MDG’S IN THE TANZANIAN CONTEXT

1.0 INTRODUCTION.

In the September 2000 Summit, the United Nations set 8 goals hopefully to be realized by 2015 if every actor, developed and developing play their part. The poor countries promised to improve their governance and to invest in their people by targeting healthcare and education. On the other hand, the wealthy nations committed themselves to facilitate the realization of the goals through aid, debt relief and introduction of trade conditions that are fairer. The goals signify a global partnership and commitments resulting from previous world summits in the 1990’s and pressure from the civil society. It is apparent that the Millennium Development Goals provide a shared vision of a much improved world by 2015. The MDG’s were adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of states and the governments. If achieved these goals will respond to the world’s current main development challenges such as growing poverty, imbalances in access to education, maternal and child mortality, gender inequalities, AIDS and other diseases.

During the Millennium Summit held in New York all UN member states adopted the UN “Millennium Declarations” which contained a core group of goals and targets, some of which were later refined during the implementation process. Basing on the declaration, a concise set of goals, numerical targets and quantifiable indicators to assess progress were made. The new set is the 'Millennium Development Goals', which include 8 goals, 18 targets and over 40 indicators that were agreed to be reached by 2015.

So far there are significant advances together with important setbacks. Every region faces particular challenges but has the opportunity to work together in order to achieve the MDG’s. The goals will only be achieved with high global political support, strong partnerships and coordinated efforts. If however some trends persist, some of the goals will be very difficult to reach.

In Sept 2005, exactly 5 years since the MDG declaration and the United Nations UN released the progress report on the MDG’s which indicated what has so far been done, shortcomings and the challenges ahead. The report reflected the situations in each country especially in Africa.

2.0 WHAT ARE THE MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS?

These Goals were stated jointly as follows:

1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

2. Achieve Universal Primary Education

3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

4. Reduce Child Mortality

5. Improve Maternal Health

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability

8. Create a Global Partnership for Development

3.0 WHY MDG’S

The attention at the time was to encourage the transformation of the global framework for development particularly for the most challenged and underdeveloped countries. The reality originated from the wide range of fatigue which was experienced due to wide degree of aid which never brought a remarkable change in people’s lives. Although significant foreign Aid has been received by many underdeveloped countries on poverty alleviation nevertheless the unsatisfactory situation persisted. The heads of states contemplated that perhaps the approaches which were being used were not facilitative to the realities on ground. Addressing poverty from the economic perspective alone may not be the best way forward. There were some other factors which directly or indirectly contributed to the situation and needed to be addressed holistically.

What is the current situation regarding the MDG’S in the country ?

Goal 1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

o 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day reflecting poverty

o Every day, 800 million people go to bed hungry reflecting hunger

o Every day, 28,000 children die from poverty related causes reflecting poverty

o The GDP of the poorest 48 countries ( a quarter of world’s country) is less than the wealth of the worlds three richest people combined.(World Bank report 2005)

Goal 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education

• 115 million children are not in school: 56% of them are girls and 94% of them live in developing countries.
• 133 million young people cannot read or write.
• Only 37 of 155 developing countries provide primary education for all.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21^st century unable to read a book or sign their names
• 56% of out of school children are girls
• 9 million more girls than boys are left out of school every year

Goal 3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

• Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are female.
• The employment rate for women is 30% of that for men.
• Women only hold 15% of seats in national parliaments.
• Of the150 millions children aged 6-11 not in school –over 90 millions are girls.

Goal 4. Reduce Child Mortality

• In developing countries, one child in 10 dies before his or her fifth birthday, compared with 1 in 143 in high-income countries.

• Over 11 million children under the age of five die each year.
• For approximately 70% of those, the cause is a disease or a combination of diseases and malnutrition that would be preventable in a high-income country, such as acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, measles and malaria.

Goal 5. Improve Maternal Health

• Some 14,000 women and girls die each day from causes related to childbirth; 99% in the developing world.
• More than 50 million women suffer from poor reproductive health and serious pregnancy-related illness and disability.
• Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for girls ages 15-19 in developing countries.

