BLOG#7 Sustainable Development Goals

Madagascar

Madagascar, a country in southern Africa located in the Indian Ocean, east of Mozambique, is the fifth largest island in the world, with a land mass of 587,000 km2 and 25.6 million inhabitants. Despite having considerable natural resources, Madagascar has among the highest poverty rates in the world. (world bank,2019).

Madagascar is among the poorest countries in the world with 75% of the population living on less than $1.90 per day (in purchasing power parity). The country’s human capital index ranking is  among the lowest worldwide and Madagascar has the world’s fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition, with almost one child in two under five years of age suffering from stunting.(world bank,2019).

 An estimated 1.4 million children dropped out of primary school in 2012.Living conditions remain difficult for most of the population, with a low rate of access to electricity (13%) in particular. Madagascar is one of the African countries most severely affected by climate change impacts and experiences an average of 3 cyclones per year. (world bank,2019).

Is Poverty an Issue ?

Poverty is considered one of the biggest issues in the country and the government of Madagascar has seized the lessons and worked very hard to decrease the ratio of poverty in the country of Madagascar, by investing the country resources such as the agriculture.

                                                                     

                                                                               

 Rice occupies the largest share of total crop average. Many varieties of dry, wet, and irrigated rice are grown in the central plateau, dry rice is also grown in the eastern forests and wet rice in the lower river valleys and along the estuaries, mainly by populations who migrated from overpopulated parts of the plateau. Costly imports are still required.

Madagascar is one of the countries that did not reach the MDGs by the end of 2015. The reduction of poverty by half compared to 1990, the main MDG objectives and targets have not been achieved. Structural problems and especially the interference and recurrence of socio-political crises were partly responsible for the situation. The political crises were partly responsible for the situation.

 The government's issues, especially during the crisis period, poor access to social services, declining development financing and the low level and non-inclusive nature of growth have not improved the living conditions of the population. population and development prospects, including MDG indicators. Madagascar thus continues to be confronted with the unfinished agenda of the MDGs. Lessons learned from their implementation are useful for the SDG process.

According to United Nations Sustainable Development Programs, the government of Madagascar has seized the lessons and works to make the implementation of the MDGs and the 2030 Agenda process as an opportunity to address these challenges and seize opportunities for sustainable development in Madagascar.The issue of poverty been addressed by UN sustainable and development goals of 2030 Agenda, the launch of the process has already made it possible to have elements of appreciation of good national ownership and prioritization of the SDGs, taking into account all the dimensions of sustainable development in the region.

Call for Action

planning and management of development policies and programs (at national and regional levels), strengthening of domestic resource mobilization and coordination of interventions by all the levels and sections in the country.The establishment of an institutional system adapted and supported by a strong political commitment, a good mobilization of domestic resources and their allocation towards the sectors having an accelerating effect for the poverty reduction and the human development, in particular for the vulnerable populations, as well as the monitoring and evaluation system, have been important challenges that will have to be addressed in the context of the 2030 Agenda

The Voluntary Report recalls  along with donations have lessons learned from the implementation of the MDG agenda, presents the SDG process, its preliminary results, the efforts to overcome the challenges and opportunities, the next steps  perspectives of the SDG process and looking forewords to change the quality of life in the country.

References:-

United Nations,un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/2019

     UNICEF,https://www.unicef.org/madagascar/reviewed, November/2019.

          worldbank.org/en/country/madagascar/overview/2019.

    

Sustainable Development Goals In Africa Blog #6

BLOG#6

Mauritania

         country on the Atlantic coast of Africa. Mauritania forms a geographic and cultural bridge between the North African Maghrib (a region that also includes Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) and the westernmost portion of Sub-Saharan Africa. Back in 1960, Mauritania was administered as a French colony during the first half of the 20th century and became independent on November 28 of 1960.

 Poverty issue in Mauritania

          The people of Mauritania are constantly battling poverty. Over the years, Mauritania has grown more fragile as droughts and food shortages have endangered the survival of its people. However, there have been and continue to be governmental initiatives, as well as efforts made by humanitarian organizations, to give Mauritania a brighter future.

         The shortages of food and water are the most detrimental obstacles in trying to alleviate poverty in Mauritania. In 2011, Mauritania was extensively affected by a severe drought that led to a steep increase in food prices, unsuccessful farming and a startling loss of livestock. This resulted in a food shortage, leaving 700,000 people during a food crisis, as of 2012.

