Financing human development: A comparative analysis

Aware of enormous human development deficits, all member states of the United Nations resolved to pursue achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) in 2000. Concrete targets were set, and to be met by 2015, for a future of less poverty, hunger and disease, better education, gender equality, greater prospects of survival for infants and mothers, and a more sustainable environment. Much progress has been made since 2000, but it has been uneven across and within countries (United Nations, 2012). Sustained and robust economic growth, particularly in Asia, has been a major factor in meeting the global target of halving income poverty by the end of the 2000s. Nonetheless, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger has not declined, and still nearly one in five children under the age of five in the developing world are undernourished. Improvements in primary school enrolment have slowed during the past decade and the target of universal access to primary education is unlikely to be met in many countries without additional policy efforts. Gender gaps in access to education have narrowed, but girls remain at important disadvantage in many developing countries, especially in Oceania, Africa and West and South Asia. Significant gains in assisted child delivery and coverage of vaccination programmes and intensive control efforts for major diseases have contributed to declining child and maternal mortality worldwide, but in many countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, rates are still very high and meeting the internationally agreed targets by 2015 will be most challenging.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development