Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Achieving the Millennium Goals
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Develop a global partnership for development
We are half way to the target date of 2015 and a recent report provided a comprehensive global assessment of progress to date. The report, published by the United Nations, is very optimistic on meeting the poverty, universal education, child mortality, disease control and women's political participation goals. Unfortunately, the number of underweight children is not decreasing rapidly enough. Also, one half million women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth each year and the rate of AIDS and related illness is not decreasing sufficiently to meet the target. Also, half of the population in the developing world lack basic sanitation and by 2015, more than 600 million people will still lack clean water and sanitation. Most economies have also failed to provide employment opportunities for their youth and young people. Climate change will have serious economic and social effects which will impede progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.
What can civil engineers do to help achieve the UN Millennium goals?