MDG 1
MDG 1
African Youth Day Conference 2011
The Organisation of African Youth (OAYouth) is the youth platform for information exchange, forum for debate on African issues and a network of future political, corporate, academic, literary, religious and traditional leaders in all African contexts.
The African Youth Day was declared and adopted by the African Union (AU) in 2006 to be commemorated on 1 November each year. It has since evolved as the most powerful platform of young people of Africa.
OAYouth, in collaboration with Phelps Stokes and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), is hosting the ‘African Youth Day Conference 2011 (AYDAC'11)’ on 1 November 2011 in Johannesburg.
The youth of Africa will convene at AYDAC’11 to celebrate the African Youth Day. The conference will pave way for youth to examine workable methods to improve youth unity as well as strengthen youth economic empowerment through leadership development, entrepreneurship support and agricultural transformation.
Conference Objectives:- Echo the voice of ordinary young people of Africa;
- Share information and best practices in promoting opportunities for youth encouraging youth to start new entrepreneurship initiatives;
- Establish suitable structures for meeting the unique needs for youth business start-ups in developing economies in Africa;
- Build lasting relationships between youth and business institutions;
- Infuse a gender perspective and rights-based approach to policies and programs for youth;
- Cultivate in the youth the spirit of accountability, transparency and integrity (ATI).
Cost: R2 430 per delegate.
For sponsorships, exhibitions and applications, write to: info@oayouth.org.
Enquiries: Tel: +27 73 445 4355.
For more about The Organisation of African Youth, refer to www.oayouth.org.Event type:ConferenceEvent venue:Ingwenya Country Escape, Lanseria, JohannesburgEvent start date:01/11/2011World Cup in Africa a Triumph for Humanity – UN
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has described the hosting of the World Cup on African soil as a triumph for humanity.
Officiating at the gala dinner in Johannesburg to promote the education goal, Ban urged world leaders to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are achieved.
Ban said he was convening a special summit on the 2015 MDGs to take stock of progress made.
To read the article titled, “World Cup in Africa a triumph for humanity: UN Chief,” click here.Source:SABC NewsCall for New Plans on Development Goals
Global anti-poverty group, ONE, says industrialised countries have delivered an historic increase in development aid to Africa in the past five years, but they have gone only three-fifths of the way towards meeting their targets and there is an urgent need for a new plan to help the continent develop.
ONE states despite the ‘great progress’ in the past five years, it has enough data to know that the targets and their ambitiously hopeful outcomes have not been met.
In a report which assesses the degree to which the G8 countries lived up to the aid promises they made at their summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005, it says, "Donors have supported African countries to make important strides in their own development agendas, such as scaling up access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs and sending 42 million more children to school."
To read the article titled, “Aid campaigners call for new plans for development goals,” click here.Source:<br /> All AfricaArticle link:Little Progress in Achieving Gender Equality
Across the globe, women's rights defenders have been campaigning for an end to violence against women. South Africa is no exception. Workshops, launches, exhibitions, training events and celebrations take place across the country and the region, intensifying during national and global campaigns, such as the 16 Days of Activism to end Violence Against Women, an event taking place every December.
On the surface of it, there is much to celebrate - South Africa's progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 that aims to achieve gender equality and empower women by 2015, included.
However, a closer look reveals that significant obstacles in women's development still exist, and South Africa is lagging behind in reaching the MDG targets, particularly when it comes to the inter-relationship between gender inequality, violence against women and HIV.
We have to urgently address the continuous high levels of violence against women and girls, which have a direct impact on increasing HIV infections rates in the same group. South African women between 20 and 25 years are six times more likely to be HIV-positive than young men of the same age, according to a 2007 study by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa.
Many suggestions for how to tackle the inter-relationship between HIV and gender inequality are nothing but superficial, short-term responses. In Mozambique, for example, where widows are 'cleansed' by being forced to have sex with their late husband's brother, traditional leaders recommended dealing with the risk of HIV infections by asking men to wear condoms.
As another example, some international organisations recommend responding to child-headed households - who are mostly caused by HIV/AIDS and run by girl children - by providing “modest levels of material support and training in effective parenting”. Surely this cannot be believed to be an honest attempt at solving the problem.
