3. MDGs and children

1. 3. MDGs and children “Children in Developing Countries” Lecture course by Dr. Renata Serra

2. Millenium Development Goalsadopted at the Millenium Summit (Sept. 2000) • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • T1 & T2: Halve between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day and who suffer from hunger • Achieve universal primary education • T3: ensure that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling • Promote gender equality and empower women • T4: eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005, and in all levels of ed. not later than 2015 • Reduce child mortality • T5: reduce by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015 the IMR5 • Improve maternal health • T6: reduce by ¾ the maternal mortality ratio • Combat HIV/AIDS, and other diseases • Ensure environmental sustainability • T10: reverse by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation • Develop global partnership for development

3. The MDGs & CRC • MDGs are bold and ambitious goals (as in CRC) • Most MDGs are about children • MDGs require not just increase in service provision but also a wider approach to children that incorporate their full rights • Common principles of universality and non-discrimination

4. MDGs are not enough • Focus on MDGs will not be sufficient to help all children: many are bound to be left out! • National averages mask unacceptable living conditions for a minority • Policy focus on populous countries (India and China) detract away from the plight of children elsewhere • Many children will continue to remain ‘invisible’ to governments, agencies and Millennium programs •  Need to go deeper and pay attention to the rights of the most vulnerable children

5. Excluded and invisible children • Exclusion from: • Essential services • An environment that protects children from violence, abuse and exploitation • Full social and political participation • Excluded by: • Family, community, society, governments, etc. • Exclusion (social, economic and political) is dangerous because it breeds further exclusion • At some point children become invisible • They disappear from statistics, policies and programs

6. The causes of exclusion • National level: • Limited government resources (country’s poverty) • Children not regarded as priority under tight budgets • Inadequate government policies • Weak political and administrative capacity • Inability to carry out intended measures • HIV/AIDS and other major diseases • Wars and conflicts

7. Causes of exclusion (cont’d) • Sub-national level: • Within each country, children of particular groups are excluded • Discrimination occurs according to income, rural-urban divide, gender, ethnicity, religion • Income inequality is very high in LA&C (Brazil) and in South Africa • Differential in under-5 mortality rates may be stunning (Peru) • Exclusion may start with non-registration at birth for some minority or indigenous groups and lack of coverage in national statistics • Disabled children face huge discrimination everywhere • In poor countries, much of disability is also preventable

8. Critical inter-linkages • Early childhood events have lasting effects on subsequent individual development • At individual level, deprivation in one area interacts with many others: Malnutrition  physical development / disease  reduced life potential  ability to learn  productivity and earning • On a macro-scale, children’s exclusion from the benefits of development  reduced country socio-economic development and political instability