Every minute in the World Status of Maternal Health

• 110 women experience a pregnancy-related complications
• 40 women have an unsafe abortion
• 1 woman dies from a pregnancy related cause

Goal 6.Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

• More than 8,000 people die every day from AIDS-related conditions.
• An estimated 13,000 people became newly infected with HIV every day.
• Approximately 15 million children around the world have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
• Among young people (age 15-24) in sub-Saharan Africa, there are 36 young women living with HIV for every 10 HIV-infected males.
• There were almost a million new cases of HIV/AIDS in South and East Asia, where more than 7 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS.
• Approximately 40% of the world's population, mostly those living in the world's poorest countries, is at risk of contracting malaria.
• Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least one million deaths annually.
• An estimated two million deaths from tuberculosis occur annually.
• Someone in the world is newly infected with tuberculosis bacilli every second.

Goal 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability

• Over 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities
• 1.2 billion lack access to clean water.
• Some two million children die every year --6,000 a day-- from preventable infections spread by dirty water or improper sanitation facilities.

Goal 8. Create a Global Partnership for Development

• The cows in Europe receive $2 a day in subsidies, more than the income of half the world’s population.
• Developed countries pledged to give 0.7% of their national income in aid, yet only 5 countries are living up to their commitment. The U.S. gives less than 0.2%!
• The elimination of trade barriers could alone lift 300 million people out of poverty by 2015.

4.0. OVERVIEW OF THE MDG’S AND THE SET TARGET AND INDICATORS FOR MEASUREMENT

GOAL	TARGET BY 2015	INDICATORS
1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger	1. Halve between 1990 and 2015,the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar 2.Halve between 1990 and 2015 ,the proportion of people who suffer from hunger	1.Proportion of population below $1 per day 2.Poverty gap ratio 3.Share of poorest quintile in national consumption 4.Prevalence of under weight children under five years age 5.Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
2.Achieve Universal Primary Education	3.Ensure that by 2015 children every where, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling	6.Net enrolment ratio in primary education 7. Proportion of children who starting grade 1 who reached grade five. 8. Literacy rate of 15 years age.
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women	4.Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferrabily by 2005,and at all levels of education not less than 2015	9.Ratio of girls to boys in primary ,secondary and tertiary education 10.Ratio of literate women to men 15-24 years old 11.Share of seats held by women in National parliament
4. Reduce Child Mortality	5. Reduce 2/3 between 1990 and 2015,the under five mortality rates	1ildren immunized against measles.3. Under 5 mortality rate 14. Infant mortality rate. 15. Proportion of 1-year old children immunized against measles.
5. Improve Maternal Health	6. Reduce ¾ between 1990 and 2015, maternal mortality rate	16. Maternal mortality ratio 17.Proportion of births attended by skilled personnel
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases	7.Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS 8. Have halted 2015 and begun to reserve the incidence of malaria and other diseases	18. HIV prevalence among pregnant women aged 15-24 19a. Condom use at last risk sex. 19b. % of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS. 19c.Contraceptive prevalence rate 20.Rationof school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years 21.Prevallence and death rates associated with malaria 22. Proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective malaria prevention and treatment measures. 23. Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis 24.Proportion of TB cases detected and cured under DOTS directly observed treatment short courses
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability	9. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programme and reserve the loss of environmental resources. 10.Halve by 2015 the population of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation 11. By 2020 to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers	25. Proportion of land areas covered by forest 26. Ratio of areas protected to maintain biological diversity to surface area. 27.GDP per unit of energy use 28.Carbon dioxide emission (per capita) and consumption of ozone depleting CFCs 29. Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improves water source 30. Proportion of people with access to improved sanitation 31.Proportion of people with access to ensure tenure
8. Create a Global Partnership for Development	12.Develop further an open rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial systems 13. Address the special needs of the least developed countries. Include tariff and quota free access for the least developed countries export 14. Address the special needs of locked developing countries and small island developing states. 15. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through nation and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in long term. 16.In cooperation with developing countries ,develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth 17. In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries. 18. In cooperation with the sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.	32. Net ODA, total and to the least developed countries as % of OECD?DAC. Donor gross national income. 33. Proportion of ODA to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation) 34. Proportion of ODA that is united 35. Proportion of ODA received in small island developing states as a proportion of their gross nation income. 36. Proportion of ODA received in landlocked developing countries as proportion of their gross nation income 37. Proportion of total developed country import from developing countries and least developed countries admitted free duty. 38. Average tariff imposed by developed countries on agriculture products and textiles and clothing from developing countries. 39. Agriculture support estimate for OECD countries as % of their gross domestic product 40.Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacities 41. Proportion of official bilateral HIPIC debts cancelled 42. Debt service as a % of export of goods and services 43. Proportion of ODA provided as debt relief 44. Number of countries reaching HIPC decision and completion points 45. Unemployment rate of young people aged 14-24 years ,each sex and total 46. Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis. 47. Telephone lines and cellular sub sector per 100 populations. 48.Personal computers in use only 100 population accessed.

