On the picture HE Sheikh Mohammed Belal, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Netherlands.
Bangladesh achieves early most Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Courtesy, The Embassy of Bangladesh The Hague; source The Financial Express.
Bangladesh has made significant strides achieving major Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets, mostly spending its own funds, says the country report published Wednesday on the UN-designated global agenda.
Though the daunting task required a great deal of foreign assistance, such development aid was scanty, government leaders said at the report-launching meet. According to the MDG Bangladesh Country Report 2015, despite having resource constraints, Bangladesh is on the right track in achieving most of the MDG targets with remarkable successes in poverty alleviation, food security, gender equality, checking infant death, lowering maternal mortality and reining in HIV spread and tuberculosis.
For accomplishing all the MDG targets Bangladesh needed US$78.2 billion during 2011-2015. But an annual average Official Development Assistance (ODA) receipt was only $1.74 billion against its yearly requirement of $3-5 billion.
The government is now preparing Bangladesh proposal on Sustainable Development Agenda (SDA) as post-2015 development agenda which will be placed with the United Nations. The implementation period for SDA has been proposed a decade and a half (2016-2030).
According to the MDG performance report, released by the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission, Bangladesh has made commendable progress in respect of eradication of poverty and hunger. The country received an impressive outcome in poverty reduction, from 56.7 per cent in 1991-92 to 24.8 per cent in 2015, says the report “The country achieved the commendable progress mainly due to relatively inclusive growth strategy and robust GDP that was accompanied by structural transformation of the economy with greater share of manufacturing and service sectors,” said GED member of the Planning Commission Prof Dr Shamsul Alam while presenting the MDGs Progress Report 2015 at a local hotel.
Finance Minister Ama Muhith, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, State Minister for Finance and Planning Ma Mannan and Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman jointly unveiled the report, titled ‘Millennium Development Goals: Bangladesh Progress Report 2015″.
“Bangladesh has achieved considerable success in many areas of MDGs and has become a role model for others,” said the finance minister while inaugurating the publication ceremony. “It might take some 15 years for whole of the world to eradicate poverty by 2030, but for Bangladesh eradication of poverty is a matter of few years only,” said Mr Muhith. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal also termed Bangladesh’s progress on MDGs meaningful and balanced. He expressed the hope that the country would be completely free from hunger by the year 2028 and elevated to the status of a rich country by 2040.
“We can even exceed Malaysia, Singapore and Australia by 2040 if the continuation of progress is maintained accordingly,” said the planning minister on a high note of optimism. Although Bangladesh has successfully met most of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets, it still misses some indicators, including employment generation, adult literacy and the elimination of hunger and poverty, the progress report admitted.
It pointed out fund shortages and climate change as severe threats to achieving the remaining goals. The report identified the areas which are in need of greater attention. These are increases in primary school completion and adult literacy rates, creation of decent-wage employment for women, increase in the presence of skilled health professionals at delivery, increase in correct and comprehensive knowledge on HIV/AIDS, increase in forest coverage and coverage of ICT.
In line with the Millennium Declaration, a framework of 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators were set to measure progress towards the MDGs over the period from 1990 to 2015. However, from January 2008, twenty-one targets were reset and 60 indicators used to monitor the MDGs progress.
The eight MDGs were poverty and hunger, primary education, empower women, child mortality, maternal health, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, environmental sustainability and partnership for development. About gender equality and empowerment of women, the report says Bangladesh has already achieved the targets of gender parity in primary and secondary education at the national level.
In 2015, Bangladesh was awarded prestigious Women in Parliaments Global Forum award, known as WIP award, for its outstanding success in closing the gender gap in the political sphere. Bangladesh ranks 10th out of 142 countries. The country is on track for meeting the target that’s measured on three different parameters such as under-five mortality rate, infant mortality rate and immunization against measles.
On reduction of child mortality, the report said the under-five mortality rate was 151 per 1000 live births in 1990 which came down to 41 per 1000 live births in 2013 and hence achieved the MDG target before the stipulated time. Likewise, the infant mortality rate was 94 per 1000 live births in 1990, which was reduced to 32 per 1000 live births in 2013.
Hence, it is also on the verge of getting to the goal. Towards ensuring environmental sustainability, the report said, at present there is only 13.40 percent of land in Bangladesh having tree cover with density of 30 percent and above and the area having tree cover is much lower than the target set for 2015 (20 percent).
However, access to safe water for all is a challenge, as arsenic and salinity intrusion as a consequence of climate change will exacerbate the availability of safe water, especially for the poor. The programme was also addressed, among others, by UNDP country director Pauline Tamesis. GED Division Chief Naquib Bin Mahbub delivered the address of welcome.
Source: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/09/17/108267
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