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Introduction
In this module, we will explore the background and history of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (also known as the 2030 Agenda).
We will take a step back and examine the precursors to the SDGs, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were the first global agenda designed by the UN aimed at addressing some of the challenges facing the world today. Examining the MDGs will help us understand the context within which the SDGs were created and the need for a continued action for sustainable development.
As teachers, you can teach issues and challenges relating to development to your students, spread awareness of the challenges we face across the world, and what we all can do to move towards a sustainable, safe, and prosperous life for all.
In this module, we will explore the background and history of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (also known as the 2030 Agenda).
We will take a step back and examine the precursors to the SDGs, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were the first global agenda designed by the UN aimed at addressing some of the challenges facing the world today. Examining the MDGs will help us understand the context within which the SDGs were created and the need for a continued action for sustainable development.
As teachers, you can teach issues and challenges relating to development to your students, spread awareness of the challenges we face across the world, and what we all can do to move towards a sustainable, safe, and prosperous life for all.
Aims and Objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
1. Name the 8 MDGs, explain their content and the context in which they were developed;
2. Reflect critically on the outcome of their implementation, identifying some of the achievements made as well as the criticism they raised;
3. Recognize the progression from the MDGs to the SDGs.
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
1. Name the 8 MDGs, explain their content and the context in which they were developed;
2. Reflect critically on the outcome of their implementation, identifying some of the achievements made as well as the criticism they raised;
3. Recognize the progression from the MDGs to the SDGs.
What are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?
Where did the idea for the SDGs come from? Before discussing the modern goals, we must understand the succession of events that led the United Nations in 2015 to develop and adopt this list of 17 goals.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a blueprint agreed to by the global community at the United Nations that set out to create development goals that met the needs of the world’s poorest areas. The original 8 goals were enacted in 2000, and were set to be achieved by 2015.
The MDG Agenda had 8 goals:
1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
Where did the idea for the SDGs come from? Before discussing the modern goals, we must understand the succession of events that led the United Nations in 2015 to develop and adopt this list of 17 goals.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a blueprint agreed to by the global community at the United Nations that set out to create development goals that met the needs of the world’s poorest areas. The original 8 goals were enacted in 2000, and were set to be achieved by 2015.
The MDG Agenda had 8 goals:
1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
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Click on the icon on the left to watch the video!
This video reports on what the MDGs hoped to change on a global level. The following video invites you to reflect on the challenges the world has faced over the past 20 years. showing you how they led to the formulation a new development agenda. |
What did the MDGs achieve?
In the previous section, we had a look at the steps taken to address some of the global challenges through a global agenda called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDG Agenda took place between 2000-2015, and led to the development of the SDGs, the focus of this course. As such, it is useful now to take a closer look at some of the achievements of the MDGs, and places where they failed.
The MDGs were the first attempt at a global agenda for development. In terms of its structure, it has been praised as a good start, but has also been criticized in many ways. They equally motivated some countries to develop a stronger statistical capacity, and improve in coordination of universal and local statistical systems. While the goals had their criticisms, they did create a new precedent for the global community working together to increase the quality life of all the world’s citizens. They provided states with a tangible goal that allowed for more concrete legislation towards development.
Besides providing simply tangible goals, they kept countries somewhat accountable for their actions. Both developing and developed countries were trying to reach the same goals, and it was possible to see what legislation countries were passing to enact the MDGs, or not.
Like all projects, the MDGs faced a lot of criticism over their 15 years. The next sections of this module will delve deeper into the criticisms of both the content and the enforcement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Sources:
- UN System Task Team. Review of the contributions of the MDG Agenda to foster development: lessons for the post-2015 UN Development Agenda. (United Nations, 2012), 7.
- UN System Task Team. Review of the contributions of the MDG Agenda to foster development: lessons for the post-2015 UN Development Agenda. (United Nations, 2012), 8-9.
Weaknesses in the content of the MDGs
While the MDGs contributed to progress in many sectors, the global community was criticized for their oversimplification and the lack of sufficient equity and equality.
