Article Summary
The news article under analysis, titled MDG poverty goals may be achieved, but child mortality is not improving, appears in the Guardian newspaper. The article was authored by Claire Provost and details the progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), especially by developing countries. Provost begins by stating that two-thirds of developing countries are on course to meeting the MDG targets in fighting poverty, according to reports from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Provost then cites reports from the Global Monitoring Report that mentioned that the number of persons living below the poverty line would decrease to 883 million by 2015. This would be a large significant drop since the number of people living in acute poverty had been 1.4 billion in 2005 and 1.8 billion in 1990.
The progress in achieving the first goal- to cut the number of people living in poverty by half- is evidenced by the high growth rates in China and India. The report further shows that China is on course to reducing poverty by 4.8%, however, some African countries may fail to achieve the MDG goals by 2015.
Progress in combating poverty may be hampered further by the high and unstable food prices, and could increase the number of people living in extreme poverty. World Bank president, Thomas Zoellick, gives strategies for reducing poverty levels and prevents future food crises. These include a ban on food exports, improve access to information on food quality, quantity, and increase food reserves.
Despite the progress of developing progress in achieving MDGs, maternal and child mortality rates remain the most challenging issues as 40% of developing nations are not likely to meet this target despite a lot of resources being directed at this effort. Sanitation targets are a challenge too as 45% of developing nations have deviated from the path to achieving MDGs on sanitation.
Topics Related to the Article
Two topics can be derived from this news article: socio-cultural issues and human development. Socio-cultural issues arise from the reference to social issues such as maternal and child mortality rates. Besides, the article reports that a number of developing nations are on course to meeting MDGs on primary education and access to clean water.
Provost writes that no low-income country has achieved significant progress in lowering mortality for children under the age of five, and most of them are likely to fail on this target. The countries are on course to achieving targets on primary education access and eradicate gender disparity in the education sector. All of these subjects: maternal and child mortality, education, reflect on the socio-cultural aspect of life in developing countries.
Human development is reflected on Provost’s discussion of the progress of developing countries in achieving the MDGs on education. Education is a very important aspect of human development, and failure to achieve this target will likely affect human development in these nations. Fortunately, the report mentions that most developing countries are on target to achieving MDG targets on education.
I chose this article since it touched on a very important element of human development. It informs us of the progress in achieving the MDGs by developing countries, and the steps that have been taken in achieving the same. Besides, the article gives solutions for combating extreme poverty in developing nations, these strategies may prove useful for developing nations.