsored by the YEF.

Dragana, a 23-year-old mother, got a job at a local coffee roasting and retail

company in Backa Palanka after completing YEF-sponsored training. "I’m proud

that I managed to secure full-time employment," said Dragana. "I really enjoy my

work and the daily interaction with my colleagues."

"The greatest success of this project is witnessing individual cases of satisfied

young people who, having been registered with the unemployment office for,

say, 14 years, are finally working or gaining new knowledge and skill," said

Natasa Ivanovic, employment advisor with the YEF.

Jelena Stanković, Head of the Group for Additional Education and Training from

the National Employment Service, said that the programme has gained a lot of

interest from young people, employers, and trainers. "The programme is a

success, and more such projects should be encouraged," said Ms. Stanković.

***

The Youth Employment Fund is part of the Youth Employment and Migration

programme, which supports national and local institutions to implement

measures to increase youth employment in Serbia, while also reducing the

negative impact of return and irregular migration.

The programme is implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO),

International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Children’s Fund

(UNICEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in

cooperation with five ministries, the Centres for Social Work, the National

Employment Service and the Republic Statistical Office. Programme activities are

implemented in over 50 municipalities in South Backa, Belgrade, Pcinjski,

Nisavski and Pomoravski regions.

GOAL 2:ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

Target 2.A: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 per cent in 1999, which means more kids than ever are attending primary school.

In 2011, 57 million children of primary school age were out of school. Even as countries with the toughest challenges have made large strides,

progress on primary school enrolment has slowed. Between 2008 and 2011, the number of out-of-school children of primary age fell by only 3 million.

Globally, 123 million youth (aged 15 to 24) lack basic reading and writing skills. 61 per cent of them are young women.

Gender gaps in youth literacy rates are also narrowing. Globally, there were 95 literate young women for every 100 young men in 2010, compared with 90 women in 1990.

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GOAL 4:REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY

Target 4.A: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Despite population growth, the number of deaths in children under five worldwide declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011, which translates into about 14,000 fewer children dying each day.

Since 2000, measles vaccines have averted over 10 million deaths. Despite determined global progress in reducing child deaths, an increasing

proportion of child deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa where one in nine children die before the age of five and in Southern Asia where one in 16 die before age five.

As the rate of under-five deaths overall declines, the proportion that occurs during the first month after birth is increasing.

Children born into poverty are almost twice as likely to die before the age of five as those from wealthier families.

Children of educated mothers—even mothers with only primary schooling—are more likely to survive than children of mothers with no education.

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Uruguay: Partners join to help parents keep children healthy

In Uruguay, programme helps parents keep children healthy

Cecilia Correa smiles as she watches her daughter sleep in her arms. At times, she sings her the

same songs that she herself heard as a child. Today, she is filled with pride that she is better

prepared to take care of her daughter and to ensure that she grows into a healthy young woman.

Such an outcome, however, was only a remote possibility a few months previously.

Highlights

Between 2009 and 2010, Canelones Grows with You worked with 1,376 families in the department that included pregnant women or children.

The programme reached 1,447 children and 313 pregnant women, with each mother receiving an average of five visits during pregnancy from the programme specialists and another five visits after giving birth.

Within a year, low height for age decreased from 21 percent to 9 percent among participating children, while low birth weight fell from 10.5 percent to 8.6 percent. Prematurity among new-borns decreased from 9 percent to 7 percent.

In addition, between 2009 and 2010 the number of medical check-ups for children increased from 50 percent to 82 percent.

Correa, 22, is one of 35,000 Uruguayans bringing up a child while living in extreme poverty,

according to a 2010 National Statistical Institute report. Correa lives in Canelones, the second

most populous department of Uruguay.

In 2006 and 2007, a UNDP study of Canelones revealed that children in its poorest areas

suffered from severe malnutrition and lower size and weight than the national average.

Furthermore, physical and cognitive development among children aged 0 to 4 years was 11

percent less than the rest of the country.

As a result of these findings, UNDP, UNICEF, the Canelones government and various

government agencies and civil society organizations joined to create “Canelones Grows with

You,” a comprehensive programme on caring for young children designed to help those most in

need.

Canelones Grows with You worked with the department’s most vulnerable families, giving special

attention to pregnant women and children from birth to three years of age. Teams of health and

social specialists toured the hardest-hit areas to talk to parents about the program.

Participating families received food for pregnant women and their babies, along with a course on

healthy eating patterns for babies and mothers. Parents learned how to enrich their babies’ food

with a special supplement powder fortified with iron; in addition, regular check-ups during

pregnancy and paediatric visits for babies after birth were encouraged.

