|
|
-- Presented by AJI James* at the Cameroon Youth Leadership Forum, under the theme Youth Leadership and Sustainable Development, Yaounde Conference Centre, February 6-9 2006. (This paper draws inspiration from the Declaration of the Pacific Youth Summit for MDGS - PACIFIC TOFAMAMAO 2015, and from YOUTH AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS: Challenges and Opportunities for Implementation. Final Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group for the Youth and MDGs, April 2005). --
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of objectives which were identified by the 189 member states of the UN, who have in turn committed themselves to achieving before 2015. The Goals are eight in number and each of them has identified target(s). These goals aim at ameliorating the troubles of mankind, especially those living in disadvantaged situations and circumstances.
Cameroon is one of the countries that has committed itself to attaining the targets set by these Goals. Given the fact that youth constitute the greatest proportion of the population, like in many countries, it is necessary to examine the role they play or should play in this task.
The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of youth participation as it currently exists, to outline the ways in which youth are directly involved and affected by each Goal, to demonstrate the ways in which young people are contributing to the MDGs and to offer suggestions on how to accelerate the pace of implementation of these Goals.
To do this, we need to look at the eight goals and the targets they contain, and then proceed to examine the goals in order.
THE MDGs AND THEIR TARGETS
GOAL 1: ERADICATE POVERTY AND HUNGER
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than 1 dollar per day.
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
GOAL 2: ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION
Target 3: Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course in primary schooling.
GOAL 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels of education no later than 2015.
GOAL 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY
Target 5: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
GOAL 5: IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH
Target 6: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS,MALARIA, AND OTHER DISEASES
Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
GOAL 7: TO ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.
Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
Target 11: By 2020, achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
GOAL 8: DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT
Target 12: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.
Target 13: Address the Special Needs of the Less Developed Countries.
Target 14: Address the Special Needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states.
Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
Target 16: In co-operation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth.
Target 17: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries.
Target 18: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially in information and communications.
GOAL 1: TO ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER
Though Cameroon prides itself as being the ‘food basket’ of the Central African sub-region, the hardships experienced by Cameroonians are progressively more biting; not only is the number of ‘have-nots’ growing in proportions to the number of ‘haves,’ the gap between the rich and poor is increasingly widening. A growing number of people are unable to meet their basic needs. Food production is dwindling and hardly keeping up with the number of mouths to be fed. Though Cameroon is naturally rich, its potentials are either ill-exploited or under-exploited. Wealth is concentrated in a few hands, while many, especially the youth, shy away from gainful agricultural activities, under the erroneous pretext that they have been groomed for white collar jobs in school.
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Writer Profile
AJI JAMES
I developed an interest in writing in primary school, where writing and documenting the stories that were told in the evenings when the family gathered around the fireside was a hobby.
This interest increased when I travelled to Nigeria for university studies. My thoughts found a way of expression through poetry, which I had hitherto thought very complicated.
I presently have over fifty poems, a little below twenty short stories, and several articles on diverse social issues.
|
Comments
A very Brilliant Performance Ajomuzu Collette Bekaku | Apr 8th, 2006
James presentation during the Cameroon youth Leadership Forum organised by CAPEC was very enriching and many youths got to understand what MDGs actually stood for and how they could use it to develop their communities.
hello Tih Felix | Jul 14th, 2008
the note i ve just read have enriched my thoughts
notably on MDGs
i ,am very interested in youths and MDGs...i believe what i ne just read is the best plan ever to raech the MDGs
Kids Can Make A Difference (KIDS) neil jay wollman | Sep 6th, 2009
Kids Can Make A Difference (KIDS) is an innovative educational program for middle school and high school students. It helps them understand the root causes of hunger and poverty and how they as individuals can take action.
KIDS has three major components:
►Teachers’ Guide: Finding Solutions To Hunger: Kids Can Make A Difference has provided over 5,000 classrooms, religious schools, after school programs and homeschoolers with tools to help young people to understand the causes of poverty and become informed and effective citizens, realizing their own capacity to change the world. Students learn about the pain of hunger; the importance of food; the inequality of its distribution; and the links between poverty, hunger, joblessness, and homelessness. They are then given the skills to take what they have learned into their communities.
►Website: The KIDS web site is rated one of the top 20 websites for educators by Educational World. The site provides news, a hunger quiz, hunger facts, suggested books, back issues of the newsletter, the table of contents, sample lessons, program notes from the teacher guide; and
►Newsletter: The three yearly issues highlight current hunger issues, showcase student initiatives, and feature teachers' experiences teaching the KIDS program and students' experiences making a difference in their community and world.
Contact KIDS at:
Larry Levine, Co-Founder
KIDS, 1 Borodell Avenue
Mystic, CT 06355
(860) 245-3620; (860) 245-3651 FAX
kids@kidscanmakeadifference.org; www.kidscanmakeadifference.org
KIDS is a project of WHY (World Hunger Year),
a leading advocate for community based
solutions to hunger and poverty.
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
