UNITED NATIONS STUDENTS ASSOCIATION UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON GHANA INTERNATIONAL MODEL UN 2011 THE AFRICAN BLOC REPORT

RT TO DELEGATES, GEARED TOWARDS THE CONFERENCE TOPICS: MITIGATING POVERTY AND HUNGER THROUGH GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP. WHAT MORE WE CAN DO. AND ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION IN RETROSPECT, WHAT WAS LACKING?

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Acknowledgments

This report is based on the 2010 World Development Indicators and the Global Monitoring Report, a joint World BankInternational Monetary Fund product, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008, MDG Monitor Website, and the Millennium Development Goals Report 2010. This report from the African bloc, prepared by the vice president of the General Assembly, Ms. Adiata Millah, is in effort to address the GIMUN 2011 conference theme, accelerating the realization of the MDGs by 2015, the role of the youth. GIMUN has two committees which will be discussing different topics. The committees and their respective topics are; y y Economic and Financial Committee: Mitigation of Poverty through Global Partnership: What More We Can Do. Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee: Universal Primary Education in Retrospect: What Was Lacking

Each country will be represented by two delegates with each committee having one delegate.

About the data Income and regional groupings For analytical purposes, countries are grouped by gross national income (GNI) per capita (calculated using the World Bank Atlas method). Every economy is classified as low income, middle income (subdivided into lower middle and upper middle), or high income. Low- and middle income economies are sometimes referred to as developing economies, but this is not intended to imply that all economies in the group are experiencing similar development or that other economies have reached a preferred or final stage of development. In this report, income classifications are determined by 2009 GNI per capita. The income groupings are; Low income $995 or less Upper middle income $3,946$12,195 Lower middle income $996$3,945 High income $12,196 or more Data sources The data in this report came from the World Development Indicators (WDI) database, which is accessible at http://data.worldbank.org. The data are also available in the World Bank eAtlas of the Millennium Development Goals (http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs). There are many sources for the data compiled in the WDI database. Some come from reports by World Bank staff, but many come from other international organizations with which the World Bank exchanges data. More information about the data is available at http://www.mdgmonitor.org, UNDP and in the World Development Indicators (http://bit.ly/WDI2010), published annually by the World Bank,
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which includes definitions and sources for all published indicators. The same information is available at http://data.worldbank.org. In addition, the United Nations MDG database (http://mdgs.un.org) provides authoritative information on the sources and definitions of all official MDG indicators. www.worldbank.org/mdgs. OECD Development Co-operation Directorate website, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml, among others. Introduction In September 2000, 189 member states of the United Nations came together at the Millennium Summit and adopted the Millennium Declaration, including commitments to poverty eradication, development, and protecting the environment. Many of these commitments were drawn from the agreements and resolutions of world conferences and summits organized by the United Nations during the preceding decade. A year later the UN Secretary Generals Road Map for implementing the Millennium Declaration formally unveiled eight goals, supported by 18 quantified and time-bound targets and 48 indicators, which became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aside the United Nations member states, at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The MDGs focus the efforts of the world community on achieving significant, measurable improvements in people's lives by the year 2015. They establish targets and yardsticks for measuring results, not just for developing countries but for the rich countries that help fund development programs and for the multilateral institutions that help countries implement them. The eight MDGs listed below guide the efforts of virtually all organizations working in development and have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 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

The Millennium Development Goals provide a multidimensional framework for attacking poverty in a world of multipolar growth. By focusing on measurable results, they provide a scorecard for assessing progress toward mutually agreed targets. And by enlisting the support of national governments, international agencies, and civil society in a development partnership, they have brought greater coherence to the global development effort. In this way they take us beyond the old, sterile opposition of developed and developing or north and south. The evidence from the last 20 years, documented in the statistical record of the MDGs, is that where conditions and policies are right for growth with equity, rapid and sustainable progress toward improving the lives of the poorest people can take place. Not every country will achieve the
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global MDG targets in the time allowed. Success has not been distributed evenly and there have been serious setbacks. Some countries are still burdened by legacies of bad policies, institutional failures, and civil and international conflict. For them, progress toward the MDGs has been delayed, but the examples of good progress by others point the way for their eventual success. Four years from the target date of the MDGs, a new cloud of uncertainty shadows developing countries efforts. We have experienced a historic financial and economic crisis, which began in the richest economies of the world and continually threatened to slow progress in the poorest. The recovery now underway is fragile and likely to be uneven. We know from past crises that the harm to human development during bad times cuts far deeper than the gains during upswings. Under these conditions, it is especially important to protect the gains to date and press ahead with actions for further progress to achieve the MDGs. However difficult it may be to achieve all of the goals in every country of the world, it is important to report on progress clearly and realistically, using the best available data. That is what this report does. Given the proliferation of UN Conferences and commitments, its important to understand why the Millennium Development Goals are unique in many powerful ways:
y

