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Conclusion: Africa Beyond 2015—MDG Prospects, Its Discontents, and Implications

  • Chapter
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect

Abstract

The post-2015 agenda looks promising. Even prior to digging into this agenda, there is a possibility that some African countries will achieve a fair number of the MDGs to some extent just before 2015. Nevertheless, the deliberative process surrounding the goals failed to properly include the voices of marginalized and indigenous populations even though it was popularized as an agenda that would be a product of a participatory process. This lack of a real bottom-up engagement has greatly affected what progress has been chalked. Where progress is being made, improvements are often not evenly shared throughout the continent. As chapters in this volume have emphasized, the MDG targets must be interpreted as applicable to each individual country. This chapter sums up and reflects on the discussions in the preceding chapters and postulates what could lie ahead for Africa’s development, particularly without the MDGs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A full listing of the goals, targets and indicators may be found in Appendix 20.2.

  2. 2.

    For further discussion about how middle class was conceptualized see Banerjee and Duflo (2007).

  3. 3.

    For a detailed list of documents and speeches around post-2015 development agenda in Africa, see http://www.uneca.org/post2015 (accessed 1 August 2014). For a summary, see http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2014/foresight%20africa%202014/05%20foresight%20post%202015%20development%20agenda%20bhorat (accessed 1 August 2014).

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Correspondence to Monde Blessing Makiwane Ph.D. or Nathan Andrews .

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Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 20.1

Africa in the eyes of The Economist Magazine, 2000–2013

2000

2011

2013

  1. Source: The Economist (2000, 2011, 2013)

Appendix 20.2

The Millennium Development Goals at a glance

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Goals and Targets

Indicators

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day

1. Proportion of population below $1 per day (PPP-values)

2. Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]

3. Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

4. Prevalence of underweight children (under-5 years of age)

5. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

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 of primary schooling

6. Net enrolment ratio in primary education

7. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5

8. Literacy rate of 15–24 year olds

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015

9. Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education

10. Ratio of literate females to males of 15–24 year olds

11. Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector

12. Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

13. Under-five mortality rate

14. Infant mortality rate

15. Proportion of 1 year old children immunised against measles

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

16. Maternal mortality ratio

17. Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Target 7: Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS

18. HIV prevalence among 15–24 year old pregnant women

19. Contraceptive prevalence rate

20. Number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS

Target 8: Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

21. Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria

22. Proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective malaria prevention and treatment measures

23. Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis

24. Proportion of TB cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course)

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources

25. Proportion of land area covered by forest

26. Land area protected to maintain biological diversity

27. GDP per unit of energy use (as proxy for energy efficiency)

28. Carbon dioxide emissions (per capita) [Plus two figures of global atmospheric pollution: ozone depletion and the accumulation of global warming gases]

Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

29. Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source

Target 11: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

30. Proportion of people with access to improved sanitation

31. Proportion of people with access to secure tenure [Urban/rural disaggregation of several of the above indicators may be relevant for monitoring improvement in the lives of 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

Some of the indicators listed below will be monitored separately for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Africa, landlocked countries and small island developing states.

Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction – both nationally and internationally

Official Development Assistance

32. Net ODA as percentage of DAC donors’ GNI [targets of 0.7 % in total and 0.15 % for LDCs]

33. Proportion of ODA to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)

34. Proportion of ODA that is untied

35. Proportion of ODA for environment in small island developing states

36. Proportion of ODA for transport sector in land-locked countries

Target 13: Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries

 

Includes: tariff and quota free access for LDC exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction

Market access

37. Proportion of exports (by value and excluding arms) admitted free of duties and quotas

38. Average tariffs and quotas on agricultural products and textiles and clothing

39. Domestic and export agricultural subsidies in OECD countries

40. Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity

Target 14: Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states (through Barbados Programme and 22nd General Assembly provisions)

Debt sustainability

41. Proportion of official bilateral HIPC debt cancelled

42. Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services

43. Proportion of ODA provided as debt relief

44. Number of countries reaching HIPC decision and completion points

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

45. Unemployment rate of 15–24 year olds

Target 17: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries

46. Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis

Target 18: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

47. Telephone lines per 1,000 people

48. Personal computers per 1,000 people

Other indicators TBD

  1. *Some of the indicators listed were monitored separately for the Least Developed Countries (LCDs), Africa, Landlocked countries and small island developing states

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Khalema, N.E., Makiwane, M.B., Andrews, N. (2015). Conclusion: Africa Beyond 2015—MDG Prospects, Its Discontents, and Implications. In: Andrews, N., Khalema, N., Assié-Lumumba, N. (eds) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 58. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16166-2_20

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