Building Bridges

8 Days to Go: 8 MDG. MDG 1- Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Posted on October 6, 2010

Eight days to go until the first run on 14 October commencing the 10 City Bridge Run!

I thought it might be timely to revisit the Millennium Development Goals and try to shed some light on where progress is occurring. More importantly, also examine where the shortfall might occur on 2015.

Millennium Develop Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
There are three targets under this goal:

1. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
2. Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
3. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Conflict and the global financial crisis is cited as the reason for a disappointing backsliding in some of the progress last decade. Some comments from the United Nations of progress are:

• The global economic crisis has slowed progress, but the world is still on track to meet the poverty reduction target
• Prior to the crisis, the depth of poverty had diminished in almost every region
• Deterioration of the labour market, triggered by the economic crisis, has resulted in a decline in employment
• As jobs were lost, more workers have been forced into vulnerable employment
• Since the economic crisis, more workers find themselves and their families living in extreme poverty
• Hunger may have spiked in 2009, one of the many dire consequences of the global food and financial crises
• Progress to end hunger has been stymied in most regions
• Despite some progress, one in four children in the developing world are still underweight
• Children in rural areas are nearly twice as likely to be underweight as those in urban areas
• In some regions, the prevalence of underweight children is dramatically higher among the poor
• Over 42 million people have been uprooted by conflict or persecution