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Sunday Sep 22, 2024
Friday, 30 August 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals which seek to eradicate poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat common diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development, which were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000.
Sri Lanka
In the past two decades, many countries of the world including Sri Lanka have recorded substantial progress. When compared to the ’90s, people are healthier, live longer, are more educated and have better access to goods and services.
In the case of Sri Lanka, the MDG achievements are significant particularly in the areas of health, education and gender equality. Sri Lanka has already achieved the MDG on poverty, well before the 2015 deadline.
According to the UNICEF, Sri Lanka’s experience is among the most compelling in achieving MDG indicators for child and maternal health and access to primary health care in South Asia. Sri Lanka’s education attainment levels are high in basic indicators such as literacy, access to primary education and education completion rate. We are close to achieving MDG targets for universal primary education and gender equality in education. The Government of Sri Lanka was committed to ensuring gender equality many decades before it was recognised as a MDG by the international community.
We think that food security is the main strategy in achieving all key MDGs. It is the basis of sustainable growth and poverty alleviaion. Food insecurity is no longer an issue for Sri Lanka, which is self-sufficient in staple food production with a surplus of rice and maize.
Our aim is to drastically reduce dependence on external food supplies. New technology, innovations and research in agriculture have enabled us to increase our food production, ensuring the nation’s food security in an eco-friendly manner.
Beyond 2015
In building the MDGs beyond 2015, the global community should move beyond meeting basic human needs and promoting dynamic, inclusive and sustainable growth. The new goals should ensure essential human rights and create enabling conditions to help individuals realise their potentials. Therefore new goals should seek to deliver better living standards for all the people through inclusive growth and sustainable development.
"In building the MDGs beyond 2015, the global community should move beyond meeting basic human needs and promoting dynamic, inclusive and sustainable growth. The new goals should ensure essential human rights and create enabling conditions to help individuals realise their potentials. Therefore new goals should seek to deliver better living standards for all the people through inclusive growth and sustainable development"
In most developing countries, problems burdening the poor such as malnutrition, chronic illness and disability are decreasing. At the same time non-communicable diseases are increasing and affecting both the rich and poor. Ageing is an important emerging issue, since it increases the old-age dependency ratio and has economic implications. It also meets higher demand for the prevention of non-communicable diseases and related services that are more costly than other types of health care. However, most of these can be addressed through well-designed low-cost prevention programs.
Education
Special attention must be paid to a radical shift in education to highlight the role of science and technology. Science and technology helps poor countries, specially the new upwardly mobile poor segments, to leapfrog into the future. They do not have to go through the trials and errors that the developed countries have experienced.
Sri Lanka faces new challenges in education in providing skills and quality education that is fundamental to the demands of a modern technology based economy. The current MDG on universal education draws attention to the quality of education. Education goals therefore should move beyond primary enrolment tot improved job skills. The mesmatch between the skills proveded by the aducation system and the demands of the labour market must be addrssed in the new paradigm.
International trade and finance
Middle and lower middle income countries including Sri Lanka have been particularly vulnerable to the negative effect of the international trade and finance. An unfair trading system, trade barriers and agricultural subsidies have hindered the growth of developing countries.
Advanced economics are moving towards protectionism whatever the wordgaves in international for a may project. Such issues have not been adequately addressed in the original MDGs. Therefore, it is important to move from prescriptive to respective, actually realising the economic value of the resources of poor countries. This needs a new compact between the developed and developing economies of the world if we are to move beyond the MDGs in the post 2015 period.
Thank you.
