Egypt and the Millennium Development Goals

Geneva/Lisbon 10 December 2009 – As Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), football stars Ronaldo and Zinédine Zidane will play together with other renowned footballers for a friendly match against a SLBenfica All Stars team. For the first time, Ronaldo and Zidane will be on the same side in a match that will recall the urgency of working together to address global poverty. “No one is a spectator in the struggle to end poverty,” said Ronaldo, who now plays for Corinthians in Brazil. “It is only through working together, on the same team, that we will achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development targets that 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, and fighting disease epidemics such as HIV/AIDS. Zinedine Zidane, who retired from active football in 2006 but who continues to play in the annual Match Against Poverty, echoes Ronaldo’s thoughts. “We must score the eight goals through commitment, willpower and teamwork. ” he said.

Zinedine Zidane: “We must score the eight goals through commitment, willpower and teamwork.”

UNDP Administrator, Helen Clark, said this year’s Match takes on special importance as it comes five years before the MDG deadline. “The MDGs are enormously important targets, the achievement of which would mean a huge improvement to peoples’ lives,” she said. “Achieving them will require strong partnerships; enough dedicated resources; unwavering political leadership; and a long-term strategy to ensure that how we develop and grow is sustainable in every sense.”

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Luis Filipe Vieira, chairman of the SLBenfica Football Club and President of Benfica Foundation, said “The Club is happy to be associated with UNDP for such an event; football is a great way to get people together for a good cause”. Half the proceeds from the Match will go to the SLBenfica Foundation, targeted at social development projects in Lusophone Africa. The remaining funds will be managed by UNDP to benefit development projects. Proceeds from previous six matches have benefited anti-poverty initiatives ranging from support to female entrepreneurs to the construction of sports centres for street children and the disadvantaged. Funds have gone to support projects throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Match will take place at the Estàdio da Luz, Lisbon on 25 January 2010. The price of the tickets will be of 10€. Tickets can be purchased on the usual places in Lisbon for SL Benfica matches and through the club´s website at www.slbenfica.pt after December 21 2009.

For accreditation requests by email Carla Figueiredo: cfigueiredo@slbenfica.pt with reference MAPLisbon. For more information visit www.undp.org/geneva/ or contact Aziyadé Poltier-Mutal, aziyade.poltier@undp.org, tel: 41 22 917 83 68, cell: 41 79 349 16 10 or Fundação Benfica / Isabel De Santiago / idesantiago@slbenfica.pt tel: 351 21 7219567

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD: HOW CHILDREN SEE THE MDGs

MDG Kids Photos 03.jpg

The “Through the Eyes of a Child: How Children See the MDGs” photo exhibition is part of the UN joint project Sailing the Nile for the Millennium Development Goals. Sailing the Nile has been raising awareness on the MDGs and promoting volunteerism across 9 governorates since 2006.

The photographs on display are the work of a group of 45 children aged 8 to 14 from the Mokattam and Istabl Antar districts of Cairo. During two workshops held in May 2009, the children learned about the Millennium Development Goals (the MDGs) while discovering photography. They were then asked to interpret the MDGs in their neighbourhoods by using disposable cameras to capture different scenes related to the MDGs in each of their communities.

The 2008 edition of Sailing the Nile was supported by a wide range of partners: the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM), the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Youth Association for Population and Development, Mansour Group, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Plan International, the National Committee on Viral Hepatitis, Egypt Express (Licensee of Federal Express Corporation FedEx), Kwik Kopy and the UN family.

The NGOs Tawasol, Alwan Wa Awtar and Ms. Azza Kamel and her team supported the workshops in the communities of Mokattam and Istabl Antar. Mr. Magdy Aly coordinated the chidren’s photo exhibition and Ms. Marwa Karout facilitated the workshops.

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EGYPT AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

GLOBAL COMMITMENT FOR A BETTER WORLD
At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000 World Leaders placed development at the heart of the global agenda by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and setting clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 2015.

There are four pillars of UNDP's strategy in support of the goals:
• Integrating the MDGs into all aspects of the UN system's work at the country level, including creating new guidelines for country assessments and national development frameworks;
• Assisting developing countries in preparing MDG reports that chart progress towards the goals, in cooperation with other UN agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, civil society and other partners;
• Supporting the Millennium Project, led by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, and the Millennium Campaign to build global support for the goals;
• Supporting advocacy and awareness-raising efforts based on national strategies and national needs. Developed countries focus on trade, aid, technology and other support needed to reach the MDGs, while in developing countries, the aim is to build coalitions for action and help governments set priorities and use resources more effectively.

UNDP and Egypt… Partners in search for the 2015 targets
The MDGs are at the heart of UNDP’s work and they also provide a framework for the entire UN system to work coherently together. In Egypt, UNDP is leading the effort to help the country reach the targets and commitments of the MDGs. It is often said that “if you can measure it, you can manage it”, and the MDGs are all about managing improvements in Egypt’s development situation. UNDP will help monitor Egypt’s progress towards the MDGs through regular reports and with other UN agencies, UNDP will encourage the Egyptian government to establish an internal monitoring mechanism to measure the country’s progress in each of the MDG areas.