They represent a compact between all the worlds major economic players. Poorer countries pledged to improve policies and governance and increase accountability to their own citizens; wealthy countries pledged to provide the resources. Since the commitment to achieve the goals comes from the highest political levels, for the first time, entire governments are committed to their achievement, including the trade and finance ministers who hold the worlds purse strings. And major international financial institutions; the World Bank, the IMF, the regional development banks, and increasingly, the membership of the World Trade Organization, have made explicit that they will be accountable for achieving the Goals too. The world has never before seen so much prosperity. The hundreds of billions that are being spent in Iraq have put things in perspective. We might not need more than about $50 billion of additional aid per year to meet the Goals. About $900 billion was invested in arms by governments in 2003 alone; and rich countries grant large support to their domestic agricultural producers, totaling $300 billion each year. Financially, in the grand scheme of things, were talking about relatively small change. Performance against the goals is being monitored. These are not just lofty statements of intent; precise monitoring mechanisms have been put in place, in the form of national Millennium Goals reports and the Secretary Generals reports to the General Assembly. Civil society organizations around the world are creating their own set of reports as well, to ensure that governments are held to the highest possible standards of performance. Over 60 country reports have already been produced at the national level. The Goals are clearly achievable. Some have even argued that they are not in fact millennium, but minimum development goals. We believe that to set the bar any lower than this would be morally unacceptable. Individual Goals have already been achieved by many countries in the space of only 10-15 years
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Global progress With the acceleration of economic growth in many developing countries since the late 1990s, human development indicators improved significantly before the crisis hit. Progress on reducing poverty was especially strong, even in Sub-Saharan Africa. Good progress was also made on achieving universal primary education, eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education, and increasing access to safe drinking water. As a result, many countries have achieved or are likely to achieve the MDG targets set for 2015 in these areas. Progress on other MDGs, especially those related to health, has been less encouraging. The first MDG target; halving the share of people living in extreme poverty, is within reach at the global level and in four of the six developing regions. Rapid growth in East Asia and the Pacific and falling poverty in South Asia, the two regions with the most people living in extreme poverty, account for most of this remarkable achievement. Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals, while others are not on track to realize any. The major countries that have been achieving their goals include China (whose poverty population has reduced from 452 million to 278 million) and India due to clear internal and external factors of population and economic development. However, areas needing the most reduction, such as the Sub-Saharan Africa regions have yet to make any drastic changes in improving their quality of life. In the same time as China, the SubSaharan Africa reduced their poverty about one percent, and are at a major risk of not meeting the MDGs by 2015. Part of the reason is that the pace of progress is inversely related to initial conditions, so countries at low starting points had much farther to go to achieve the goals. While the extent to which countries are on track to achieve the MDGs by 2015 varies widely, as recent improvements have been widespread. But so too have been the losses caused by the crisisinduced interruption in progress. Among 85 countries with available data, 46 are on track to halve extreme poverty by 2015. These countries contain 48 percent of the people in the developing world. But 40 percent live in countries that are off track or seriously off track. Another 12 percent live in 59 countries lacking sufficient data to assess progress. The human development MDGs describes a compelling plan of action: educate children, empower women, reduce child and maternal mortality, and alleviate epidemic diseases. In absolute terms, impressive achievements have been made. Since 2000, about 37 million more children have attended and completed primary school. In 2008, about 83 percent of the worlds children received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday through routine health services, up from 72 percent in 2000. And the number of children dying before age 5 has fallen from more than 10 million a year to 8.8 million. The most progress has been made on the targets for primary school attendance, gender equality in primary and secondary school, and access to safe drinking water. Inside the global averages Demographic change and economic growth are altering the structure of the developing world. In 1990, there were 4.1 billion people in developing countries, with three-quarters in countries
