In Religion this month we are learning and researching about the Millennium Development Goals.The MDGs are eight international development goals that were established in 200 and were hoped to be achieved by 2015. These are the MDGs:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
- Achieve universal primary education.
- Promote gender equality and empower women.
- Reduce child mortality.
- Improve maternal health.
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
- Ensure environmental sustainability.
- Develop a global partnership for development.
We were put into eight groups and each group was given a development goal to research in detail. Our group researched MDG no. 4 'Reducing Child Mortality'. The target for this goal was to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-5 mortality. We found out that:
- One child in seven dies before the age of seven in Uganda.
- A child dies every 3 seconds.
- 6.3 million children under the age of five died in 2013.
- Children in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 15 times more likely to die before the age of five than children in developed regions.
Globally, significant progress has been made in reducing mortality in children under 5 years of age. In 2012 , 6.6 million children under-5 died, compared with 12.6 million in 1990. Between 1990 and 2012, under-5 mortality declined by 47%.
If you would like to find out more about the Millennium Development Goals click here: Unfortunately, despite these improvements, the world is unlikely to achieve the MDG target of a two-thirds reduction in 1990 mortality levels by 2015.
