Health Health in the MDGs
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As a woman, I would like not to be harassed, raped, or fondled… but to be respected. If we had comprehensive education, men would respect women.
Adolescent girl, national consultation, Guatemala
Framework, goal and targets
The vision for the post-2015 education agenda calls for a single harmonized global education framework which is of universal relevance. Global and national targets should be set for each of the above areas, with due attention to vulnerable groups, to address inequalities and discrimination by gender, wealth, ethnicity, location etc. The achievement of this vision demands a single harmonized
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global education framework informed by the successes and challenges of the MDG and EFA agendas. Based on the proposed overarching education goal of ‘Equitable, Quality Education and Lifelong Learning for All’, the recommendation is to develop specific goals, indicators and targets, where the following four priority areas have been identified as a basis for further discussion: 1. All girls and boys are able to access and complete quality pre-primary education of an agreed period (at least one year).
Young boy at a workhop with local authorities in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. (Photo: Mareike Eberz, UNDP)
2. Equal access to and completion of a full course of quality primary schooling, with recognized and measurable learning outcomes, especially in literacy and numeracy. 3. All adolescent girls and boys are able to access and complete quality lower secondary/secondary education with recognized and measurable learning outcomes. 4. All youth and adults, particularly girls and women, have access to post-secondary learning opportunities to develop knowledge and skills, including technical and vocational, that are relevant to work and life and necessary for further learning and forging more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies.
110 A M i l l i o n V o i c es: The World We Wa nt | A Sus tain able Fu t ure w ith D igni t y f or All
The discussion in the Health consultation re-confirmed how central health is to any future development agenda. All the MDGs influence health, and health in turn influences and contributes to all the MDGs. Health is a precondition for and an outcome and an indicator of all three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, environmental and social), and sustainable development can only be achieved in the absence of a high prevalence of debilitating communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The linkages and relationships between health and education, climate change and other environmental threats, financial and natural resource constraints, less poverty but greater inequities, population growth and rapidly ageing populations, unplanned urbanization and new diseases all affect progress on health and well-being. There is considerable evidence to suggest that the current health MDGs will remain priorities after 2015: women’s and children’s health, HIV and other infectious diseases continue to be the dominant health priorities in sub-Saharan Africa, in many fragile states and among the poor populations in many low- and middleincome countries. For example, in 2011, 100 million children were estimated to be underweight (MDG1C). About 19,000 children under five years old die every day, and newborn deaths are increasingly prominent, accounting for 43 percent of all child deaths (MDG4). Most of these deaths could have been prevented. Every day approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth (MDG5A). An estimated 222 million women worldwide do not have access to modern contraception and sexual and reproductive health services (MDG5B). Every day around 7000 people in low- and middle-income countries are newly infected with HIV; 46 percent of people in need of HIV treatment are still unable to access it; there were