In this aspect, UNDP will support the process of research and data collection in order to present an accurate picture of the development situation in the country. The aim is to provide a detailed annual update on the state of development as it relates to the main global commitments made in September 2000. The reports will become progressively more sophisticated as more and more localized data is used to provide a full picture of development in each area covered by the MDGs and their respective targets. In accordance with UNDP global effort on advocacy and awareness, UNDP Egypt supports Civil Society Organizations Educational Networks on MDGs in lower HDI governorates in Egypt and supports the UN joint initiative Sailing the Nile for the MDGs.

STAYING ON TRACK

Egypt's MDGs Country Reports
Egypt was one of 188 countries which embraced the MDGs and agreed to strive to meet these goals by 2015.
In June 2002 the United Nations unveiled the first report on Egypt’s progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals, which was followed by the second and third reports in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Although the two reports indicated that Egypt remains on the right track to achieve the majority of MDG indicators, they also exposed the emergence of worrying gaps in income levels and living standards between Lower and Upper Egypt.

The MDG Reports show that the overall percentage of poor Egyptians will decrease from 25% in 1990 to 13% in 2015. However, they also show that while poverty in urban areas of Lower Egypt is expected to go down to 6%, the urban poor of Upper Egypt are actually expected to rise to 39% by 2015. The figures are just as stark for rural areas of the country – with poverty disappearing from the rural governorates of Lower Egypt but increasing to 38% in Upper Egypt in 2015. The Reports also demonstrate how poverty especially affects female-headed households which count for 20 % of total households. And while overall incomes in Egypt have increased from US$ 639 in 1990 to $US 1,390 in 1999, 40% of the poor only receive 22% of nation's wealth.

The reports show that the Egyptian government continued to give attention to critical areas of development, such as health, education, access to water and sanitation as well as improving the livelihoods of the most deprived segments of the population. However, the pace of progress varies among the goals: fast and sustained in some areas (child and maternal mortality, water and sanitation), at acceptable levels for others (education and poverty reduction), while somewhat slowly in others (women empowerment and the environment). In addition, Egypt will have to increase its efforts and investments in order to keep the current rate of progress with respect to some specific indicators (in the area of poverty, mortality rates, and combating major diseases). The third MDG report for Egypt (Egypt MDG Midpoint Assessment) was released in 2008.

Egypt's Goal-by-Goal Progress Towards Achieving the MDGs by 2015

Current status in accordance with national Government reporting:

mdg 1 logo small.jpg Very likely to be achieved, on track

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1a: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day

1.1 Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day
1.2 Poverty gap ratio
1.3 Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 1b: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people

1.4 Growth rate of GDP per person employed
1.5 Employment-to-population ratio
1.6 Proportion of employed people living below $1 (PPP) per day
1.7 Proportion of own-account and contributing family workers in total employment

Target 1c: Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

1.8 Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age
1.9 Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

mdg 2 logo small.jpg Very likely to be achieved, on track

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Target 2a: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education
2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary
2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men

mdg 3 logo small.jpg Possible to achieve if some changes are made

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 3a: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

3.1 Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

mdg 4 logo small.jpg Very likely to be achieved, on track

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Target 4a: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

4.1 Under-five mortality rate
4.2 Infant mortality rate
4.3 Proportion of 1 year-old children immunised against measles

mdg 5 logo small.jpg Very likely to be achieved, on track

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Target 5a: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

5.1 Maternal mortality ratio
5.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5b: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

5.3 Contraceptive prevalence rate
5.4 Adolescent birth rate
5.5 Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
5.6 Unmet need for family planning

mdg 6 logo small.jpg Very likely to be achieved, on track

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

Target 6a: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

6.1 HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 years
6.2 Condom use at last high-risk sex
6.3 Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
6.4 Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years

Target 6b: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

6.5 Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs

Target 6c: Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

6.6 Incidence and death rates associated with malaria
6.7 Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
6.8 Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
6.9 Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
6.10 Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed treatment short course

mdg 7 logo small.jpg Insufficient Information

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 7a: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources

Target 7b: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

7.1 Proportion of land area covered by forest
7.2 CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
7.3 Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
7.4 Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
7.5 Proportion of total water resources used
7.6 Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
7.7 Proportion of species threatened with extinction

Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

7.8 Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
7.9 Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility

Target 7d: Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

7.10 Proportion of urban population living in slums

mdg 8 logo small.jpg Insufficient information

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Target 8a: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

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

Target 8b: Address the special needs of the least developed countries

Includes: tariff and quota free access for the least developed countries' exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction

Target 8c: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly)

Target 8d: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed countries (LDCs), Africa, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.

Official development assistance (ODA)

8.1 Net ODA, total and to the least developed countries, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors’ gross national income
8.2 Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
8.3 Proportion of bilateral official development assistance of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
8.4 ODA received in landlocked developing countries as a proportion of their gross national incomes
8.5 ODA received in small island developing States as a proportion of their gross national incomes

Market access

8.6 Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and least developed countries, admitted free of duty
8.7 Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
8.8 Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as a percentage of their gross domestic product
8.9 Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity

Debt sustainability

8.10 Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
8.11 Debt relief committed under HIPC and MDRI Initiatives
8.12 Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services

Target 8e: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries