GOAL 3 OF THE MDGs

PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN

Promoting gender equality means ensuring that women have the same changes as men to improve their lives, and the lives of their families. Unfortunately, in both developed and developing countries, women are often not given the same opportunities in education, employment, and in government. Many poor household in developing countries for example will only send their boys to school, forcing girls to help care for the home and other family members.
Goal 3 means guaranteeing women have equal opportunities to make their lives, and the lives of their families better.

IN OUR WORLD TODAY:

• Two-thirds of the world's illiterate people are female
• The employment rate for women is 30% lower than the rate for men
• Women only held 15% of seats in national parliaments in 2003

What needs to be done?

Attitudes around women's roles in society have to change. the world needs to start implementing and enforcing laws that protect women's rights, and acknowledge the fact that gender inequality contributes to poverty. Women's property rights are one important area that needs to be addressed. Women are responsible for producing much of the food in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but many do not have secure ownership of the land they work on. Women also need to have the same opportunities as men to participate in the decision making process, both in government and at home. Women must have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives for the MDGs to become a reality by 2015.

How are Youth affected or involved?

Young people need to be leaders in the fight to end unfair discrimination against women. But ending gender inequality can't be just a woman's responsibility. We need men to join the fight to end discrimination against women, too. Just imagine if a football team was only playing with half of its players, do you think they could win a game? The world will never be able to achieve the MDGs if women don't have an equal chance, and we need everybody to join their voice and demand that governments make a real change now.

GOAL 4 OF THE MDGs

REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY

Every child born into this world, no matter where they are from, deserves to live a rich and full life. Unfortunately, more than 11 million children die each year in the developing world from preventable illness. Child mortality is linked with all the other Goals, because young children are always the most affected by poverty. Every year, two million children die as a result of dirty water or improper sanitation facilities. Goal 4 addresses the health problems that face children from infancy to five years old.





IN OUR WORLD TODAY:

• 48 countries had mortality rates greater than 1 in 10 childbirths, compared to 1 in 143 in developed countries



• Among the childhood vaccine-preventable diseases, measles is the leading cause of child mortality, with over half a million deaths in 200



• 70% of deaths before age five are caused by disease, or a combination of disease and malnutrition, that would be preventable in developed countries

What needs to be done?

An overall increase in public spending on health is urgently needed so that immunizations are available to all, preventable diseases can be recognized and treated in their early stages, and more health care providers be hired, particularly in rural areas. Young women also need improved access to family planning and sexual and reproductive health education for the world to achieve Goal 4 by 2015.

How are Youth affected or involved?

Youth can be active partners in decreasing the rate of child mortality.Young people can act as counsellors and mentors for their younger peers on issues such as sexual reproductive health and family planning. Sharing stories and asking questions is a great way to get people talking about their problems. When young people start discussing what's going on around them, they'll also start thinking about solutions.

"We need to advocate for children's lives today! Our future depends on their health and well-being!"

GOAL 2 OF THE MDGs

Last week I talked abut the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The purpose for it set up and the eight goals set. I said then that I'll be taking the eight goals one after the other so as to read and digest as it goes. I started with Goal 1, which is to ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER. I do hope we enjoyed it.

Now we'll take a look at the second goal and see what it has for us.

GOAL 2 (ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION)

While some of us are complaining about doing homework, many children only wish they could go to school. Lost of young people have to work in order to support their family instead of going to school and, in some families, girls are expected to stay home and help with chores, forcing them to give up their own education. Providing children with a basic education is the best investment the world can make in its future. Education reduces poverty by providing everyone with choices and opportunities to create a better life for themselves. Goal 2 aims to make sure that children everywhere-boys and girls alike-are able to complete a full course of primary schooling by 2015.

In our world today:

• 115 million children are not in school-56 percent of them are girls and 94 percent of them live in developing countries.
• 133 million young people cannot read or write.
• Only 37 percent of 155 developing countries have achieved universal primary school completion.

What needs to be done?

Governments have to increase their support of primary education and ensure equal distribution of money to rich and poor areas. Once in school, governments have to create strategies to ensure children stay in school complete their primary education. In many cases, children in developing countries are forced to drop out to support their families. Governments also need to eliminate school fees and uniforms, building schoolhouses closer to housing, and hire more female teachers to achieve Goal 2.

How are youth affected or involved?

Education gives young people a stronger voice in society, and creates the opportunities and choices that allow them to lift themselves out of poverty. Many young people are actively working on bringing primary education to disadvantaged children by becoming peer educators, teachers, and mentors, but a lot more work still needs to be done. You can help make sure every boy and girl goes to school by reminding your governments of their promises to achieve Goal 2.

So, you too can do something in your area. See those little kids working around doing nothing, organise a kind of tutorial for them and you'll see the difference. Even when you do it for free at the beginning, definitely somebody, somewhere will surprise you one day.

I hope somebody is going to do something and make things happen.

MDGs (Youth Action Guide)

I said in one of my mails then that we'll be talking about Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for those that don't know much about it. Its kind of hard to see or know that a lot of people are yet to know what it is all about. That is why a lot of that knows about it have to do something and fast.
I was to have a training programme on MDGs and it's kind of unbelievable to find out what happened during my search for a venue. The programme was suppose to hold in a local government secretariat according to the plan but the whole thing changed because of election. Even after the election, they are still yet to put their ass together.
After much, i decided to use my church. I was told to write a letter to the pastor which i quickly did. The response i got after was that they don't know what it was all about and they will confirm and get back to me. They said all they know is that the General Overseer is supporting the campaign of HIV/AIDS. Hmmmm, if that be the case, then they shouldn't have any problem with MDGs itself because HIV/AIDS is part of the MDGs document.
Now we know we all have a lot of work to do. And all we have to do is to USE OUR VOICE. With OUR VOICE, the world we hear us.

What is Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs) all about?
More than a billion people world wide still survive on less than a dollar a day. Is anybody doing enough to end poverty? The answer is no. that's why it's up to us to remind of the commitment they made. What is the commitment if we may ask?
At the United Nations Millennium summit in 2000, 189 Heads of Government promised to end poverty by 2015. That is interesting. Are they doing that now? They signed the Millennium Declaration, promising to

free men, women and children from the dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty,
committing developed countries alike to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Now they signed a document about seven years ago and one will want to ask, what's my one there? One thing we need to know is that No president, no leader, no king, no emperor will change our community for us. It's our world. Young people all over the world are making a difference, why can't we just join the train by making our community a better place to live. You might think achieving the Goals by 2015 is the responsibility of politicians, and that there is little you can do to help. Nothing could be further from the truth. To achieve the goals, the world needs everyone; young people, aids activists, religious leaders, environmentalists, unions, civil society organisations, women's rights activists-everyone concerned about our future-to work together and make sure the goals reality.

Let me take you through the eight Goals and then we take it one after the other day by day so that we can understand it better and easier.

The eight Millennium Development Goals are as follows;

• 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

These are the eight goals. For the purpose of understanding and digesting properly what we've learnt, we will look at the eight Goals one by one, day after day. For now, let us look at the number one Goal.

ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER: (Halve proportion of people living on less than $1 a day, and those suffering hunger)

Imagine you worked a full day to exhaustion, in unhealthy conditions, and still only earned $1. Could you feed yourself? What if you had a family? How could you pay for a home? Even today, there are over 238 million young people like you living on less than one dollar a day. Goal 1 is about lifting people out extreme poverty by providing them with a basic things they need to live a decent life: nutritious food, clothes, clean water, a home, and health care.

What needs to be done?

A lot! The world has taken a big steps to end world poverty, but we will still have a long way to go. Most of Asia and Northern Africa are on track, but there has been little or no progress in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. In Western Asia, poverty has actually increased! To reach Goal 1, government must increase funding to education and health, increase agricultural productivity with new techniques, improve infrastructure (such as power and water supplies, transportation, roads and schools), and promote human rights and sustainable development.

How are youth affected or involved?

Youth are often the hardest hit by poverty and that's why we need young people like you to really get moving. who better speak for youth than youth? Many youth groups are like already taking action. National youth councils and youth organisations like ours have begun working on poverty reduction strategies and youth driven anti-corruption projects, but more young people should be consulted in poverty reduction plans and getting involved. We must make our voices heard, because its our future we're fighting for!

I'll like to add also that in fighting hunger and poverty, we all need to be informed. Like Deolu Akinyemi said in his post, to end end poverty, one needs information. It's only a good information that can help us know where w are and what we need to do at a particular time. We all need to go in search of information. As youth we need to be more active in nation building instead of complaining and expecting what is no available. But with our voice and participation, the world we be a better place for all.