"The MDGs are still achievable if we act now. This will require inclusive sound governance, increased public investment, economic growth, enhanced productive capacity, and the creation of decent work." United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon
Overview: Set for the year 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are an agreed set of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together. Economically distressed countries have pledged to govern better and invest in their people through health care and education while wealthier countries have promised to support disadvantaged countries through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade. (www.undp.org/mdg).
The eight Millennium Development Goals are:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Develop a global partnership for development
Click here to view the United Nations (UN) MDG 2007 Progress Report.
Tools for Practitioners: During the fall of 2006, students in PIA 2741 (Tools for Working in International Development, taught by GSPIA adjunct professor Scott Hudson) selected an MDG and took a closer look at programs in different countries and how the goal was being achieved at the project level. Students assessed programs and related projects implemented in specific countries,then developed concepts for projects based on lessons learned and promising practices designed to increase the likelihood that a given goal and targets could be achieved by 2015.
Practitioner Guides: Over the years, each class has completed group projects resulting in Practitioner Guides that academicians and practitioners can use in their work to develop new initiatives, to learn about issues tied to specific countries, to have access to lessons learned and promising practices, and to consider innovative designs to programs/projects created by each group. The Practitioner Guides come in two forms: 1) a final report with references and web links and 2) Powerpoint presentations with highlights about the specific MDG and issue addressed in the Practitioner Guide.
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 Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
2006 Project: Focus on Poverty and Landmines in Southeast Asia
 Achieve Universal Primary Education
2007 Project: Primary Education Reform in Pakistan and Burkina Faso
Practitioners: Meryl Hope, Lin Pei-Zei, Kelley Shell
 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
 Reduce Child Mortality
 Improve Maternal Health
2006 Project: Promising Practice to Improve Maternal Health in Malawi
 Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases
2006 Project: Halt/Reverse the Spread of HIV/AIDS - The Zambian Response
 Ensure Environmental Sustainability
2007 Project: Sustainable Access to Safe Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation in Bangladesh and India
Practitioners: Madiha Tariq, Phillip McKissick
2007 Project: Environmental Sustainability using Native Community Participation
in Indonesia and Tanzania
Practitioners: Nobue Amanuma, Nerissa Lindenfelser
2006 Project: Capacity Building in Kenya: An Approach to Enacting Policies and
Sustainability
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 Global Partnership for Development
2007 Project: International Measures to Make Debt Sustainable in the Philippines
Practitioners: Lora Mae Aquinde, Emil Francis de Quiros
2007 Project: Information and Communication Technologies in Bangladesh, India, South Africa, and Uganda
Practitioners: Kathryn Dickens, Zafar Imran
2006 Project: Promising Practices to Eradicate River Blindness in Uganda
*All images representing MDGs reprinted with permission (www.undp.org/mdg) |
