Millennium Development Goals: Success Stories and ‘Unfinished Business’
Whilst the new SDG have been approved by the UN in New York, what have the MDG achieved? A look back to see what are the future trends- and how SDG should avoid the past mistakes.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are due to expire in a matter of days . Next week they will be replaced when world leaders sign off on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
While the world has made significant progress towards the MDGs, as illustrated in the recently released UN summary report, most haven’t been met. New ODI research to be released on Monday shows that some of the MDG targets are so far off track that, if current trends continue, the SDGs will expire in 2030 before the original MDG targets will be achieved.
The ‘unfinished business’ of the original development goals. One example is the fifth MDG, Target A, to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters.
The global maternal mortality rate fell by less than half, from 380 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to around 200 in 2015. This should have reached 95 by 2015. But based on projections by the World Health Organization, this won’t happen until around 2060 if current trends continue.
The ambitious SDG target for maternal mortality moves the goalposts even further. It aims to reduce maternal mortality down to 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. On current trends, this won’t happen until 2075.
The second example is MDG7, Target C, which was to halve the proportion of people without access to an improved sanitation facility – a pit latrine, flushing toilet, etc.
The share of the global population without access to decent sanitation fell by less than a third from 46% in 1990 to 32% in 2015. For the MDG target to have been met by 2015, the share would have had to reduce to 23%. Based on projections by the OECD, this won’t happen until around 2030 if current trends continue.
Again, the SDG target is more ambitious, aiming for universal access to improved sanitation facilities. However this is on track to be met 50 years late, on current trends.
The SDGs must not repeat the MDGs’ mistakes
However we shouldn’t be too pessimistic. We can’t forget some of the incredible successes of the MDGs:
• Extreme poverty has more than halved, falling from almost half the developing world population in 1990 to around 14% today.
• Previous disparities between boys’ and girls’ enrolment in primary education no longer exist on average for the developing world.
• Between 2000 and 2013, tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis and treatment interventions saved an estimated 37 million lives.
• More than two and a half billion people gained access to clean drinking water since 1990.
Similarly, some of the SDGs are more straightforward than others. For some of the new goals, we need to see reform; others require revolution. In our report due out on Monday, we grade each of the goals accordingly.
Governments need to learn from the successes and unfinished business of the Millennium goals. To achieve the SDGs by 2030, governments must accelerate progress and make extra efforts beyond ‘business as usual’ – immediately. And they must prioritise the targets most off track, such as those related to maternal mortality and access to sanitation. Otherwise we risk repeating the same mistakes again.
Chris Hoy is a Research Officer in Development Progress at ODI. This article was originally published on Development Progress.