         The SDG implemented in Mauritania by the Government of Mauritania undertook a Rapid Integrated Assessment with UN support to inform its new Strategy of Accelerated Growth and Shared Prosperity for 2016–2030. The assessment will inform the formulation of the new strategy, which marks a transition from 15 years of implementing a strategy and policy focused on poverty reduction, to the formulation of a new, ambitious development strategy through to 2030. (UN,2019)

          In addition, the SDG monitors the Ministry of Economy and Finances provided SDG-related training to the new strategy’s technical team, using UN tools and modules. This training focused on the challenges of integrating the SDGs into national plans, with attention to cross-cutting elements, data and accountability. (UN,2019)

Geography and Climate

Geography and Climate: Only 0.5% of Mauritania’s land a little over 1 million square kilometers is suited for agriculture, but a majority of Mauritanians still depend on agricultural subsistence or raising livestock. Food insecurity is a severe problem due to incessant cycles of drought and erosion; such cycles were severe enough to force nomadic Mauritanians to the main cities in the 1970s and 80s. Because of Mauritania’s placement against the Atlantic Ocean and prevailing winds, the country is afflicted by intense dust storms at times. (UNDP, poverty in Mauritania,2019)

Tools To Help

Since the poverty is still prior issue in Mauritania, the context of the UNCT, UNDP supported the Ministry for the Economy and Finances to convene partners for example from NGOs, the private sector, other ministries and government agencies to discuss the implementation of the SDGs in Mauritania. UNDP also supported a national workshop to provide the tools and the methodology for mainstreaming the SDGs into Mauritania’s new strategy. (UN,2019).

Conclusion

An awareness-raising workshop took place in May 2016 to explain the global SDG formulation processed the future mainstreaming of the SDGs into Mauritania’s new strategy.The a new strategy helps  Mauritania as country and populations to stand up to overcome the crisis of poverty.

 The event brought together multiple government departments and the private sector.For example, the Employers Association and the Chamber of Commerce), civil society (e.g. Platform of Non-State Actors, Organization for the Defense of the Disabled, Observatory of Organizations for Human Rights. All these organizations have one goal is to decrease the ratio of poverty in  Mauritania and help the population to live better quality of life. 

References:-

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/povert,2019.

     https://undg.org/mauritania-demonstrating-early-efforts-to-mainstream-sdgs-within-a-new-national-development-strategy

The Sustainable Development Goals/ Blog #4

Ghana and Poverty 

            For this week Blog, I focused another country who suffers from poverty, and poverty issue is still the main issue in the country. Ghana was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa has noticed the poverty, and met the Millennium Development Goal number one. The situation of deep poverty remains in most rural areas, especially in the three northern regions. In urban areas, where poverty incidence has seen some substantial decline, greater disparities and inequalities are being noticed also in the country .

       Talking about poverty.In Ghana the poverty is still number one issue in the country. However; the country is depending on the agriculture to improve the economy, but the the poverty issue is still in the high ratio in many areas in the region.  

           Poverty has many dimensions which can be caused so many  negative outcomes and consequences in the country, include lack of education, low productivity of work, low income, social exclusion, and high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters and diseases. Poverty is detrimental, and if nothing is done to overcome poverty, we will continue to suffer its impact on economic growth and social cohesion, political and social tensions, and, in some circumstances, instability and conflicts.

Things getting better in Ghana

            Although with all the negative consequence that caused by the poverty in Ghana .The agriculture still remains a major part of the economy in Ghana.  Ghana’s agriculture is dominated  most of the populations in the country. The most of  populations are practicing agricultural jobs including working in the farms daily. 

          The  low-level technology and productivity, and un-competitiveness may affect the products and the quality of the products . The small-scale farmer who practices rain-fed agriculture, applies little or no fertilizer, and uses little technology is vulnerable to the unpredictable changes in the weather. Lack of land ownership rights also undermines the small farmer’s ability to invest in land improvements and farm expansion. Unless these issues are remedied, smallholder farmers will remain in a poverty issue.

  

Ghana the country of progress and challenges 

     According to the World Health Organization, Ghana improves the  economic growth, the agriculture improvement helped cut the country’s poverty rate in half, from 52.6% to 21.4% between 1991 and 2012.(WHO, 2012) 
The  national poverty line in Ghana indicates the "Poverty Reduction  Progress and Challenges,” report, sustained poverty reduction requires a commitment to reducing inequality and improving access to opportunities for all citizens in addition to have the technology and finding employment opportunities for most of population in Ghana. Therefore; the poverty issue is not improved as expected in the country. 



References:-

      United Nations. (n.d.). Sustainable Development Goals: Ghana . Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/memberstates/Ghana 

      Poverty Reduction in Ghana : Progress and Challenges. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/22732 License: CC By 3.0 IGO.”

Blog#3 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS/ Uganda

Uganda

         Uganda located in East Africa; the population of Uganda is about 30 million people. Uganda is same size of UK. Uganda was relatively independent from UK 1962.  The people of Uganda suffered from misrule of UK until 1986, left hundreds of thousands of its people dead and its economy severely damaged.

Poverty is considered one of the biggest issues in the country and is about 50% of the population is aged 14 years old or younger and life expectancy is around 54 years. 

         Uganda continues to be one of the poorest countries in the world with substandard health care, high rates of malnutrition and diseases such as malaria rampant, assisted by less than half of those living in Uganda having access to safe drinking water.

        The country is trying extremely hard to use all the sources to get ride of the poverty and use the available sources and population to get the country in outstanding level.   In about 80% of people in Uganda are engaged in agriculture where coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco and beef, these are the most agricultural sources and the most important products in the country. 

         The main products with coffee being the country's main export. Its other main exports are fish, tea, gold and cotton.

Furthermore, with all the important products and the usage of the of agricultural sources to get the country out of the poverty, but Uganda continues to be one of the poorest countries in the world with substandard health care, high rates of malnutrition.

             Recent events in Uganda ,  oil discoveries are likely to boost the economy further however Uganda borders on the newly established Republic of South Sudan and the potential for instability there particularly if north Sudan switches off South Sudan's oil pipelines that run through its territory make cause an influx of refugees in a country that that already provides shelter for 215,000 Sudan refugees alongside 28,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a further 24,00 refugees from neighboring Rwanda.

      Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa are considered the most poorest countries in the world and below the Human Development Index explain the border line of poverty for these African Countries.

  

References:-

            Murcia, B. A. (2019, October 13). Uganda : How is the implementation of the sustainable       development goals is going in Uganda?

          

           http://www.africa.undp.org/content/rba/en/home/sustainable-development-goals. Uganda     html

Blog#2

Blog #2

     The country is facing the poverty is "Sub- Saharan in Africa". The average of life expectancy in Sub- Saharan in Africa is very low, due to the nature of  life in the region.The poverty can be described as an absolute the level of income which may expressed that for individuals and families deemed to live in the poverty standard. Poverty is  considered serious issue in the country.  Sub Saharan in Africa has notices so many health issue such as AIDS, HIV and the rates of  mortality is always as high as in 2018 is considered three times higher than was expected. The poverty level in the Sub- Saharan is about 17.2 which is considered as high as any urban areas in the regions.
      Poverty can cause so many problems that may affect in to the society such as health issues like HIV/ AIDS are considered number one killer in the population of Saharan in Africa.
The main problem that is the majority in the region live in rural areas, due to the decline in agricultural in different level, the rural sectors of Sub-Saharan in Africa.
      The economic growth had witnessed lack of inequality in agricultural resources, which can be described as another main problem is that  most of lands are very dry which make it very hard to the farmers to grow food and take benefits from it.
       Employment  can not grantee any improvement of life standard. Nearly half of Sub- Saharan population are living below the international line of poverty. The issue has been address clearly  by the country.The development process is facing a serious challenge which can be described as poverty and inequality which can be measures through the time and comparison between other countries which is considered the priority issue in Saharan in Africa. 
      The US government along with UN and Social Protection System addressing the problem by trying very hard to reduce the ratio of poverty by collecting donations and volunteering to help the region. Furthermore; the number of people who living in extreme poverty are mainly in Sub-Saharan in Africa the region is struggling for many health and social issues.  Many of social conflicts can be reflected to the most of health issues that may affect mostly women and children.