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classified as low-income. In 2008 the population of developing countries was 5.6 billion, with two-thirds (3.7 billion) in lower middle- income countries. This massive shift reflects Chinas and Indias advance from low income to lower-middle-income status. Today 43 low-income countries contain just fewer than 1 billion people, while 46 upper-middle-income countries contain about 950 million and a similar number live in high-income countries. Progress on the MDGs has been particularly slow in low-income countries. This is not surprising given that this group is dominated by fragile states, with many afflicted by conflict. Except for achieving gender equality in primary education (61 percent of low-income countries are expected to do so by 2015, but only 30 percent in secondary education) and halving the share of people without access to safe drinking water (35 percent of low-income countries are expected to reach this target), less than 20 percent of low-income countries have reached or are on track to achieve the MDGs. Lower-middle-income countries have done much better, though they still face serious challenges. A third is expected to achieve the poverty reduction target, and 38 percent have attained universal primary school completion, with another 7 percent on track to do so. Moreover, developments in the period leading up to the crisis enabled many developing countries to help offset its effects on MDG progress. Unlike in past crises, most developing countries encountered this one with better economic policies and social protection mechanisms, stronger institutions, and lower debt. Social spending has remained strong in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Europe and Central Asia, the hardest hit of developing regions. Some countries focused spending cuts on sectors with excess capacity, increasing long-term efficiency and limiting the welfare impact of the cuts. Several Sub-Saharan countries with poverty reduction strategies have been able to protect social spending, and countries such as the Philippines and the Republic of Yemen have expanded existing or planned safety net programs in response to the crisis. Still, low income countries were more vulnerable to the effects of the crisis and are recovering more slowly. Thus, continued urgent and exceptional responses are needed to halt the slipping progress on many MDGs. Success will depend on further reforms by developing countries, increased trade access to advanced economies, and continued and sustained support from donors and international financial institutions. Timely, well-designed cash transfer programs increase household incomes and help girls and boys stay in school. To beat major diseases and reduce maternal mortality, a holistic approach should be taken to strengthening health systems. Some MDGs will not be achieved by 2015, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, but many were ambitious to start with. And that ambition fueled much of the striking progress over the past decade. Though there has been a recovery from the crisis, the damage it has caused to developing countries, especially in SubSaharan Africa, will be long lasting. And if the recovery weakens and developing countries suffer policy reversals; cutting trade, eliminating safety nets, and allowing inflation to return, the impacts on human development outcomes could be horrific. To meet the MDGs, the developing world must revive its growth and reinforce its resilience to global economic volatility by rebuilding fiscal policy buffers and strengthening social safety nets, the first line of defense against shocks to poor people. Core spending on health, education, and infrastructure must also be protected against economic downturns. Still, if growth in developing countries is lower than expected over the next decade, it will exacerbate the slowed progress on the MDGs caused by the crisis. The financial crises of the late 1990s showed that
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continued progress on the MDGs is possible despite major challenges. The next four years offer the same opportunity. A dynamic, resilient global economy, powered by strong and sustainable growth on many fronts, is a prerequisite for mobilizing the resources and generating the jobs and prospects needed to achieve the MDGs. Regaining momentum on the MDGs will also require ambitious efforts to improve access to health, education, and basic infrastructure, particularly for the most disadvantaged groups, without which poor people will not be able to lift themselves out of poverty. To mitigate the effects of the crisis, efforts in all countries, rich and poor, should focus on achieving inclusive and sustainable global growth, maintaining and expanding open international trade and financial systems, and fostering private sector development. Sustained support from the international community will be essential to helping governments restore trust, build legitimacy, and deliver basic services to their people. As part of this effort, high-income countries must deliver on their aid commitments.. With committed efforts from the many partners engaged in advancing development, developing countries can learn from past experiences, seize emerging opportunities, and build a future that delivers the promise offered by the MDGs. Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty Targets by 2015: 1. Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. 2. Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Reducing poverty and hunger and increasing employment are intrinsic components of development efforts. Indeed, they are among the first things that come to mind when assessing any countrys prospects for prosperity. Accordingly, this first MDG focuses on the need for action on all three. When 189 Heads of State and governments from the North and South, as representatives of their citizens, signed onto the Millennium Declaration at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, there was a palpable sense of urgency. Urgency to "free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected." Sub-Saharan Africa is at the greatest risk of not achieving the Goals and is struggling to progress on almost every dimension of poverty, including hunger, lack of education, and prevalent disease. The Millennium Villages seek to end extreme poverty by working with the poorest of the poor, village by village throughout Africa, in partnership with governments and other committed stakeholders, providing affordable and science-based solutions to help people lift them out of extreme poverty. Between 1990 and 2001, the number of people in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $1 a day rose from 227 million to 313 million, and the poverty rate rose from 45 percent to 46 percent.

