Millennium Development Goals and Jamaica Essay -- International Develo

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) represents the basic necessities and rights that any human would want to enjoy. It is a nationwide commitment made in September 2000 at a United Nations Millennium Summit meeting by 189 countries including Jamaica (Sweetman, 2005, p.2). Its emergence came as a major objective in an effort toward global development within a fifteen (15) year period. These objectives are targeted at the poorest sets of people in the world and are geared towards eliminating severe poverty and improving the provisions of good health and well-being. There are eight goals to be accomplished by 2015, each having more than one target. 1. Eradication of poverty and hunger- the target is to half the rate of the world’s poverty and hunger and to achieve full and productive employment for all. 2. Achieving universal primary education – its aim, to ensure that all children will at least attain and successfully complete the primary level education. 3. Promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women – aimed at seeing more women in parliament, girl to boy ratio in primary, secondary and tertiary schooling 4. Decreasing child mortality – that is, reducing the death rate by at least two-thirds in children who are under five (5) years old and ensuring that all infants are properly immunized by the time they get to age one. 5. Improvement in maternal health – aimed at reducing maternal mortality and ensuring that mothers giving birth are attended to by skilled health personnel. 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases – aimed at educating persons about the important use of condoms and contraceptives in order to reduce and prevent these diseases. 7. Ensure environmental sustainability –aimed at inte... ... also incurred a legacy of debt, has a very low growth rate, high crime rate and is considered to be risky borrowers. BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS Sweetman, C. (2005).Gender and the Millennium Development Goal. Oxfam Publishers. Oxford, London. ARTICLES Sunday Observer, September 26, 2010. To achieve the ultimate Millennium Development Goal. WEBSITES National Report of Jamaica on MDG for the UN Economic and Social Council Annual Ministerial Review, Geneva 2009. Planning Institute of Jamaica. Retrieved on November 16, 2010 form www.jm.undp.org/ National Report United Nations (2000), â€Å"Millennium Development Goals†. Retrieved November 17, 2010 from www.mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx World Health Organization (2005). Health and the Millennium Goals, retrieved November 18, 2010 from www.who.int/topics/millennium_development_goals/en