For Silvana Corujo, a programme health specialist, one of the most valuable aspects of this

experience was its rebuilding of community and civic ties by fully opening up resources to the

affected populations. In the past, many poorer families did not use available clinics, schools and

canteens in their communities, either because of a lack of information or because they believed

they had no right to access them. Today that has changed.

The programme decreased the rates of malnutrition, low height, low birth weight, and prematurity.

Additionally, the number of medical check-ups for children increased from 50 to 82 percent.

Thanks to the remarkable improvement in children’s health, Canelones Grows with You has

grown and developed into official Government policy for the entire country, called Uruguay Grows

with You.

By Esteban Zunin

GOAL 5:IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH

Target 5.A: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

Maternal mortality has nearly halved since 1990. An estimated 287,000 maternal deaths occurred in 2010 worldwide, a decline of 47 per cent from 1990. All regions

have made progress but accelerated interventions are required in order meet the target.

In Eastern Asia, Northern Africa and Southern Asia, maternal mortality has declined by around two-thirds.

Nearly 50 million babies worldwide are delivered without skilled care. The maternal mortality ratio in developing regions is still 15 times higher than in

the developed regions. The rural-urban gap in skilled care during childbirth has narrowed.

Target 5.B:Achieve universal access to reproductive health

More women are receiving antenatal care. In developing regions, antenatal care increased from 63 per cent in 1990 to 81 per cent in 2011.

Only half of women in developing regions receive the recommended amount of health care they need.

Fewer teens are having children in most developing regions, but progress has slowed.

The large increase in contraceptive use in the 1990s was not matched in the 2000s.

The need for family planning is slowly being met for more women, but demand is increasing at a rapid pace.

Official Development Assistance for reproductive health care and family planning remains low.

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Eritrea: Focused partners reduce maternal deaths

Reducing maternal death in Eritrea

A NURSE AT A DISPENSARY IN WESTERN KENYA LISTENS TO A FOETUS' HEARTBEAT. (PHOTO: ALLAN GICHIGI)

In the market town of Senafe, in southern Eritrea, Fethawi Berhane has just undergone three

days of painful labor and complications during childbirth that resulted in the death of her baby,

despite the best efforts of a traditional birth attendant. Fethawi herself is lucky to have survived,

given the unhygenenic and poorly equipped medical conditions in which she had to give birth.

Fethawi’s case is not unique in Eritrea, which once had the highest maternal mortality rates in the

world (about 1400 deaths per 100,000 births). The main contributor to this troublesome rate was

the high incidence of obstructed labor.

Highlights

UNDP and partners are working to better train traditional birth attendants in Eritrea, and thereby reduce the maternal mortality rate.

Eritrea once had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with about 1400 deaths per 100,000 births.

80 percent of deliveries in Eritrea occur without a physician or trained midwife.

The rural nature of Eritrea, with its poor communication and transportation infrastructure,

particularly in outlying areas, has caused 80 percent of deliveries to take place without a

physician or trained midwife present.

Today, however, Eritrea is one of the four African countries said to be on track to achieve

Millennium Development Goal 5 on Maternal Health, which calls for countires to reduce their

maternal mortality rate by three quarters by 2015. For Eritrea, this will mean attaining a rate of

less than 350 deaths per 100,000 births.

This drastic positive change has come about through the concerted programmes and persistent

efforts of the Government of the State of Eritrea, in partnership with UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA and

UNDP.

These programmes and efforts have led to intensified maternal health campaigns that have

provided information about, and increased awareness of, maternal issues in the country. They

have also conducted local-language training sessions in rural areas to improve traditional birth

attendants' delivery skills and better prepare them for difficult labor. 

Thanks to these efforts, each community in Eritrea now has fully-trained maternal care givers and

expectant mothers living far from medical centers do not have to risk their lives travelling long

distances while in labor. Instead, trained birth attendants visit them in their homes before and

after delivery to provide medical assistance and ensure that both mother and baby are in good

health.

Additional funding in the amount of US$88 million will be required in the next four years to ensure

universal coverage of maternal and neonatal health intervention in Eritrea. Such assurances will

provide hope to women like Fethawi Berhane, for whom childbirth will no longer be a matter of life

or death.

GOAL 6:COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES

Target 6.A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

New HIV infections continue to decline in most regions. More people than ever are living with HIV due to fewer AIDS-related deaths and

the continued large number of new infections with 2.5 million people are newly infected each year.

Comprehensive knowledge of HIV transmission remains low among young people, along with condom use.

More orphaned children are now in school due to expanded efforts to mitigate the impact of AIDS.

Target 6.B:Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

While the target was missed by 2011, access to treatment for people living with HIV increased in all regions.

At the end of 2011, 8 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV. This total constitutes an increase of over 1.4 million people from December 2010.

By the end of 2011, eleven countries had achieved universal access to antiretroviral therapy.

