The Importance of the MDGs: The United Nations Leadership in Development
The Millennium Development Goals are the international community's most broadly shared, comprehensive and focused framework for reducing poverty.
Keep the Promise for Mothers and Children: An Agenda to Improve Maternal and Child Health
Despite the concerted efforts of many players, global progress in child survival has slowed compared to the advances of previous decades. Maternal mortality -- deaths of women in pregnancy and childbirth -- remains at almost the same level as 20 years ago.
Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Achieving the MDGs: Investing in Reproductive Health and Rights
A bold and ambitious agenda was set forth in the Millennium Development Goals to raise the quality of life of all individuals and promote human development. The MDGs represent our collective aspirations for a better life and provide a minimum road map on how to get there.
Education Is Key to Reducing Child Mortality: The Link Between Maternal Health and Education
In 2006, for the first time in recent history, the total number of annual deaths among children under the age of five fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million. This represents a 60-per-cent drop in the rate of child mortality since 1960.
Clean Drinking Water and Sanitation: The Experience in the Arab Region
The Arab region, for the most part, is characterized by dry, harsh climatic conditions and associated scarce water resources. The average annual rainfall is less than 250 mm in 70 per cent of the region and less than 100 mm in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Can South Asia End Poverty in a Generation? More Inclusive Growth and Faster Human Development Are Key
For the first time in its long history, the people of South Asia have the chance of sharing in a thriving environment on fair terms. The countries of the region are enjoying unprecedented economic growth, in most cases exceeding 5 per cent a year for over a decade. Today, South Asia is the world's second fastest growing region, with economic growth contributing to an impressive reduction in poverty.
From the Millennium Summit to 2015: The Challenges Ahead
When Heads of State and Government met at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 8 September 2000, we reflected on many previous resolutions and declarations made at the international, continental, as well as regional levels.
Ending Poverty Through Education: The Challenge of Education for All
The world made a determined statement when it adopted the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000. These goals represent a common vision for dramatically reducing poverty by 2015 and provide clear objectives for significant improvement in the quality of people's lives.
Combatting HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa – Investing in Health Can Make the Difference
Globalization is a powerful driver for development and the generation of wealth. But even as the world becomes more interconnected, hundreds of millions of women, men and children are still confined to extreme poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease.
Surviving on Pennies: We Must Help the World's Most Deprived
Seven years ago, the international community made a commitment to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger between 1990 and 2015. Now at the halfway point between its declaration and the target deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it is obvious the world has made significant progress.
Newborns in Sub-Saharan Africa: How to Save These Fragile Lives
Every day in Africa, 2,400 babies are stillborn and another 3,100 newborns die within their first four weeks of life. Half of African women and their babies do not receive skilled care during childbirth and even fewer receive effective post-natal care.
Bridging The Racial Divide: Model United Nations South Africa
One of the most enduring legacies of apartheid is that an entire generation of black South Africans was deprived of a decent education by a system designed to entrench racial oppression and subjugation.
The Long Road to Durban: The United Nations Role in Fighting Racism and Racial Discrimination
From its inception in 1945, the United Nations has led an unrelenting fight against racism and racial discrimination. The framework for the Organization's work in that area was the declaration in the preamble to its Charter on the question of human rights: We the peoples of the United Nations determined . to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and . to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.
Between Past Failure and Future Promise: Racial Discrimination and the Education System
The focus of this article is to examine the theme of racial discrimination within the context of education policymaking. It will draw on an ongoing conceptual debate that analyses contemporary education and social policy evidence within an integrationist/multicultural framework, but also analyse the extreme concepts of assimilation and anti-racist education policy.
Asylum Today: Tougher Policies, Tumbling Numbers, Intolerance in Between
Industrialized countries in recent years have complained about being swamped by asylum-seekers and have adopted increasingly stricter policies designed to stem the tide of refugees and ensure border protection.