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Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of undernourishment in the world, with one-third of the population below the minimum level of nourishment. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are:
y y y y y

Crippled by disease Exposed to drought-prone climates Located in areas not suitable for irrigation Tackling extreme isolation in mountains and landlocked regions Suffering from poor infrastructure

Poverty, hunger and disease have always been with us, but the will to eradicate poverty in all its forms is new. In 2000, the Millennium Declaration committed rich and developing countries to working in partnership to achieve a set of critical development outcomes. Those commitments are embodied in the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015, supported by 18 quantified targets and 60 indicators measuring progress since 1990. The MDGs do not and cannot capture all dimensions of development, but despite their limitations, they are a milestone in international cooperation and development efforts, calling attention to the enormous challenges facing developing countries and galvanizing governments, donors, civil society, private agencies, and the media to support human development. Over the past decade, tremendous global progress has been made on the MDGs, underpinned by rapid economic growth and good policies in all regions and many countries. The global financial crisis that hit in 2008 disrupted those vigorous trends. But low-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, have done relatively well during the crisis thanks to strong economic and policy positions, and developing countries as a whole are recovering better than expected. Still, the crisis will slow progress on the MDGs for many years. The impressive precrisis achievements in economic growth and poverty reduction will not be matched for some time, and postcrisis deviations in MDG progress from precrisis trends will persist for at least a decade. Moreover, the recovery in many developing countries has relied on enormous increases in government spending, with fiscal deficits reaching nearly 3 percent of GDP in 2009 and was expected to remain high in 2010. Borrowing from international financial institutions has also increased. Financial market conditions for developing countries are improving and capital flows are returning, but no major improvements were expected in 2010. And in most countries, near term growth will likely not be strong enough to undo the damage caused in 2009. International financial institutions and the international community have responded quickly and strongly to the crisis but need to do more to help developing countries regain their momentum in achieving the MDGs. To do so, developing countries require policy reforms, increased aid and trade access, and sustainable support from international financial institutions. With only four years left before the MDG deadline, there is an urgent need to intensify efforts on all the goals and their associated targets. Special efforts are needed to increase investment in girls and women across the globeparticularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 38 percent of the population, or 366 million people, will continue to be in extreme poverty (defined as living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005 prices) in 2015.