Target 6.C:Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

The global estimated incidence of malaria has decreased by 17 per cent since 2000, and malaria-specific mortality rates by 25 per cent.

In the decade since 2000, 1.1 million deaths from malaria were averted. Countries with improved access to malaria control interventions saw child

mortality rates fall by about 20 per cent. Thanks to increased funding, more children are sleeping under insecticide-

treated bed nets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Treatment for tuberculosis has saved some 20 million lives between 1995 and 2011.

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Zambia: 'RapidSMS' and mobile apps create waves of change in fighting HIV/AIDS

 

'RapidSMS' and mobile apps create waves of change in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Zambia

© UNICEF Zambia/2011/Nesbitt

A dried blood spot test is performed on a 6-week-old baby boy enrolled in a programme aimed at preventing transmission of HIV from mothers to children at the Nameembo Rural Health Centre in Southern Province, Zambia.

MAZABUKA, Zambia, 10 August 2012 – In a cubicle at Nameembo Rural Health Clinic in southern Zambia, Gloria Moonga quietly holds her six-week-old son Issac Simooya.   Nurse Eklina Chibenga pricks the infant’s tiny toe to collect five dime-sized circles of blood onto a sheet of paper. 

The 21 year old mother is HIV positive and Eklina is collecting a ‘Dry Blood Spot’ (DBS) sample to determine the baby’s HIV status. Before giving birth, Gloria received ‘Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission’ (PMTCT) services which have successfully lowered pediatric HIV infection in many parts of the world.  Gloria, who has known her status for over a year, will get her son’s results in two week’s time.  The results will be delivered via mobile Short Messaging Service (SMS) to Eklina’s phone. “I feel good because I know that my child will be protected,”  says Gloria.

SMS for HIV preventionThe collection of the DBS samples is part of an innovative HIV prevention project named Programme Mwana, supported by the Zambian Ministry of Health (MoH) and UNICEF Zambia, in collaboration with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the Boston University affiliate Zambia Center for Applied Health Research (ZCHARD). Programme Mwana uses mobile phones to improve early infant HIV diagnostic services (EID), patient tracing, and post-natal follow-up and care.

Programme Mwana launched in June 2010 as a pilot strategy to deliver HIV early infant diagnosis results via SMS, in order to reduce typical delays in transmitting results from HIV test laboratories to rural health clinics.

Programme Mwana is designed to find innovative, scalable, and effective solutions to health services for mothers and infants in underserved and hard-to-reach rural health clinics. The technology utilizes RapidSMS, a free and open-source framework for

building mobile applications for dynamic data collection, logistics coordination and communication.

© UNICEF Zambia/2011/Nesbitt

Zgambo Bede Majiwaka, environmental health technologist and PMTCT provider at the Nameebo Rural Health Centre uses SMS technology to receive the results of an early infant diagnosis test (EID) in Zambia's Southern Province.

Saving time, saving livesAt Nameembo Rural Health Clinic the turn-around time to receive the results has been reduced from 66 day, when couriers were used, to 14 days. “The SMS delivery of the DBS results has really helped us. Before it was difficult to get results, the time was too long and the nearest main health facility from where we went to collect results is 28 kilometers from here,” says Eklina, who has worked at Nameembo Rural Health Clinic for 10 years. “Many of our clients have to walk.”

“On average, results are 50 percent faster between sample collections and delivery at the facility, while the number of SMS results arriving at the facility has increased by 30 percent compared to the hardcopy paper result,” said Zgambo Bede Majiwaka, the clinic’s environmental and health technician and PMTCT provider.

To maintain confidentiality, the system is securely managed with a strong verification process. Only trained staff with pin codes can access it using their personal cellular phones to retrieve results. 

Mobile App fights AIDSA tour of the five-room clinic providing various services to an estimated 15,000 local people demonstrates the scope and innovation of the SMS system. Another young mother has just delivered a baby girl and Lina Choonya, a RemindMi agent, is by her bedside registering the birth of the new born. RemindMi is a mobile application that stores, shares and provides notifications of important reminders and dates, which is used to improve post-natal follow-ups.  It was a RemindMi agent that traced Gloria to her house to remind her about her post-natal appointment.

Programme Mwana is currently running in  62 health facilities in 14 predominantly rural districts across six provinces of Zambia, and is planned to be scaled up to all health facilities offering EID services by 2014.

GOAL 7:ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Target 7.A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources

Forests are a safety net for the poor, but they continue to disappear at an alarming rate.

Of all developing regions, South America and Africa saw the largest net losses of forest areas between 2000 and 2010.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) have increased by more than 46 per cent since 1990.

In the 25 years since the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, there has been a reduction of over 98 per cent in the consumption of ozone-depleting substances.

At Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, world leaders approved an agreement entitled “The Future We Want,” and more than $513 billion was pledged towards sustainable development initiatives.

Target 7.B:Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

More areas of the earth’s surface are protected. Since 1990, protected areas have increased in number by 58 per cent.

Growth in protected areas varies across countries and territories and not all protected areas cover key biodiversity sites.

By 2010, protected areas covered 12.7 per cent of the world’s land area but only 1.6 per cent of total ocean area.

Target 7.C:Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

The world has met the target of halving the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water, five years ahead of schedule.

Between 1990 and 2010, more than two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources.

The proportion of people using an improved water source rose from 76 per cent in 1990 to 89 per cent in 2010.

Over 40 per cent of all people without improved drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2011, 768 million people remained without access to an improved source of drinking water.

Over 240,000 people a day gained access to improved sanitation facilities from 1990 to 2011.

Despite progress, 2.5 billion in developing countries still lack access to improved sanitation facilities.

Target 7.D: Achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

The target was met well in advance of the 2020 deadline. The share of urban slum residents in the developing world declined from 39 per

cent in 2000 to 33 per cent in 2012. More than 200 million of these people gained

access to improved water sources, improved sanitation facilities, or durable or less crowded housing, thereby exceeding the MDG target

863 million people are estimated to be living in slums in 2012 compared to 650 million in 1990 and 760 million in 2000

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GOAL 8:DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT

Target 8.A:Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

Despite the pledges by G20 members to resist protectionist measures initiated as a result of the global financial crisis, only a small percentage of trade restrictions introduced since the end of 2008 have been eliminated. The protectionist measures taken so far have affected almost 3 per cent of global trade.

Target 8.B: Address the special needs of least developed countries

Tariffs imposed by developed countries on products from developing countries have remained largely unchanged since 2004, except for agricultural products.

Bilateral aid to sub-Saharan Africa fell by almost 1 per cent in 2011. There has been some success of debt relief initiatives reducing the external debt

of heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) but 20 developing countries remain at high risk of debt distress.

Target 8.C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Aid to landlocked developing countries fell in 2010 for the first time in a decade, while aid to small island developing States increased substantially.

Target 8.D:Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries

At this time, it appears developing countries weathered the 2009 economic downtown and in 2011 the debt to GDP ratio decreased for many developing countries. Vulnerabilities remain. Expected slower growth in 2012 and 2013 may weaken debt ratios.

Target 8.E:In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries

Resources available for providing essential medicines through some disease-specific global health funds increased in 2011, despite the global economic downturn.

There has been little improvement in recent years in improving availability and affordability of essential medicines in developing countries.

Target 8.F: In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

74 per cent of inhabitants of developed countries are Internet users, compared with only 26 per cent of inhabitants in developing countries.

The number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2011 reached 6 billion.

Monitoring aid delivery

The Integrated Implementation Framework (IIF) was developed to record and monitor financial as well as policy commitments made in support of the MDGs by UN Member States and other international stakeholders.

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Viet Nam: Samsung partners to boost “climate literacy” in schools

UNESCO and Samsung to support education in Vietnam

UNESCO / F. Lenaerts

Sustainable development is high on the international agenda. Integrating issues such as biodiversity, disaster risk reduction and climate change into education is a central element of promoting sustainable development. Education for Sustainable Development aims to reorient the entire education system and ensure that children learn what is relevant today.UNESCO and Samsung are launching a US$ 1 million two-year project to develop, pilot and distribute multimedia teacher-training materials on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Viet Nam. Funded by Samsung, UNESCO’s largest country-level ESD intervention, the project involves piloting teacher-training materials in primary schools in coastal Hue, a region particularly hit by the adverse effects of climate change. Based on its decades of experience in growth and development, Samsung will also provide its technical expertise and know-how for developing materials on ESD.

Materials developed through the project will be made available to all 133 teacher training institutions and 63 provincial Departments of Education and Training in the country. By the end of the project, each of the participating pilot schools will have formulated a school DRR and climate change response plan in collaboration with the local community. Collaboration with national universities and other stakeholders is foreseen.

“The Samsung-UNESCO ESD Project aims to create an enabling environment for promoting ESD and achieving a national vision of a learning society in Viet Nam,” said Katherine Muller-Marin, UNESCO Representative to Viet Nam.

 “We would like to share our experience in overcoming challenges and innovations in creating a bright and sustainable future with those children who will shape tomorrow,” said In Yong Rhee, President and head of Samsung’s Communications Team.

The Samsung-UNESCO ESD project builds on UNESCO’s ongoing assistance to the Ministry of Education and Training activities in school-level DRR and climate change response in Viet Nam. The project will be a driving force to realize a resilient and sustainable society in Viet Nam through education.