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Millennium goals of development – overview, and ICT use in meeting those goals

 The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world's poorest people. To meet these goals and eradicate poverty, leaders of 189 countries signed the historic millennium declaration at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. At that time, eight goals that range from providing universal primary education to avoiding child and maternal mortality were set with a target achievement date of 2015. These 8 goals include;

1.     Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

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

ICT use has been able to help in meeting those goals through the following ways;

1.     Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Role of ICT in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger

·       Increase access to market information and reduce transaction costs for poor farmers and traders.

·       Increase efficiency, competitiveness and market access of developing country firms.

·       Enhance ability of developing countries to participate in global economy and to exploit comparative advantage in factor costs (particularly skilled labour).

2.     Achieve universal primary education

Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

Role of ICT in achieving universal primary education

·       Increase supply of trained teachers through ICT-enhanced and distance training of teachers and networks that link teachers to their colleagues.

·       Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education ministries and related bodies through strategic application of technologies and ICT-enabled skill development.

·       Broaden availability of quality educational materials/resources through ICTs.

3.     Promote gender equality and empower women

Role of ICT in promoting gender equality and empower women

·       Deliver educational and literacy programmes specifically targeted to poor girls and women using appropriate technologies.

·       Influence public opinion on gender equality through information or communication programmes using a range of ICTs.

4.     Reduce child mortality

Reduce infant and child mortality rates by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015

Role of ICT in reducing child mortality

·       Enhance delivery of basic and in-service training for health workers.

5.     Improve maternal health

Reduce maternal mortality rates by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015. Provide access to all who need reproductive health services by 2015

Role of ICT in improving maternal health

·       Increase access of rural caregivers to specialist support and remote diagnosis.

6.     Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

Role of ICT in combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

·       Increase monitoring and information-sharing on disease and famine.

·       Increase access to reproductive health information, including information on AIDS prevention, through locally appropriate content in local languages.

7.     Ensure environmental sustainability

Implement national strategies for sustainable development by 2005 so as to reverse the loss of environmental resources by 2015

Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Have achieved, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

Role of ICT in ensuring environmental stability

·       Remote sensing technologies and communications networks permit more effective monitoring, resource management, mitigation of environmental risks.

·       Increase access to/awareness of sustainable development strategies, in areas such as agriculture, sanitation and water management, mining, etc.

·       Greater transparency and monitoring of environmental abuses/ enforcement of environmental regulations.

·       Facilitate knowledge exchange and networking among policymakers, practitioners and advocacy groups.

8.     Develop a global partnership for development

Role of ICT in developing a global partnership for development

·       To further develop an open, predictable, rule-based, non-discriminatory trading and economic system

·       To address the special needs of the least developed countries

·       To address the special needs of small island developing States and landlocked developing countries

·       To deal exhaustively with the debt problems of developing nations

·       To provide access to affordable essential drugs in the developing world – in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies

·       To avail benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications, in collaboration with the private sector

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