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MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL #1... LONG WAY AWAY

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ERADICATE Extreme hunger/poverty Time is short. We must seize this historic moment to act responsibly and decisively for the common good. With only six years remaining until the ultimate due date of humanity, how far from the United Nations ultimate goal are they? Are WE?

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TARGETS

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Target 1 To reduce the amount of individuals and families who are forced to live under the incomes of $1 a day or lower by 50% Target 2 provide all with decent jobs of full employment. Target 3 decrease the number of individuals who suffer from hunger by 50%

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progress

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Slim amounts of progress have been made in places like Easern Asia (halving total number of underweight children), however road blocks repeatedly leap in front of the forward motion of this goal. With the rising of the bare minimum income level to $1.25 U.S. per day, the ration of people living below standards is only increasing. In 2005, it was reported that 1.4 billion people were living under the conditions of extreme poverty. Along with the rising of the income level is the rising of food prices. On average, a family in a developed country will spend 15% of their weekly income on food. In these poor and developing countries, this figure is more accurately stated at around 60% of total income weekly spent on food. With the increases in food prices, it is estimated that 1 billion people will go hungry in and 2 billion will be undernourished in 2009.

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Progress (Negative/ positive chart) PositiveNegative Asian citizens living under the poverty line numbers have fallen 60% from 80%-20% over past 25 year New income level for classification of poverty is raised to $1.25 U.S. per day. From 1990-2006 East-Asia halved number of underweight children World Bank announced that there were 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty in 2005 Between 55-75% of working age people are employed in most regions (excluding North Africa/West Asia) Sub- Saharan Africas poverty rate remains at a consistent 50% since the start of the millenniums goals initiative Worldwide undernourishment rates of children under 5 have dropped from 33% in 1990 to 26% in 2006 1 billion humans will be hungry in 2009 2 billion humans will be undernourished in 2009 Even with improvements since 1990, 50% of children are South- Asain children are underweight Sub- Saharan Africa making little to no progress in child malnutrition reduction Over half of Sub-Saharan Africans make under $1 daily North African/West Asian employment-to-population for women is apprx. 40 percentage points lower than males at apprx. 25% In 1994, 8 African countries reported that 30% of their children under 5 that are moderately or severly underweight. In 2004 that number grew to 10

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WHAT works??

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microfinancing Helped poor raise income level through self employment/empowerment clients are predominately women, they for micro- enterprises that are able to generate income with these raised income levels, clients can support health & education networks inside their own communities Grameen Bank of Bangladesh has over 7.5 million clients and 65% were able to defeat their burdens of extreme poverty in 2006, microfinance organizations granted out loans to 112 million clients around the world

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Subsidies In Malawi, the implementation of the National Input Subsidy Programme has helped it rise out of a major famine They supplied Malawian farmers with the necessary fertilizers and seeds to acquire a solid harvest They require 2.2 million tons of maize to feed the country and were only generating about 1.2 million in 2005 The N.I.S.P. implemention resulted in a drastic change and raised the total production to over 3.2 million tons This is resulting in poor farmers being able to earn a more significant and helpful income

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nerica (New Rice for Africa) developed by the African Rice Centre with funding from the UN A hybrid rice grain of resilient West African rice grains and the productive efficiency of Asian rice Nearly a dozen years after its first implementation, NERICA has helped with food security and improved nutrition The main countries aided by NERICA are Cte dIvoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Togo and Uganda Farmers in these countries have been able to feed their families comfortable as well as create a profit with extra produce.

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Success stories As part of its response to the Millennium Declaration, the government financed a package of 12 social programmes (US$68 million) to train and find employment opportunities for the unemployed and to support needy families. A micro-finance scheme developed in cooperation with UNDP/UNCDF has 3,500 beneficiaries, 65% of whom are women, reaching 4.4% of Bahraini families.

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Can it be done??

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Down the road, maybe. By the due date of 2015, no way. There is simply too much poverty and hunger in the world for the UN to even put a significant dent into. They can aid farmers with the implementation of N.I.S.P., they can provide emergency food aid to organizations like World Food Programme to be distributed throughout needy countries, but there will always be a roadblock. Whether its the governments lack of care toward their people - using the majority of the produce grown for exports and not for self- preservation, or if the main target of the development goals (the extremely poor) are not even able to buy the produce due to a lack of steady income and increasing food prices. The work that needs to be done on income stability could result in improvements in the area of starvation and hunger, however, I feel that it is naive to believe that both these enormous responsibilities and burdens can be fixed given the lack of progress evident since the beginning of the initiative.

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What still needs to be done??

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Raise number of job opportunities for women in Northern African and Western Asian countries Work still needs to be done on solidifying the steps needed to alleviate world hunger as put out by the High-Level Conference on World food Security. These include the encouragement of national, regional and international cooperation to boost food security and reduce trade distortion, promoting feeding programs at schools, Emergency food aid must be increased with hast so to help organizations like WTP to provide this care Support research on adaptation to harsh agriculture and climate conditions Make sure there are social safety nets that will cushion the effect the high food and energy prices will have on the poor

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