When two women were stripped and sexually assaulted at a taxi rank in South Africa’s metropolis Johannesburg in February 2008, some politicians suggested it was women’s fault - they should dress more moderately and travel in groups to protect themselves against violence. This is yet another attempt at diverting attention from the real cause of the problem.
Teachers train children to ‘say no!’ to those who want to abuse them, even though it should be obvious to anyone working with children that they don’t have the power to defend themselves against a criminal by just saying ‘no’.
Generally speaking, campaigns to ‘end violence against women and children’ tend to focus on behaviour change of survivors of violence and potential victims, instead of that of perpetrators. The also conflate the terms women and children when the issues facing these two groups require very different strategies.
If we want to make headway towards women’s empowerment and gender equality, we need to start questioning the existence of child-headed households and the 'cultural' practice of rape rather than suggesting band-aid solutions. It is not feasible to give responsibility for saying 'no' to a child with little power or curtail women's freedom for their safety.
Civil society organisations must take on the critical role of examining, evaluating and changing existing approaches to achieve lasting change for women and girls, as well as for men and boys. We must ensure that our work transforms gender inequality, rather than supports the status quo for short-term gains.
We must make the Millennium Development Goals themselves more gender aware, our strategies to achieving them cognisant of gender and our evaluation of progress uncompromising.
- Sally-Jean Shackleton is former executive director at Women’sNet. This article first appeared in the ‘Countdown To 2015’ newsletter, a publication by Inter Press Service in partnership with the Southern Africa Trust..Author(s):Sally ShackletonUNDP Head in Africa to Promote MDGs
The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is on a four-country visit to Africa to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
UNDP administrator, Helen Clark, points out that, "Achieving the MDGs means quite simply a better life for billions of people."
Clark's visit to sub-Saharan Africa comes some 150 days before world leaders converge in New York, just prior to the start of the General Assembly's annual General Debate, to identify obstacles to achieving the MDGs.
To read the article titled, “UNDP chief embarks on African tour to promote development goals,” click here.Source:All AfricaArticle link:Millennium Development Goals Report 2009
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009 is based on a master set of data that has been compiled by an Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators led by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, in response to the wishes of the General Assembly for periodic assessment of progress towards the MDGs.
The Group comprises representatives of the international organisations whose activities include the preparation of one or more of the series of statistical indicators that were identified as appropriate for monitoring progress towards the MDGs. A number of national statisticians and outside expert advisers also contributed.
To read the report, click here.
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Declaration gave birth to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a framework of 21 quantifiable targets and 60 indicators was set up by a consensus of experts from the United Nations Secretariat, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank.
The MDGs are to be achieved by 2015.
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target 1A - Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day.
Indicator 1.1: Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day
Indicator 1.2: Poverty gap ratio
Indicator 1.3: Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
Target 1B - Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.
Indicator 1.4: Growth rate of GDP per person employed
Indicator 1.5: Employment-to-population ratio
Indicator 1.6: Proportion of employed people living below $1 (PPP) per day
Indicator 1.7: Proportion of own-account and contributing family workers in total employment
Target 1C - Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
Indicator 1.8: Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age
Indicator 1.9: Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target 2 - Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
Indicator 2.1: Net enrollment ratio in primary education
Indicator 2.2: Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary
Indicator 2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 3 - Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
Indicator 3.1: Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
Indicator 3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
Indicator 3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Target 4 - Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
Indicator 4.1: Under-five mortality rate
Indicator 4.2: Infant mortality rate
Indicator 4.3: Proportion of 1 year-old children immunized against measles
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Target 5A - Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio.
Indicator 5.1: Maternal mortality ratio
Indicator 5.2: Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
Target 5B - Achieve universal access to reproductive health.
Indicator 5.3: Contraceptive prevalence rate
Indicator 5.4: Adolescent birth rate
Indicator 5.5: Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
Indicator 5.6: Unmet need for family planning
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Target 6A - Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Indicator 6.1: HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 years
Indicator 6.2: Condom use at last high-risk sex
Indicator 6.3: Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
Indicator 6.4: Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years
Target 6B - Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it.