For instance, goal n.4 “Reduce child mortality” was criticized for focusing on the statistical value of reducing child mortality, which was far easier than providing access to doctors for rural areas. As for goal n.1 “Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty”, one researcher, Pogge, suggests that the poverty line was set at living on less than $1 per day to show an improvement rather than because it was any meaningful way to define poverty.
The focus on primary instruction in Goal 2 has been criticized because it overlooks how essential further education is, and because it lacked qualitative targets. Underprivileged countries have significantly improved enrollment rates, but increases in the number of students led to a scarcity of educators, classrooms with students of different grades and ages, and the employment of para-teachers, who have not had sufficient preparation to teach.
The MDGs focused three of the Goals on the issue of health, but many believe that these goals were incomplete and that they should have covered more aspects of well-being, such as unrecognized and non-communicable illnesses, disabilities, and mental illness. Some also underlined the necessity of targets regarding increasing trained healthcare staff and improving national health structures.
Many criticized the time-frame in which the objectives should have been achieved, claiming that 15 years are not sufficient to see improvements and that intermediary landmarks were essential. Moreover, the creation of only 8 goals has stimulated countries to focus on issues that were less relevant to them than others.
Sources:
Weaknesses in the implementation and enforcement
Besides the various critiques on the content, the implementation and enforcement of the goals has also come under fire. Critics have been divided about how well the MDGs were implemented. On the one hand, the MDGs represented the first step in taking concrete action. This action was coordinated between actors with the creation of a common framework both at the national and international levels. Several countries adjusted the global agenda to their own realities, creating ad hoc implementations.
On the other hand, some have condemned the creation of strict national strategies that followed international targets, arguing that this led to disregard for local problems. Measuring targets by percentages meant we could not see properly the progress made by developing countries. For instance, halving poverty rates from 10 to 5% in Latin America represents more progress (50% poverty reduction) than cutting poverty from 50 to 35% in Africa (30% reduction). In addition, links between the goals were not considered, meaning that interdependent approaches were not developed.
Another weakness was the unreliability of the collected data. For instance, only one African country, Mauritius, registers births and deaths according to UN standards, suggesting that the results were grounded on unsubstantiated data, especially in underdeveloped countries. Additionally, information was measured using different methods in different countries, making comparisons impossible.
Sources:
While the MDGs contributed to progress in many sectors, the global community was criticized for their oversimplification and the lack of sufficient equity and equality.
For instance, goal n.4 “Reduce child mortality” was criticized for focusing on the statistical value of reducing child mortality, which was far easier than providing access to doctors for rural areas. As for goal n.1 “Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty”, one researcher, Pogge, suggests that the poverty line was set at living on less than $1 per day to show an improvement rather than because it was any meaningful way to define poverty.
The focus on primary instruction in Goal 2 has been criticized because it overlooks how essential further education is, and because it lacked qualitative targets. Underprivileged countries have significantly improved enrollment rates, but increases in the number of students led to a scarcity of educators, classrooms with students of different grades and ages, and the employment of para-teachers, who have not had sufficient preparation to teach.
The MDGs focused three of the Goals on the issue of health, but many believe that these goals were incomplete and that they should have covered more aspects of well-being, such as unrecognized and non-communicable illnesses, disabilities, and mental illness. Some also underlined the necessity of targets regarding increasing trained healthcare staff and improving national health structures.
Many criticized the time-frame in which the objectives should have been achieved, claiming that 15 years are not sufficient to see improvements and that intermediary landmarks were essential. Moreover, the creation of only 8 goals has stimulated countries to focus on issues that were less relevant to them than others.
Sources:
- Maya Fehling, Brett D. Nelson, and Sridhar Venkatapuram. "Limitations of the Millennium Development Goals: a literature review." Global Public Health 8, no. 10 (2013), 1116. Accessed March 20, 2017. doi:10.1080/17441692.2013.845676.
Weaknesses in the implementation and enforcement
Besides the various critiques on the content, the implementation and enforcement of the goals has also come under fire. Critics have been divided about how well the MDGs were implemented. On the one hand, the MDGs represented the first step in taking concrete action. This action was coordinated between actors with the creation of a common framework both at the national and international levels. Several countries adjusted the global agenda to their own realities, creating ad hoc implementations.