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Per the eighth goal of the MDGs, global partnership for development, poverty can also be mitigated through global partnerships. The eighth MDG commits developing and developed countries to a global partnership for development, encompassing aid, trade, debt relief, and access to new technologies. The Millennium Goals represent a global partnership for development. The deal makes clear that it is the primary responsibility of poor countries to work towards achieving the first seven Goals. They must do their part to ensure greater accountability to citizens and efficient use of resources. But for poor countries to achieve the first seven Goals, it is absolutely critical that rich countries deliver on their end of the bargain with more and more effective aid, more sustainable debt relief and fairer trade rules, well in advance of 2015. Goal Eight, targets by 2015: 1. Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction; both nationally and internationally 2. Address the special needs of the least developed countries. 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 3. Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly 4. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term. However, Reducing poverty starts with children. More than 30 per cent of children in developing countries, about 600 million, live on less than US $1 a day. Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation. Usually it is a child under the age of 5. Poverty hits children hardest. While a severe lack of goods and services hurts every human, it is most threatening to childrens rights: survival, health and nutrition, education, participation, and protection from harm and exploitation. It creates an environment that is damaging to childrens development in every way; mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. More than 1 billion children are severely deprived of at least one of the essential goods and services they require to survive, grow and develop. Some regions of the world have more dire situations than others, but even within one country there can be broad disparities; between city and rural children, or between boys and girls. An influx or tourism in one area may improve a countrys poverty statistics overall, while the majority remains poor and disenfranchised. Each deprivation heightens the effect of the others. So when two or more coincide, the effects on children can be catastrophic. For example, women who must walk long distances to fetch household water may not be able to fully attend to their children, which may affect their health
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and development. And children who themselves must walk long distances to fetch water have less time to attend school, a problem that particularly affects girls. Children who are not immunized or who are malnourished are much more susceptible to the diseases that are spread through poor sanitation. Poverty exacerbates the effects of HIV/AIDS and armed conflict. It entrenches social, economic and gender disparities and undermines protective family environments. Poverty contributes to malnutrition, which in turn is a contributing factor in over half of the under-five deaths in developing countries. Some 300 million children go to bed hungry every day. Of these only eight per cent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 per cent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency. The best start in life is critical in a childs first few years, not only to survival but to his or her physical, intellectual and emotional development. So these deprivations greatly hamper childrens ability to achieve their full potential, contributing to a societys cycle of endless poverty and hunger. Today, we not only have the financial resources to end extreme poverty once and for all, but we have the technological knowledge and know-how to realize the Goals, as well as several global organizations which ensure partnership amongst countries. It is also clear, however, that if we carry on in a business as usual mode, the Goals will not be achieved by 2015. The way forward is marked; it is only the political will to achieve the Goals that is in question.

The chart below shows the prospects of low-and middle-income countries, aggregated by region, for reaching the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals

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Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Target by 2015; Ensure that, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. More than 20 years ago the world community committed itself to providing at least a primary school education to every child. Ensuring that all children receive a good quality education is the foundation of sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Education accelerates progress in other areas such as poverty, gender equality, and child and maternal health. When women are educated and empowered, their fertility rate is likely to be lower, and their children are less likely to suffer from malnutrition or die before their fifth birthday. When the head of household is educated, the poverty level for the household is lower. Progress toward the goal of universal primary education was slow in the least developed countries but has accelerated since 2000. But in periods of economic crisis, families sometimes choose to remove children from school because they cannot afford the cost of schooling or they need their childrens labor. Because of the current crisis, 350,000 students may be unable to complete primary school by 2015.