Indicator 6.5: Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs
Target 6C - Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
Indicator 6.6: Incidence and death rates associated with malaria
Indicator 6.7: Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
Indicator 6.8: Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
Indicator 6.9: Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Indicator 6.10: Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed treatment short course
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Target 7A - Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
Target 7B - Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss.
Indicator 7.1: Proportion of land area covered by forest
Indicator 7.2: CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
Indicator 7.3: Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
Indicator 7.4: Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
Indicator 7.5: Proportion of total water resources used
Indicator 7.6: Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
Indicator 7.7: Proportion of species threatened with extinction
Target 7C - Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Indicator 7.8: Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
Indicator 7.9: Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility
Target 7D - By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
Indicator 7.10: Proportion of urban population living in slums
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Target 8A - Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. This includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction - both nationally and internationally.
Target 8B - Address the special needs of the least developed countries. This includes tariff- and quota- free access for the least developed countries’ exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction.
Target 8C - Address the special needs of land-locked countries and small island developing states through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and 22nd General Assembly provisions.
Target 8D - Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
Official Development Assistance
Indicator 8.1: Net ODA, total and to the least developed countries LDCs, as percentage of OECD/Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors’ gross national income
Indicator 8.2: Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
Indicator 8.3: Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
Indicator 8.4: ODA received in landlocked developing countries as a proportion of their GNIs
Indicator 8.5: ODA received in small island developing states as proportion of their GNIs
Market Access
Indicator 8.6: Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duty Indicator 8.7: Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
Indicator 8.8: Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as a percentage of their GDP
Indicator 8.9: Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity
Debt Sustainability
Indicator 8.10: Total number of countries that have reached their Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiatives (HIPC) decision points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
Indicator 8.11: Debt relief committed under HIPC and MDRI initiative
Indicator 8.12: Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services
Target 8E - In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.
Indicator 8.13: Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis
Target 8F - In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies.
Indicator 8.14: Telephone lines per 100 population
Indicator 8.15: Cellular subscribers per 100 population
Indicator 8.16: Internet users per 100 population
For more about the MDGs, click here.
To read the Millennium Development Goals Report 2009, click here.
Poverty Has No Colour – Zuma
President Jacob Zuma has assured the poor white residents of Bethlehem and other informal settlements in Pretoria West that, in his government, poverty has no colour and that they also deserve service delivery.
Zuma points out that, "Our presence today is a confirmation that we are a government that is committed to all South Africans, regardless of colour, race or creed."
He states that for as long as there are people who suffer the indignity of poverty in the country, “This will not rest.”
He was speaking during his third visit to the area dominated by white Afrikaners.
To read the article titled, “Poverty has no colour,” click here .
Source:Independent OnlineUN Urges Faster Progress in MDGs
United Nations (UN) secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has warned that failure to meet global poverty-reduction goals by a 2015 deadline will spawn increased instability, violence, epidemic diseases and overpopulation.
In an address to the UN General Assembly, Ban urged adoption of a global action plan for faster progress toward achieving the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at a UN world summit on the issue, scheduled for 20-22 September 2010.
"Many countries have achieved remarkable progress. But many others are struggling," explained Ban, as he outlined a report suggesting ways to speed up implementation of the MDGs.
To read the article titled, “UN chief urges faster progress in reducing poverty,” click here.Source:Mail and GuardianAfrica Not Progressing on MDGs - UN
The United Nations (UN) and its agencies will use the 2010 World Cup to highlight Africa's slow progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty by 2015.
UN under-secretary-general for communications and public information, Kiyo Akasaka, says that the UN is concerned that sub-Saharan countries are significantly behind schedule in realising some of the key development goals agreed to by more than 189 countries in Johannesburg in 2000.
Akasaka states that Africa is not alone in allowing the goals to slip out of reach, as internationally there is mixed progress. He says that the global financial crisis had brought new difficulties that threatened the global effort to halve extreme poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other ills defined by the goals.
To read the article titled, “UN to focus on Africa's slow progress on millennium goals,” click here.Source:All Africa
Printer-friendly version
Vacancies
Events
-
Monday, February 13, 2012
-
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
-
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Opportunities
-
10/02/2012
-
10/02/2012
-
13/02/2012
-
14/02/2012
-
15/02/2012