On the other hand, some have condemned the creation of strict national strategies that followed international targets, arguing that this led to disregard for local problems. Measuring targets by percentages meant we could not see properly the progress made by developing countries. For instance, halving poverty rates from 10 to 5% in Latin America represents more progress (50% poverty reduction) than cutting poverty from 50 to 35% in Africa (30% reduction). In addition, links between the goals were not considered, meaning that interdependent approaches were not developed.
Another weakness was the unreliability of the collected data. For instance, only one African country, Mauritius, registers births and deaths according to UN standards, suggesting that the results were grounded on unsubstantiated data, especially in underdeveloped countries. Additionally, information was measured using different methods in different countries, making comparisons impossible.
Sources:
- Maya Fehling, Brett D. Nelson, and Sridhar Venkatapuram. "Limitations of the Millennium Development Goals: a literature review." Global Public Health 8, no. 10 (2013), 1116. Accessed March 20, 2017. doi:10.1080/17441692.2013.845676.
- UN System Task Team. Review of the contributions of the MDG Agenda to foster development: lessons for the post-2015 UN Development Agenda. (United Nations, 2012), 4.
- UN System Task Team. Review of the contributions of the MDG Agenda to foster development: lessons for the post-2015 UN Development Agenda. (United Nations, 2012), 9-10.
- Michael Hobbes, "The Millennium Development Goals Were Bullsh*t. And That's Okay," The Huffington Post, October 9, 2015, accessed May 04, 2017 (www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hobbes/the-millennium-development-goals-were-bullshit_b_8114410.html)
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This video tries to draw the picture of what has been met through the MDGs and what was still missing by the end of their implementation.
Before watching the video, think about the difficulties of achieving some of the goals, such as eradicating poverty, and promoting gender equality. How difficult would it be to complete on a local, national, and international scale? |
Case Study: Ethiopia
Ethiopia is home to about 86.5 million people, and is one of the oldest civilisations on earth. About 65% of the population is Christian, 30% Muslim, and over 100 languages are spoken by different ethnic groups across the country. The level of development in Ethiopia has been low in the past, however, with the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals, Ethiopia had a framework to concentrate its efforts to better lives. Over the timeframe of the Millennium Development Goals, Ethiopia made astonishing progress, which makes it ideal to showcase what can be done over 20-30 years. We will examine 2 of the goals and how Ethiopia has made strides in achieving the MDGs.
Goal 1: Eradicate Poverty
Ethiopia managed to reduce poverty by half between 1990 and 2015, the key target for goal 1. Poverty was at 48 percent on 1990 and at 23.4% in 2015. Hunger was also reduced by half, and undernourishment decreased from 74.8% to 35% between 1990 and 2014. The overall unemployment rate in urban areas declined from 22.9 per cent in 2004 to 17.4 per cent in 2014.
Goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women
Whilst gender equality in terms of primary school completion rates has been achieved, gender equality in terms of enrolment has not. The Gender Parity Index measures equity in schools and is on a scale from 0-1. In the case of absolute equity, the Index would measure 1; absolute inequality. 0. In 2000, the Gender Parity Index in Ethiopia was at 0.7 for both primary and secondary education. Impressively, in 2014, it was 0.93; an improvement, if not perfection. However, after the 2015 election, women made up 38.7% of the national parliament – surpassing the global target of 30%.
Ethiopia is home to about 86.5 million people, and is one of the oldest civilisations on earth. About 65% of the population is Christian, 30% Muslim, and over 100 languages are spoken by different ethnic groups across the country. The level of development in Ethiopia has been low in the past, however, with the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals, Ethiopia had a framework to concentrate its efforts to better lives. Over the timeframe of the Millennium Development Goals, Ethiopia made astonishing progress, which makes it ideal to showcase what can be done over 20-30 years. We will examine 2 of the goals and how Ethiopia has made strides in achieving the MDGs.
