Aid policy: 10 facts and figures from the 2011 MDG report

NAIROBI (IRIN): The 2011 Millennium Development Goals Report was released recently with a generally upbeat assessment accompanied by some caveats. Here are some statistics:

1. The poverty reduction goal can be met by 2015, with the number of people in developing countries living on less than US$1.25 a day expected to fall below 900 million (from 1.8 billion in 1990).

2. Sub-Saharan Africa has made the greatest strides in primary school enrolment, from 58 percent in 1999 to 76 per cent in 2009; however, 32 million children are still out of school in the region, almost half the global total of 67 million.

3. The number of women in parliament is at a record high – 19.3 per cent from 11.6 per cent in 1995; Rwanda, Sweden, South Africa and Cuba topped the list. Belize, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Oman, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu have no female parliamentarians at all.

4. In all regions, a mother’s education is key to determining whether her children will turn five, with a child’s chances of survival rising markedly with a mother’s secondary or higher education.

5. While the demand for family planning will likely increase, in line with rising numbers of women and men of reproductive age, funding for such programmes has actually declined over the past decade, to 2.6 per cent of total aid for health in 2009.

6. The use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets has surged, particularly in Africa: between 2008 and 2010, 290 million nets were distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, covering 76 per cent of the 765 million people at risk.

7. Water resources are no longer sustainable in Western Asia and Northern Africa, which have exceeded the 75 per cent limit on sustainable use. Southern Asia and the Caucasus and Central Asia are at rates of 58 and 56 per cent respectively, compared with three per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.

8. Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern and South Eastern Asia have met the target of halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to potable water. Coverage in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 49 per cent in 1990 to 60 percent in 2008.

9. By the end of 2010, global mobile phone coverage was 76 per cent, with mobile penetration at about 68 per cent in developing countries. However, internet penetration was as low as three per cent in least developed countries, compared with 21 per cent in developing countries and 72 per cent in developed regions.

10. Donor aid is likely to increase, but at a much slower pace – two per cent between 2011 and 2013, compared with an average eight per cent per year over the past three years. Aid to Africa is expected to rise by just one per cent in real terms, against an average of 13 per cent over the past three years.