WORKSHOP C- THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
the Child. Other challenges included retaining students at secondary schools and colleges, and delivering specialized teacher training for early childhood development and for children with special needs. There had been some positive developments concerning the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women at both national and sectors levels. Parity had been achieved at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, with more women obtaining their tertiary qualifications and being appointed in leadership and management positions. The land and title Act 1981 in Samoa had provided both men and women equal rights and opportunities to hold titles, but violence against women still remained a challenge.
Child mortality was low in Samoa though infant mortality had increased slightly. The majority of Samoans had access to basic health services, but the regular supply of quality vaccines, better planning and maintenance of the cold chain included in the health annual budgets had been a challenge. The total coverage of the population by public health programmes and preventative health services had proven to be another challenge for the government.
Mr Tolovaa reported there had been a general improvement of maternal health since 1990 and Samoa had attained 80 per cent reduction of its maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2005. The need for family planning however was something that still had to be addressed. Samoa has a low prevalence of those infected with HIV, but non-communicable diseases had increased and this placed a burden on the health system and the economy. There was no qualitative research which detailed the at-risk youth or an update on non-communicable diseases.
The government had made progress implementing successful conservation programmes to ensure environmental sustainability, but environmental mainstreaming concerns still remained a challenge. With a narrow base of resources
Samoa was therefore vulnerable to global economic shock. In order to develop a global partnership for development, there had to be a strong institutional and regulatory standard – including good governance – put in place for macroeconomic growth and stability. This requires fiscal discipline and sound financial management. It also required private sector-led investment and employment opportunities for the youth.
Progress to date, what’s next? Mr Charles Chauvel, UNDP, presented a picture of the progress made so far thus in attaining the MDGs by 2015. The processes by which the MDGs had been devised, adopted, refined and measured had all been described in detail. He noted the progress in particular of eight of the MDGs.
264 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue Four
The target of reducing extreme poverty rates by half was met five years ahead of the 2015 deadline. In 2010, the poverty rate at $1.25 per day fell to less than half the 1990 rate. Fewer than 700,000,000 people lived in conditions of extreme poverty in 2010 than in 1990. However, 1.2 billion people still lived in extreme poverty.
Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 per cent in 1999. In 2011, 57 million children of primary school age were out of school. Even so, countries with the toughest challenges had made big strides, and overall progress on increasing primary school enrolment had slowed. Between 2008 and 2011, the number of out-of-school children of primary school age fell by only three million. Globally, 123 million
young people (aged 15-24) lacked basic reading & writing skills, and 61 per cent of these were young women. Gender gaps in youth literacy rates were narrowing. Globally, there were 95 literate young women to every 100 literate young men, compared with 90 women in 1990. Mr Chauvel informed that the world had achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, but only two out of 130 countries had achieved that target at all levels of education. Globally, 40 out of every 100 wage-earning jobs in the non-agricultural sector were held by women in 2011; a significant improvement since 1990. In many countries, gender inequality still persisted and women continued to face discrimination in access to education, work and economic assets and participation
Delegates listening to the debate in Workshop C.
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