Goal 1: Eradicate Poverty
Ethiopia managed to reduce poverty by half between 1990 and 2015, the key target for goal 1. Poverty was at 48 percent on 1990 and at 23.4% in 2015. Hunger was also reduced by half, and undernourishment decreased from 74.8% to 35% between 1990 and 2014. The overall unemployment rate in urban areas declined from 22.9 per cent in 2004 to 17.4 per cent in 2014.
Goal 3: promote gender equality and empower women
Whilst gender equality in terms of primary school completion rates has been achieved, gender equality in terms of enrolment has not. The Gender Parity Index measures equity in schools and is on a scale from 0-1. In the case of absolute equity, the Index would measure 1; absolute inequality. 0. In 2000, the Gender Parity Index in Ethiopia was at 0.7 for both primary and secondary education. Impressively, in 2014, it was 0.93; an improvement, if not perfection. However, after the 2015 election, women made up 38.7% of the national parliament – surpassing the global target of 30%.
Conclusion
The MDG agenda was crucial to start a general coordination of efforts and commitment towards development around the world. Some progress has been made on gender parity in school enrollment and a decrease in hunger. Ignoring some crucial development issues and highlighting others, the country-based method of implementation has been criticized. The agenda has been judged as too simplistic, and that there was a lack of linkage between goals.
It stands to reason, therefore, that a new group of goals had to be written at the end of the MDG mandate to pursue in the global challenge towards sustainable development.
MDGs: what was met and what was missed? While many were hopeful about the success of the MDGs, they did not achieve all the goals that were outlined by the United Nations in 2000.
The MDG agenda was crucial to start a general coordination of efforts and commitment towards development around the world. Some progress has been made on gender parity in school enrollment and a decrease in hunger. Ignoring some crucial development issues and highlighting others, the country-based method of implementation has been criticized. The agenda has been judged as too simplistic, and that there was a lack of linkage between goals.
It stands to reason, therefore, that a new group of goals had to be written at the end of the MDG mandate to pursue in the global challenge towards sustainable development.
MDGs: what was met and what was missed? While many were hopeful about the success of the MDGs, they did not achieve all the goals that were outlined by the United Nations in 2000.
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Creative Thinking Exercise
Now that you are familiar with the MDGs, challenge yourself reflecting on the following. 1. Have you ever tried to create a long-term project that was on a large scale? Was it successful? What type of considerations must be taken before embarking on such a project like the MDGs? 2. Do you think it is important to teach and study the MDGs, even though they had mixed results? Why? What do you think of their criticisms? 3. Before studying the MDGs, what did you know about international development? Had you ever talked to your students about these topics? How do you think these goals could be used across various subjects? |
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Summary
In this module, you have become acquainted with some of the challenges facing the world today, such as poverty, health, environmental degradation, and peace and security. You have learnt about the first coordinated action the global community implemented to address some of these challenges, the Millenium Development Goals agenda. Reading about the shortcomings and the mixed results of the MDGs will have made you aware of the continued challenges that still exist to achieve sustainable development.
In the next module, we will discover how the global community is currently responding to these challenges and you will be introduced to the successor of the MDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals.
In this module, you have become acquainted with some of the challenges facing the world today, such as poverty, health, environmental degradation, and peace and security. You have learnt about the first coordinated action the global community implemented to address some of these challenges, the Millenium Development Goals agenda. Reading about the shortcomings and the mixed results of the MDGs will have made you aware of the continued challenges that still exist to achieve sustainable development.
In the next module, we will discover how the global community is currently responding to these challenges and you will be introduced to the successor of the MDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals.
Additional Reading
This module only scratched the surface of the information regarding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To learn more, here are some recommended links:
Overcoming health-system constraints to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
Is microfinance an effective strategy to reach the Millennium Development Goals?
How the Millennium Development Goals Are Unfair to Africa
Millennium Development Goals Progress Report Kenya, 2003
This module only scratched the surface of the information regarding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To learn more, here are some recommended links:
Overcoming health-system constraints to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
Is microfinance an effective strategy to reach the Millennium Development Goals?
How the Millennium Development Goals Are Unfair to Africa
Millennium Development Goals Progress Report Kenya, 2003