References:-

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg1

Many Thanks!
Inam

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

           

           The goal I have decided to choose is goal number one for sustainable development. The  10% from the world population  are still struggle from extreme from the poverty and meet the basic needs such as health and education and access to the water sanitation. The poverty can be described as an absolute level of income below which can be expressed that individual or family deemed to live in the poverty.

 The poverty is considered a issue in Sub-Saharan in Africa. 

          The poverty ratio in theses areas can be estimated  as 17.2 per-cent which is more that three times higher than urban  areas. In fact in 2018 8 per cent of employed workers have lived in extreme level of poverty that may affect in women and children. Therefor ; finding a job can not grantee a good living or decent living standard in the region . Poverty can cause so many problems may affect in the society such as unemployment, health diseases, disaster, social exclusion and to be less proactive in so many filed of life. 

          There is no directed resources to the country to achieve the main goal of "No Poverty" because even the employment can not grantee the a fulfill living that can fit the life necessity. This issue is considered one of the of the most priority in the country. The level of the economic growth may contribute directly to the create so many social conflicts, political and social tensions and drive the country to experience  a sever social conflict in the country.  

          The US government along with UN and Social Affair and Social Protection are  trying very hard to reduce the ratio of percentage poverty to the countries that been struggle from the poverty. The social protection systems help to prevent and to reduce the ratio of poverty. As been recorded in 2016. 55 per-cent which can be as many as 4 billion people was not covered by any social protection or any benefits across the nations which can be include 87 without coverage in Sub- Saharan in Africa.

References:-

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg1

  

   

Inspirational Woman Blog #5

Blog#5

For this blog I would like to share my inspirational young lady is” Malala Yousafzai” the most inspired educational activist who born in Mingora, Pakistan in July 12 in 1997. Malala is a daughter of an outspoken social activist and educator; Yousafzai was an excellent student. Her father who decided to establish and administered the school she attended, Khushal Girls High School and College in the city of Mingora encouraged her to follow in his path in 2007 the Swat valley in Pakistan. At a very young age, Malala developed a thirst for knowledge, and she expressed about her love and passion to lean and get higher education. For years her father a passionate of education advocate himself, ran a learning institution in the city.  School and education were a big part of Malala’s family.

In 2007, when Malala was ten years old, the situation in the Swat Valley rapidly changed for her family and community. The Taliban began to control the Swat Valley and quickly became the dominant socio-political force throughout much of northwestern Pakistan. Girls were banned from attending school, and cultural activities like dancing and watching television were prohibited. Suicide attacks were widespread, and the group made its opposition to a proper education for girls a cornerstone of its terror campaign.

 By the end of 2008, the Taliban had destroyed some 400 schools in the area. Pakistan’s war with the Taliban was fast approaching, and on May 5, 2009, Malala became an internally displaced person after having been forced to leave her home and seek safety hundreds of miles away. after weeks of being away from Swat, Malala once again used the media and continued her public campaign for her right to go to school. Her voice grew louder, and over the course of the next three years, she and her father became known throughout Pakistan for their determination to give Pakistani girls access to a free quality education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize, but not everyone supported and welcomed her campaign to bring about change in Swat. On the morning of October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban. Malala was sated on a bus heading home from school while she was talking with her friends about schoolwork. Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus. A young bearded Talib asked for Malala by name and fired three shots at her. One of the bullets entered and exited her head and lodged in her shoulder. Malala was seriously wounded. That same day, she was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar and four days later to an intensive care unit in Birmingham, England. After the shooting, her incredible recovery and return to school resulted in a global outpouring of support for Malala. On July 12, 2013, her 16th birthday, Malala visited New York and spoke at the United Nations. Later that year, she published her first book, an autobiography entitled “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.” On October 10, 2013.

Currently she is residing in Birmingham, Malala is an active proponent of education as a fundamental social and economic right. Through the Malala Fund and with her own voice, Malala Yousafzai remains a staunch advocate for the power of education and for girls to become agents of change in their communities and make difference in the world. As Malala always say “I believe we will see every girl in school in my lifetime.”

 I consider Malala very inspired young woman because she created the meaning of the change in women and children in country cannot even express about their rights and freedom. Malala was the voice for each woman in her country. Voice that call for love, education and freedom.  

Reference

https://www.biography.com/activist/malala-yousafzai.

          https://www.malala.org/malalas-story.