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The
Millennium Development Goals were initiated by the UN and adopted in
2000 by the largest gathering of world leaders in history. The aim of
the initiative was to implement a blueprint set to reduce extreme
poverty around the world by 50% before the end of 2015. The Millennium
Development Goals agreed upon by world leaders include:
-
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
In
a report “Investing
in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development
Goals” by a task force of the UN Millennium Project,
Africa
was identified as the continent with the greatest
need of MDG investments due to the following reasons:
-
Very
high transport costs and small markets
-
Low-productivity
agriculture
-
Very
high disease burden
-
Ahistory
of adverse geopolitics
-
Very
slow diffusions of technology from abroad
Under
the topic “The Millennium
Goals of the United Nations: 2000-2015 – Already Failed at Halftime
in
Africa
?”
a discussion panel at the
Africa
festival Wuerzburg
presented views and opinions on the present economic situation of
Africa
as well as the
development aids politic. There was a heated debate on the issue of
financial aid and the concept of the up-coming G8-conference taking
place at
Heiligendamm
,
Germany
(6-8 June 2007).
While a member of the panel would like to stop every form of financial
aid for Africa, another finds financial aid necessary but economic
partnership even more appropriate in supporting development efforts in
African countries. A member of the audience pointed out that the
activities of the Chinese in
Africa
should be
monitored carefully. According to the speaker, the Chinese could
become the new colonial masters.
Africa
Festival Wuerzburg report>
videos at
Afritopic
TV Videos
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