The Millennium
Development Goal that we think has the greatest cascading impact on development
is to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty. When a country is facing extreme
poverty and hunger it will generally have inadequate food and money, no
availability of clean water, poor sanitation facilities and high death rate and
birth rate amongst the people due to the lack of education and the lack of
medical facilities in the country or area.
When they have
inadequate food in the country, the people will starve and die of hunger or
malnutrition leading to lower population growth and thus affecting the
development of a country as not many people will be able to contribute to the
economy and work force. Also, with inadequate money, the people are unable to
pay for food, sanitation facilities and medical treatment and therefore will
also cause them to contract diseases caused by bacteria found in waste
materials or contaminated water if they do not dispose of their waste properly
or drink contaminated water which will again lead to affecting the development
of a country as the people will not be able to contribute to the workforce of a
country even if the industry they work in is primary as even though it does not
contribute greatly to the economy it contributes to the amount of money the
country earns through export and will also affect other countries as they will
not get as much products from these areas to support them and therefore will
eventually affect development all over the world. Having inadequate amounts of
money will also mean the people will not be able to afford an education which
will lead to them not being able to get jobs which require them to have had a
formal education. Having no education will also mean that the birth rate will increase
due to the lack of family planning. The lack of clean water in a country and
poor sanitation facilities will lead to the people contracting diseases like
cholera which can and will cause deaths among the people.
The aim of the
Millennium Development Goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger is to
reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day
and also the people who suffer from hunger by 2015.
UNDP has helped
numerous Bangladesh women get their life back on track by letting them get out
of poverty by giving them chances to gain work experience and let them earn
more money. With the money earned, the women who get a chance will be able to
save up and will be able to support themselves and their family. They not only
help women in poverty stricken
Bangladesh but also help those around the globe. Graduates are given a chance
to learn despite not having an educational institute in their area. They are
given a chance to be successful in life and get an education, this is important
as in poverty stricken areas, education is a factor that brings about poverty
among the people. There are many stories on undp about how they have positively
changed the lives of the people who have been hit by poverty. Undp helps those who
are in need by sending out help in terms of financial help and by also providing opportunities for the people
to get an education and also a job. The efforts made by undp has reached many
in poverty stricken countries such as Bangladesh. Committees are also set up to help raise
money for the poor. Most of these
efforts are mainly targeted at the women as the women are mainly affected.
Women are usually the ones at home and education is usually not given to
them. The men are the ones who work and
the women are left at home. This means that the women are less active and are
unable to get a job once they leave the family. Therefore women are given more
priority.
However, UNDP’s
efforts to alleviate poverty is limited because those who are chosen are picked
via a lottery. This means that it will
be unfair and those who may need the help will not be able to get help.
“And then, the day before she was to join her new
workplace, Parveen’s name came up in a lottery for participation in a UNDP
cash-for-work programme for destitute rural women. She was one of 24,000 women
selected to repair roads in villages across Bangladesh in exchange for daily
wages and job training.”
“The latest Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) Progress Report indicates that less than a third of people in Bangladesh
now live below the national poverty line, a reduction attained in as little as
a decade. New research has shown that women have been the centerpiece of this
impressive human development turnaround. As women emerge from endemic poverty,
they prioritise their children’s education and nutrition over most other
spending.”
“Poverty
reduction initiatives have the best effects when they target women,” explains
programme manager Richard Geier, “because [women] are the most affected,
under-employed, and they are the ones caring for children.
Some
countries have made progress meeting this Goal, but success is varied.
India and China are on track to meet the income target at least, however some
221 million people in India and 142 million in China are still chronically or
acutely malnourished. Most sub-Saharan African countries will likely miss both
targets. The region has 204 million hungry and is the only region of the world
where hunger is increasing. More than 40 per cent of Africans can not even get
sufficient food on a day-to-day basis.
