Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals set a clear goal for development in the developing world. The most important goals in the package are women empowerment, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and global partnerships. Developing countries have made tremendous attempts to fulfill these goals, but much still remains to be done. In fact, in most cases the success rate is way below 50 percent. This has been attributed to lack of commitment by the political class as well as inadequate funds for the actual implementation. With economic growth of less than 2%, most developing countries cannot support free primary education for their citizens. In addition, poverty remains rampant because unemployment is at slightly less than 50 percent. This effectively implies that these governments cannot commit any funds towards improvement of health facilities or support environmental conservation.

Women empowerment remains an important pillar in the Millennium Development Goals. However, it is neglected because most legislators are men who cannot be trusted to empower women. It should be noted that these politicians are operating in systems that up to this moment believe that women deserve less respect. Thus, they risk losing popular support from male members of the society for supporting a social coup considering that they view women as a great threat to male dominance. This is why it will take great political sacrifices to implement whatever policies in these countries. However, it should be noted that empowering women remains a significant step to achieving these goals. Developing countries should first embrace affirmative action to ensure that more women get to positions of leadership in all cadres of the society. This will be a significant step considering that only women can be trusted to implement friendly policies. For example, it should be a constitutional requirement that public service should not be constituted by more than two thirds of either gender. Save for the military, the state of Mongolia has tried to apply this and is currently working well to give women a greater voice in the affairs of the country. In addition, the government has set aside women’s fund to help them start and run their own businesses. They are supposed to borrow money from this fund to start their own businesses. It is projected that this will stop them from depending on their husbands for literally everything. Indeed, it will give them a better role in their families given that they will be able to contribute financially. It is worth noting that most women actually stayed in their marriages where they were being abused simply because they could not afford to live independent lives away from their husbands. This is why empowering women will essentially free them from bondage of male dominance. Indeed, this will also enable them to educate their kids, especially girls who have been denied education by their societies for quite a long time. This will also open up these societies and set a clear stage for human and economic development.

The other threat that stifles development in the developing world is HIV/AIDS and other diseases. In fact, they are diseases that can easily be treated or even be prevented in the first place. For example, some parts of Mongolia still experience outbreaks of malaria that kill several people in spite of the fact that malaria is treatable and there are adequate ways of preventing the disease. It is worth noting that malaria can easily be prevented immunizations. Nonetheless, the best policy that these governments should develop with respect to these preventable diseases is public education. For instance, people should be taught about HIV/AIDS and how it infects people so that they can live more cautiously. Indeed, some countries have employed public education with considerable success in the recent past. However, social as well as economic factors still stand on the way to success. For instance, cultural practices in these societies give men absolute authority over their marriages to the extent that they are allowed to have extramarital affairs. Thus, they get out of their marriages and come back infected with the disease ready to spread it to their spouses. The worst thing is that women are not supposed to complain about this behavior as they risk being sent packing. This would certainly leave them in an awkward position given that they are not economically empowered to live independent lives. This is why women empowerment should be prioritized as it is important for the actual realization of all the millennium development goals. In addition, the government should strive to invest in public health given that it is relatively cheaper than curative healthcare. In fact, most prevalent diseases in the developing world can be prevented at a very low cost. For instance, if the government of Kenya purposed to clear all stagnant waters that provide breeding sites for mosquitoes or sterilized all the harmful species, they would be no more deaths from the disease. However, the problem remains in taking the initiative to eradicate these diseases. Every government feels that they lack the capacity to do it and that it should be up to future governments to do it. This attitude continues to ail the developing world, and will continue to hurt their economies.

Global partnership means a lot to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. For one, countries in the developing world will be able to look at what the developed countries did in order to get to where they are today. For example, they can adopt the policy of setting up an economic zone where all industries can be situated. This will not only make it easy for infrastructural development and security provision, but will also ensure the industries can put their efforts together to conserve the environment. It is worth noting that environmental conservation is quite expensive if it is left for individual industries. Indeed, most developed countries have funds that they use to support their international allies, and this can undoubtedly benefit the developing world. For instance, the United States, China as well as the United Kingdom spend millions of money in aid to support the developing world. It only takes partnership with these countries for the developing world to benefit from these funds. In fact, in most instances they only need political will and transparency in the manner the funds are utilized for one to get additional funding. It goes without saying that international partnership will ensure that governments are more accountable to the people given that developed countries only partner with transparent governments. This will ensure that public funds are used for purposes for which they are meant and that the public benefits from government initiatives. The feeling that there needs to be some level in accountability in order to appease international partners can essentially foster development in the developing world. This way, they will be able to create more jobs and support their education as well as healthcare so that they can have a strong workforce for the future. The state of Mongolia has taken drastic steps to establish global partnerships with the United States and People’s Republic of China in a bid to benefit from international funding.

In conclusion, the most important goals in the package are women empowerment, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and global partnerships. Developing countries have made tremendous attempts to fulfill these goals, but much still remains to be done. However, women empowerment remains an important pillar in the Millennium Development Goals. It is unfortunate that it remains neglected because most legislators are men who cannot be trusted to empower women. The other threats that stifle development in the developing world are HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and international partnerships.