I believe it is unrealistic for any country to achieve all eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, the target year. Moreover, the improvement in some MDGs may work to the detriment of other MDGs.
The goal I chose to focus on is MDG 1, eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, which has three target indicators: reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day; achieve full, productive, and decent employment for all, including women and young people; and reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
What is extreme poverty and hunger? These words mean different things to people living under different conditions and in different countries. Using one US dollar per day as the poverty marker could be problematic in some economies. In India, for example, $1 is equal to A44. When sugar prices increased to A50-60 per kilogramme, what could be purchased for A44? The point I am making is that having a fixed amount of $1 is problematic because the exchange rate fluctuates, and ten years ago what could have given a family a basic meal, could probably not even buy a kilogramme of flour today.
In his book Introduction to the Sociology of Development,1 Andrew Webster stated that "poverty is a relative term, a condition that can only be defined by comparing the circumstances of one group of people or of an entire economy with another." Webster explained that the problem of defining poverty arose "since the measures one uses to compare populations will depend on a whole range of assumptions about the adequate standards of living which some enjoy and which some do not."
Sociologist Oscar Lewis posited the theory of the culture of poverty in his book by the same name. He said that the lifestyle of the poor was different from other members of society, thus there was a culture of poverty with its own norms and values.2 Lewis' theory tells us that poverty is not only a social or economic phenomenon, but also a psychological one. Poverty and hunger usually go hand in hand; however, the poverty line cannot focus only on food costs. What about the costs of electricity, water, medication, and even schooling? With so many factors involved, how do you universally define extreme poverty and hunger, and how do you meet the MDG target?
In 1996, the Jamaican Government put in place the National Poverty Eradication Policy and Programme (NPEPP). According to the 2009 National Report of Jamaica on Millennium Development Goals, the NPEPP included "rural electrification, a Social Investment Fund that has greatly assisted early childhood institutions, social services, water and sanitation projects, rural feeder roads, inner-city infrastructure." 3 In 2002, the Jamaican Government also introduced the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH). According to PATH, "Children are the main beneficiaries, but PATH also covers the elderly poor, other destitute poor, persons with disabilities, and pregnant and lactating mothers."4
These efforts could have been the vehicles fuelling Jamaica's achievement of MDG 1, or so it is said on paper. The 2009 Report indicated that Jamaica had achieved two targets in MDG 1: to halve between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people below the poverty line; and to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. In 1990, 28.4 per cent of Jamaicans were living below the poverty line, but by 2007 it was reduced to 9.9 per cent. The proportion of the population living below the minimum level of dietary consumption went down from 8.3 per cent in 1990, to 2.9 per cent in 2007. However, the report stated that the achievement of MDG 1 was "vulnerable to exogenous shocks and thus is likely to be unsustainable under the global recession."5
I believe that achieving MDG 1 is much more than putting statistics on paper. Development is more than numbers, it is about people. What each country must do in attempting to achieve the MDGs, is make the goals specific to their country. The United Nations must give an outline and it is up to the leaders of countries to tailor the programmes to fit their specific situation, thus achieving the MDGs, including the first goal, on their terms. A statistical report does not show progress in development and may be deceiving; what is important is what is not on paper.
Notes
1 A. Webster, Introduction to the Sociology of Development (2002),16.
2 O. Lewis, Culture of Poverty. (Holborn & Langley, 2006), 50.
3 National Report of Jamaica on Millennium Development Goals (2009) 12.
4 ibid.
5 ibid.
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