5.0 TANZANIA PERCEPTION OF MDG’S

In Tanzania initiatives to tackle poverty and other problems have been pursued.

MGDS are quite different from other poverty reduction strategies since there were

features which added value as follows:

• The initiatives were done jointly between the heads of the developed and underdeveloped states. This indicated a joint venture process which sharing and complementing efforts would have been a step forward.
• The MDG’s are people centered and time bound and measurable.
• They have unprecedented political support embraced at highest level by developed countries, civil societies and major development institutions.
• All goals touched the needs of the poor and most vulnerable people in the communities.

Joining the hands of the MDG’s Tanzania through a comprehensive decentralization process has been struggling to ensure complementary policies targeting the same are set and functioning.

Examples include the followings:

1. Vision 2025 - This has an objective of attaining Social and economic wellbeing of the citizens be attained by 2025
2. National poverty eradication strategy(NPES) –Initiatives to eradicate poverty by 2010
3. Tanzania Assistance Strategy-Medium term national strategy of economic and social development encompassing the joint efforts of national and international communities.
4. Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper –Medium –term strategy of poverty eradication developed through broad consultation with national and international stakeholders, in the context of enhanced Highly Indebted poor countries(HIPC)

Some positive changes have so far realized in relation to the MDG’s in the Tanzanian context. However there is still long way and more concrete strategies are needed to ensure that by 2015 the targets set and indicators for measurement the success

Goal 1:

Since 1990 the number of people living on less than a dollar a day has declined from 1.3 billion to 1.2 billion in 2001 this was largely the result of decline of over 230 million in the number of people. Hunger, between 1996-1998 the number of under nourished people fell by 40 million in the developing world. However, the developing world still has 826 million people 2002 who are getting enough food to lead normal healthy lives.

Goal 2:

Apart from that, dropout decreased from 5.73% in 2000 to 3.75% in 2004, in 2006, 77% of dropout while the school environment has improved i.e. classrooms and some schools have begun to receive more textbooks. Enrollment in pre-primary was 24.6% in 2004 and rose to 33.1% in 2007 and the primary school went up from 96.1% in 2006 to 97.3% in 2007. The Pupil text ratio was 3:1 in 2007 compared to 4:1 in 2000 (Source: Poverty and Human development report 2007)

Enrolments of children with disabilities and HIV/AIDS orphans are taken care of. Some support of NGOs offer directly educational support to these vulnerable children

Schools have significantly more finances than before and increased number of primary schools in each village and wards. The PEDEP programme has put into consideration the needs of primary school support and encouraged each administrative ward to have a primary school.

Goal 3:

Gender gaps are closing where by the ratio of primary school enrolment is now 50:50.

Women leaders in Tanzania have increased and the rate now is 30.2% in the parliament.

