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 A single measurement,
Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
is often used to show
how well a country is doing; it’s like a report card for
a country. This number is based on the idea that economic activity,
which refers to business trade, promotes economic growth and
that in turn promotes employment, resulting in income. When
people have more money to spend they need more things to spend
on, thus increasing demand. As demand grows, more factories
need to be built to make all the things that people want to
buy. More factories mean more jobs, resulting in more income
and more economic activity. Countries with a low GNP, like India,
are given financial aid by richer countries, countries with
a higher GNP.
Politicians, economists and international
aid agencies use GNP as an indicator of a nation’s economic health and
well-being. GNP measures the total monetary value of goods and
services produced by a country and its citizens, that is, the
total ‘business’ a country does. GDP is slightly
different: it measures the total value of goods and services
in the country only and does not count the companies that the
country’s people may own in other countries. Both are
used as an indication of how developed a country is -- the higher
the GDP/GNP, the more developed the country, though GDP is more
common now.
Though commonly used, many people
have been unhappy with GDP measurements because they do not
give a real indication of how
well a country is doing; there is no real connection between
the well-being of a population and GDP, just as a rich person
is not necessarily happier than a poor person. Especially if
a country is poor, a number showing how much money is changing
hands doesn’t really tell you how the country’s
ordinary people are doing. When GDP rises, it could just be
a few rich people getting very much richer while the poorer
people are staying in the same place or even getting poorer.
Because of this the United Nations came up with another way
to judge how countries are developing: a set of ‘goals’ that
every country, rich or poor, would want to reach or develop
towards, and then see how far a country is from achieving these
goals. These goals are known as ‘Millennium Development
Goals’ and are eight goals that all 191 UN member countries
have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015.
The agreement was reached in the
United Nations Millennium Declaration signed in September
2000. The declaration says that
each country would try and achieve the eight goals. Of course
these goals have to be possible, not just wishful thinking.
So a goal can’t be, “no children dying at all”.
The goals are a way of making sure that development results
can be measured, not just by the countries themselves but also
by rich countries that help them through fund development programmes,
because they can make sure their funds are making a difference.
Some goals are simple, obvious and easy to understand; they
talk about reducing numbers; others are complicated, multi-part
and concerned more with making conditions possible for reducing
poverty. Many of the goals are divided into more easily measurable
targets.
The eight Millennium Development Goals are:
| 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger |
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This goal’s first target is to reduce
by half the number of people living on less than a dollar
a day. The second one is to reduce by half the proportion
of people who suffer from hunger. |
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| 2. Achieve universal primary education |
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Ensure that all boys and girls complete primary schooling. |
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| 3. Promote gender equality and empower women |
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Aims to eliminate gender differences in primary and secondary
education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. |
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| 4. Reduce child mortality |
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Reduce by two-thirds the death rate among children under
five. |
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| 5. Improve maternal health |
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Reduce by three-quarters the number of mothers dying. |
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| 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases |
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Stop the spread of, and cut down the numbers of people infected with HIV/AIDS
and malaria and other major diseases. |
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| 7. Ensure environmental sustainability |
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This goal refers to environment and sustainable development;
this is not about conservation and wild animals but about
the fact that in developing countries people are more directly
connected with their natural resources, and as the natural
environment gets spoiled it is the people dependent on these
resources that start suffering. So the seventh goal aims
to make sure that sustainable development is a part of development
policies. Specifically the goal mentions two factors: water
and slums. One target is the need to reduce by half the
proportion of people without sustainable access to safe
drinking water, while another is to significantly improve
the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers. |
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| 8. Develop a global partnership for development |
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The eighth goal is different from the others inasmuch
as while the other seven are what needs to be done, the
eighth is what needs to be done so the other seven can be
reached. It is supposedly designed to help the other goals,
make them achievable. The eighth goal has seven targets
and mostly deals with making trade possible so that poorer
countries can reduce poverty and themselves make the money
they need. This money can be used to reduce the amount of
aid that they need and to pay back loans. The eighth goal
is to make it easier for poor countries to sell products
to richer countries, and to make the processes of trade ‘accessible’ by
opening markets. However, the eighth goal also includes
specific trade targets such as making cheaper drugs and
information technology more accessible to poorer countries. |
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Useful links:
www.un.org/millenniumgoals
www.developmentgoals.org
http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/ext/MDG/home.do
http://www.first8.org/first8.html
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