Track and support MDGs

The MDG Monitor is a new web space that provides comprehensive updated information about progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in about 130 countries. Plans to make it available in multiple languages are also in the offing and this will benefit a number of non-English speaking countries and people across the world. Country-specific profiles provide fairly detailed information drawn from several sources about the status and progress of MDGs in South Asian and other countries. These sources are: UN Statistics Division, UNDP’s Human Development Reports, World Bank’s World Development Indicators, data provided by national governments to the UN international statistical system, etc. It is interesting to see some of the success stories emanating from South Asian region. For instance, in case of eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, there is a mention of Nepal, which has witnessed substantial drop in poverty levels in the decade between 1995 and 2004. Nepal’s marginalised citizens have greatly benefited from micro-credit. In this, the UNDP-supported Micro-enterprise Development Programme is helping people to market their products better. Almost 60% of the 14,000 people who had launched their businesses with the help of micro-credit were from traditionally excluded groups. Their average family incomes have improved by 56%. With regard to the goal of reducing child mortality, the website informs that in South Asia, the strategy of “Reaching Every District continues to play a central role in improving children’s survival rates through increased nationwide use of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines.” The UNICEF has helped Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan train female volunteers to administer polio vaccines and promote immunisation against maternal and child tetanus. In Afghanistan, for example, more than one million children under age five were vaccinated against measles, and more than 700,000 women of childbearing age received tetanus vaccines during 2006 under a comprehensive immunization campaign led by the local Ministry of Health. The same year, Bangladesh, with support from UNICEF and WHO, conducted the world’s largest ever measles eradication campaign in just 20 days, vaccinating 33.5 million children between the ages of nine months and 10 years. In India over the last four years, the percentage of deliveries assisted by skilled birth attendants increased by more than 30%. India is a country where a lot of women die because of poor maternal health care facilities. Today, maternal mortality reduction has become both a state and a national priority, and this is reflected in the government's National Population Policy and National Health Policy. Thus, through MDG Monitor, we learn how countries are progressing in their efforts to achieve the MDGs. With the 2015 target year approaching fast, it becomes even more imperative that we understand where the goals are on track, and where additional efforts and support are needed – globally as well as at the country level. Source: MDG Monitor

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