From 232 constituencies from Tanzania mainland and the rest covered by the affirmative seats. Out of the 232 only 17 women won the seats through the constituencies. Affirmative seats are 75. In general in 2005 the percentage of women in the leadership positions increased to 30.3% while that of 2000 was only 21.5% women represented in the parliament. Women full ministers 2005 are 7.

(Source National Election Report 2005)

Goal 4:

Mortality rates are declining from 94 to 81 per 1000 live births between 1990 and 2000. Approximately 11 million children under five die annually in developing countries, mostly from preventable diseases.

In Tanzania Infant mortality rate dropped from 99 per 1000 live births to jest 68, less than five mortality dropped from 147 to 112 per 1,000 live births.

(Source poverty and human development report 2007)

Goal 5:

Tanzania: The proportion of births delivered by medically trained personnel has picked up as follows:

1991-1992: 44%

1996: 38%

1999: 36%

2005: 46%

2015: 90% (MDG target

In 2000, the average risks of dying during pregnancy or birth in developing world was 450/200,000 live births compared to 14/100,000 in developed countries.

In 2004/2005 Tanzania maternal mortality rate calculated by TDHS is 578 per 1,000live births.

Goal 6:

According to JHSR, (2007) in Tanzania the inclusion of HIV and AIDS as a specific strategy in HSSP2 has contributed, along with other factors, to a more effective national response (increased resources, infrastructure improvements, improved testing, better coverage of treatment etc. The remaining constraints to HIV programming are: rural coverage, staff shortages, service bottlenecks, low participation by males, and availability of PMTCT, stigma, relatively weak HBC and weak workplace programme. A growing awareness of malaria’s heavy toll has been matched with greater commitment to contain it, increased financial flows from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank’s.

In Tanzania the HIV prevalence rate has declined from 7% in 2004 to 5.9% in 2007.

Moreover, the number of people getting tested for HIV has increased nearly a hundred-fold from 3,338 in 2000 to 326,322 in 2005. the national campaign that was launched by president J.K Kikwete in July 2007 on voluntary counseling and testing and received massive response.

Goal 7:

Tanzania is on track to achieve the target of safe drinking water, By 2005,53% of rural households;73% of urban households (M) had access to improved water sources ,47% of rural households in Zanzibar use unprotected sources of drinking water, High proportion of households use pit latrines; few esp. in rural areas have no toilet facility at all

Availability of portable water is a priority of the governments/communities, Water policies are in place to guide development, distribution and equitable access, Infrastructure maintenance and distribution is done by community committees

Equity and fairness in the access, uses and affordability ensured by community committees and the government. In Tanzania water and sanitation piped water 66.9% protected 11.7% Unprotected 21. In rural areas piped 22.4% protected 22.9% and unprotected 55.7%. The information is for 2005. (Source poverty and human development report 2007)

Goal 8:

Developed countries pledged to give 0.7% of their national income in aid, yet only 5 countries is living up to their commitment. The U.S. gives less than 0.2%!

The elimination of trade barriers could alone lift 300 million people out of poverty by 2015

Progress in each of these areas has already begun to yields results, but developed countries have fallen short of targets they set for themselves. To achieve the MGDs increased aid and debt relief must be accompanied by further opening of trade, accelerated transfer of technology and improved employment opportunities for growing ranks of young people in developing world.

In Tanzania the president has promised to increase job opportunities to graduates.

There is a global partnership for, maternal, new born and child health, the Deliver Now initiative and the International health partnership supporting the Goal 4 and 5.

6.0 CHALLENGES FACED BY TANZANIA IN IMPLEMENTING THE

MDG’S.

