Is there still hope for the Milliennium Development Goals?

A report from halftime

By Josiah Neufeld | ChristianWeek Staff

PHOTO: BETHANY ZYLSTRA

The halftime bell has already rung in a fight picked nine years ago at the United Nations' Millennium Summit between 189 nations and some of humankind's most pitiless foes: extreme hunger, AIDS, malaria, child mortality, unsafe drinking water and the devastating effects of climate change.

The clock is counting down the seconds to 2015, the deadline the UN set for achieving specific targets under categories known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

It looks as though we're about to be clobbered.

But before you break out the popcorn and get comfortable to watch round two, take this short pop quiz. No pressure; your score will only affect the chances of survival for tens of thousands of people.

1) How many of the eight MDGs can you list?

2) What is your church or community doing to help Canada work toward these targets? Preaching sermons on poverty? Providing a well for a village? Signing petitions? Informing your MP you're paying attention?

3) How much do you care? Rank your interest on a scale of one to 10. (One amounts to: "Isn't the UN the antichrist? Yawn. Who's left in the NFL playoffs?" A 10 means you believe that this is what Jesus was talking about when He said, "I was hungry and you fed Me."

Most Canadian churchgoers would be hard-pressed to name one of the goals. Nonetheless, many Christians who have never heard the goals mentioned from the pulpit support projects or organizations working in these vital fields.

But the real question--how much we care--will determine whether the good guys stand a chance in this contest.

At the tipping point

The G8 nations have committed to 33 targets under the eight goals, but so far they aren't anywhere close to delivering a single one of them by 2015 says John Kirton, director of the G8 Research Group at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.

"We have every right to hold our governments to these very achievable targets," he declared in a November lecture at the university. "They're made very carefully, they're proclaimed proudly and publicly, and the world's most powerful leaders and countries that produce them have immense resources.

"Our leaders really do need your help. Left by themselves, they've fallen badly behind."

Karen Hamilton, secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, believes Canadian Christians are crucial to this fight.

"Our sisters and brothers are dying and the G8 has made promises around the Millennium Development Goals which they have not fulfilled," she says.

Make an appointment with your MP, she urges. Bring a copy of the goals along and tell him or her that this is something you care about, and you're ready to help things happen.

"Politicians say it's really helpful to get responses like that from people," says Hamilton. "Then they can go forward and say, 'I've been hearing from my constituents. This is what they think is important.'"

Sending letters is the second best way to influence government, says Hamilton. And don't forget to pray, both as individuals and congregations.

"We're at the tipping point," she says. "It is possible [to meet the goals], but it's going to take everything we've got."

Window of opportunity

When G8 leaders meet in Canada in 2010, the Canadian Council of Churches will host the G8 Religious Leaders Summit in Winnipeg. Kirton believes that if Canadians are going to turn the tide in this battle, the window for action is between now and then.

Natasha Hovey, a 26-year-old budding social activist at McMaster University, is doing her part. When G8 leaders arrive in Ontario, she plans to hand them a petition asking the prime minister to redouble Canada's efforts to reach the MGDs--with signatures from students in every high school and college in Canada. She's circulating the petition on the Canadian website of Micah Challenge, a campaign to alleviate world poverty spearheaded by the World Evangelical Alliance.

Joining the fight

Others within the Canadian church have also enlisted in this fight, particularly the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

Anglican bishops marched through the streets of London, England during Lambeth this summer in support of the MDGs, and while world leaders met in New York in September, Anglicans and Lutherans organized the Walk of Witness in Ottawa to encourage Stephen Harper to recommit to Bill C-293. The bill, passed in 2007, promises increased aid, the cancellation of debt and better trade rules for developing countries, as well as ending child poverty at home.

"I fully believe we can make a difference," says Henriette Thompson, who works closely with the Anglican Church's development arm, the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund. Its work in the areas of food security, environmental sustainability and HIV/AIDS touches on three of the goals.

In her church, St. George's Anglican in the diocese of Niagara, Thompson frequently preaches on the goals. Every time she hears a parishoner sigh, "We'll never reach those goals," she responds by pointing out that with God all things are possible.

Whether or not we succeed on all eight fronts, says Thompson, "The point is, this is what we're called to do. We need to be obedient; we need to be faithful."

Where we stand:

Here's the latest progress report (from UNDP website, www.mdgmonitor.org):

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty.
Target: Halve the proportion of people who earn less than a dollar a day and suffer from chronic hunger.
Halftime score: Seventy-four countries with a third of the world's population are not on track to halve the number of people living on less than $1 per day by 2015. Rising food prices are threatening to push 100 million people into poverty.

• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education.
Target: Ensure full primary school for all children.
Halftime score: Many countries are close to achieving universal primary school enrolment. However in sub-Saharan Africa primary enrolment is still only at 71 per cent, with 38 million school age children out of school.

• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.
Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary school.
Halftime score: In Africa and Asia,
more girls are going to school than in years past, however girls and women still suffer
disproportionately from the effects of drought,
food shortages, rape, child labour and AIDS.

• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.
Target: Reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds.
Halftime score: Children in sub-Saharan Africa are still dying at rates as high as in 1990.

• Goal 5: Improve maternal health.
Target: Reduce maternal mortality rate by three-fourths.
Halftime score: Thomas Froese reported from this stalled front in our December 15 edition ("In Uganda the war of childbirth continues"). Half a million mothers still die in childbirth every year. Most of these deaths could be prevented with basic medical supplies.

• Goal 6: Fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Target: Reverse the spread of AIDS and provide universal access to treatment.
Halftime score: The number of people infected with HIV has dropped in the past eight years and antiretroviral treatments are also causing death rates to decrease. Currently 2 million people have access to necessary treatment. The goal for 2015 is 7.1 million.

• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability.
Target: Reduce the loss of environmental resources and biodiversity and provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Halftime score: Carbon emissions are stubbornly rising; the warming globe is harming food production through droughts and erratic storms. No progress has been made on greenhouse gas emissions since 1997.

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development.
Target: Establish a system for trade that protects the poorest producers and the needs of developing countries. Deal with unmanageable debt and provide affordable access to essential drugs.
Halftime score: Official development assistance would need to double to about US $100 billion per year to reach the goals.