Meeting the Education Goal will speed progress toward every other Millennium Goal. Educating children helps reduce poverty and promote gender equality. It helps lower child mortality rates and promotes concern for the environment. It is inextricably linked to Goal 3, gender parity, as universal primary education by definition requires gender parity in primary education. Further, education, specifically free primary school for all children, is a fundamental right to which governments committed themselves under the 1989 Convention of the Rights of the Child. Globally, 570 million children are enrolled in school. The number of children of primary school age who were out of school fell from 103 million in 1999 to 73 million in 2006. In that year, primary school enrolment in developing countries reached 88 per cent on average, up from 83 per cent in 2000. In sub-Saharan Africa, the net primary school enrolment ratio has only recently reached 71 per cent, even after a significant jump in enrolment that began in 2000. Around 38 million children of primary school age in this region are still out of school. For children to complete primary school, they must be enrolled. Although enrollments in grade 1 have been increasing, in some developing countries, less than 60 percent of primary school pupils who enroll in first grade reach the last grade of schooling. Children drop out of primary school because their families do not recognize the value of education. Many things discourage children and their parents: absent or indifferent teachers, inadequate or dangerous facilities, and demand for childrens labor at home or at work. Enrolling all children and keeping them in school will require ongoing reforms and increased investment. Conditional cash transfers, scholarships, and school feeding programs are effective ways of encouraging poor households to invest in their children. But the current global economic downturn threatens the ability of both governments and parents to invest in education. Developing countries therefore need to give priority to those education expenditures that have the highest expected returns and to protect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged parts of the population. Yet even these basic schools are beyond reach for hundreds of millions of
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children. These children are deprived of their right to education because their families cannot afford school fees or other related costs, or because their communities are too poor or remote to have school facilities and supplies, or because they have to work to put food on the table. Children of indigenous populations or ethnic minorities often face discrimination and are excluded from education, as are children with disabilities. WHERE DO WE STAND? In all regions, inequalities in access to education continue to pose major barriers to fully attaining the MDG 2 target of ensuring that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, can complete a full course of primary schooling. Projections suggest that without further acceleration, 58 out of the 86 countries that have not yet reached universal primary education will not achieve it by 2015. In all regions, inequalities in access to education are a major barrier to reaching Goal 2. The children most likely to drop out of school or to not attend at all are often girls and those from poorer households or living in rural areas. For example, recent estimations show that 25 per cent of children of primary school age in rural areas of the developing world are out of school, compared with 16 per cent of children in the same age group living in cities. Achieving universal primary education means more than full enrolment. It also encompasses quality education, meaning that all children who attend school regularly learn basic literacy and numeracy skills and complete primary school on time. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, substantially more children of secondary school age attend primary rather than secondary school. For children to reach their full potential and countries to develop, the gains made in universal primary education must be replicated at the secondary level. At present, less than 55 per cent of children of the appropriate age in developing countries attend secondary school. In Oceania, for instance, almost two thirds of children of secondary school age are out of school. In sub-Saharan Africa, only a quarter of children of secondary school age are in secondary school Although aid directed to basic education for low-income countries increased from $1.6 billion in 1999 to $5 billion in 2006, it is still well below the estimated $11 billion in aid required annually to reach universal primary education by 2015. WHAT HAS WORKED 1. Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda have abolished school fees, which has led to a surge in enrolment: in Ghana, public school enrolment in the most deprived districts and nationwide soared from 4.2 million to 5.4 million between 2004 and 2005. In Kenya, enrolment of primary school children increased dramatically, with 1.2 million additional pupils in 2003 alone; by 2004, the number had climbed to 7.2 million, of which 84 per cent were of primary school age. But the surge in enrolment after abolition of fees has brought huge challenges in providing sufficient school buildings and teachers. 2. In Haiti, collaboration between the Government, UN agencies and NGOs has changed the lives of 4,300 of the country's poorest children, thanks to an education project that provided school materials and supplies to 33 schools. Most of the children lived in the crowded slum Cit
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Soleil, an area where violence and insecurity are a daily reality. This project promoted the right to education, in particular by encouraging and supporting school attendance and teacher training. It was funded by a donation of $70,000 from soccer stars Ronaldo and Zidane, both Goodwill Ambassadors for the UN Development Programme. For the Education Goal to be met, actions need to address both human and material needs; buildings, books and teachers, and the organic requirements of getting all children into school and ensuring they complete a quality education. These include gender equality in society, good health and nutrition, and the strong backing of governments and communities.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE? y y y y y y y y y y y y y Ensure sustainable education systems, delivering quality services and retaining professional staff. Ensure universal coverage in primary education, including for poor and underserved populations in rural areas and urban slums. Augment domestic spending on education to 15 to 20 per cent of national budgets, while giving priority to basic education. Provide $11 billion in aid needed annually to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Integrate education as a key part of humanitarian responses to post-conflict and emergency situations. Eliminate school fees, particularly for low-income families. Provide cash transfers to poor families conditional on their childrens, especially girls, enrolment or attendance in school. Provide children with transportation to and from school when needed. Offer free meals and basic health services at school to improve childrens health, nutrition and cognitive development. Expand pre-primary school educational programmes. Train more teachers and effectively retrain and motivate those in the profession. Ensure adequate teaching materials and distribute textbooks free of charge. Improve aid effectiveness for education by strengthening the capacity of national education systems to improve access to quality education for all.

Globally, significant progress has been made in primary enrolment/attendance and if current trends continue, most of the countries in the Middle East/North Africa regions appear to be on course for 2015. In all of these regions, gains in enrolment/attendance also need to carry over into high rates of primary education completion.

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The chart below shows the prospects of low-and middle-income countries, aggregated by region, for reaching the second goal of the Millennium Development Goals

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