• 75% of the population depends on small holder primary agricultural production characterized by small scale cultivation, use of hand tools and reliance upon traditional rain fed cropping and animal husbandry. (Poverty and Human development report 2007)
• Weak linkages between the PRSP and the national budget, the allocation of financial resources by the government neither does nor matches the issues stipulated by the indicators states in the PRSP.
• Average growth of 7% in recent years is still below 8-10% as envisaged. 35.9% still live below poverty line.
• Translating growth to poverty reduction.
• Growth in agricultural GDP is lower than average-risk of rural poverty persisting.
• The maternal mortality rate in Tanzania has not improved at all from 1996.
• The nature of poverty both in Mainland and Zanzibar is mainly rural where by majority of the rural people depend on agriculture for livelihood. Policies to promote agriculture have been developed, but the private sector investment in agriculture has remained small and inadequate.
• Widening gaps are evident in many areas of human development. Most of the human capital development is not well explored. Human capital development in Tanzania and Zanzibar is still very low. The available human capital mainly falls under the unskilled category. Urban unemployment rates attained levels of over 20% and youth unemployment attained over 40% .(Source ILO 2005)
• Low capacity in terms of resources and inability to explore the existing resources for economic development at local level. Mostly in Tanzania the research skills are mostly lacking and MIS not well utilized.
• Early pregnancies and marriages continue to contribute significantly into the school drop out among girls especially in the rural areas.
• Power imbalances between men and women continue to drive the “feminization” of the HIV epidemic, though the dynamics are changing. Can this be accelerated?
• Increasing numbers of married women are becoming infected, along with girls and young women. Youth also places people of both genders at risk. How can marriage coherence be achieved? What effective interventions and how Youth and peer interventions can be scaled-up?
• Lack of awareness to the communities on the biodiversity conservation, consequently environmental degradation and pollution increased.
• Poor government strategies to ensure involvement of all social groups in the community economic development processes e.g in budgeting process many resources are not directed equally to the social groups according to their needs.
• Entrenched culture and customary practices which deny rights of some social groups to fully contribute their ideas in the development.
• High enrolment rates-poor institutional capacity, which contribute to the low efficiency and quality of the primary education .
• 1980s-1990s Economic Crisis- Reduced government capacity to finance social services due to privatization which led to mostly profit maximization.
• HIV/AIDS epidemic -damaging impact on community, government- human and financial resources.

7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS.

• Ensure that prioritization is made within overall development and economic policies
• Develop strategies that respond to the diverse and evolving needs of countries;
• Mobilize needed resources for attaining MDG’s.
• Improve the quality of research and data
• Initiate a holistic approach in Policy formulation
• Support the communities to have visionary perspective to advocate for decision makers to design a curriculum for community participation, strengthening and empowering course.
• Engage more powerful and involving government strategies during policy development
• Community health needs to redirect its services to include health promotion, health protection and social participation.
• Raise awareness and government political support to ensure proper understanding implementation of the MDG’s
• Reduce policy and process barriers including taxes, price controls, advertising
• Promote consumer-centered strategies
• Improve funding environment among public, NGO and private sectors for long-term efforts.

8. CONCLUSION

The Millennium Development Goals are not unattainable wishes. However, current progress has been made with a tiny portion of our economic strength. Tools to end extreme hunger and poverty need political will and support. Since the MDG’s dialogue as observed above Tanzanians progress towards achieving MDG’s up to 2005 was noted to be very slow. Noted also is that more than one billion people still live on less than one dollar a day. The major challenges remains on how can MDG’s be addressed both individually and collectively as it was agreed in the UN summit. The MDG’s are only useful tools if they make sense to a range of key actors at local and National levels. Questions which still remain in the process are weather the MDG s are hitting the target or missing the point? The only best way forward is the political will of the developed countries to support developing countries in a partnership and mutual manner. Tanzania Through the PRSP Tanzania has implemented the MDG’s and in this sense the donor communities are willing to support the implementation strategies. Challenge still remains on internal country strategies in involving all social groups holistically for sustainable development. However the CED approach can positively contribute to the realization of the MDG’s if it well engaged with the full support of the government.

9.0 FOOD FOR THOUGHT
1. Are We on Track for 2015?
2. Are MDG’s Affordable?
3. Do MDG’s ake Economic Sense?
4. Can the Resource Gap be bridged?
5. Is Debt Relief a Solution?