Make Social Change A Reality

On September 25th, the United Nations met in New York City to evaluate progress on the eight Millennium Development Goals . More than two months later, it’s still hard to dig through news about GM’s failures, Obama’s picks, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks to really assess the situation. The press briefing from the Summit offers critique, but also hope for the future. Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown have gathered a team and formulated a plan to achieve the three MDGs for Health : reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. The team also includes World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Director-General of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan, and Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Thus far progress has been slow and not steady. At the current rate of reduction, the UN’s efforts will see child mortality drop by only one-third instead of two. D...

Millennium Development Goals five and six are closely related to goals three and four discussed last week. As we move on, it will become more apparent what an emphasis the United Nations has put on healthcare in the fight to eliminate poverty. The fifth Millennium Development Goal is to “improve maternal health.” Maternal health encompasses not only prenatal and postnatal care, but also family planning and education in proper childcare. Therefore, this is actually a very broad statement and not much else. Included in this goal are pledges to reduce the maternal morality ratio by two-thirds, as well as achieve universal access to reproductive health. This first target does help to clarify the goal. However, the word “universal” in target two is so expansive that its inclusion can actually undermine the UN’s ability to achieve its goals. One Step Forward: Each year the world loses over 10 million mothers and children, and the fact remains that many of these deaths are...