Sustainable Development Goals- Moving Past the MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals are a list of eight goals set by the United Nations in 2000 as a sort of “report card” for individual countries and the world as a whole to monitor their progress on in key development areas in the first 15 years of the century. The eight goals served as a pledge by the U.N. to, “uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity, and free the world from extreme poverty.” (UN) These goals had yearly reports to assess progress with the ultimate goals to be achieved by 2015. With the end of the MDGs coming this year, the international community is working hard to develop a new and improved set of goals to replace them; these goals have been named the Sustainable Development Goals.
Through the Millennium Development Goals the U.N. and international community have been able to: reduce extreme poverty by half, improve access to drinking water sources for 2.3 billion people, reduce disparities in primary school enrollment between boys and girls, increase the number of women participating in politics, and nearly halve the child mortality rate globally, as well as improve global health and quality of life in a number of other areas. (UN) It appears that the model of setting a few clearly stated international goals and providing yearly assessment of the progress towards these goals has helped the world to focus its intentions and achieve some major improvements. One of the major pitfalls if the MDGs, however, is that they largely focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) with little focus on improvements in high-income countries. Many parties felt little was asked of high-income countries beyond the onus of funding.
  This is why, in 2012, when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were suggested at the Rio+20   summit the group focused on improving life for all people and therefore knew more goals would have   to involve commitments from high-income countries. “In a world already undergoing dangerous climate   change and other serious environmental ills, there is also widespread understanding that worldwide   environmental objectives need a higher profile alongside the poverty-reduction objectives.”   (The Lancet) The SDGs therefore, aim to reduce poverty and improve healthcare worldwide though   promoting sustainable development. Though the list had not yet been finalized or accepted by the U.N.   the current list of goals can be found here. Currently, it has 17 goals with 169 targets.
The SDGs aim to take all the best elements of the eight MDGs, yearly reports, concise goals (some of which are the same) and international support and combine that with more global incentives like the reduction of desertification and the conservation of the oceans. Some of the SDGs focus on developed areas, such as Goal 11 which pushes for safe, sustainable cities (http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/19/sustainable-development-goals-united-nations).  This shift of the focus to include cities and established systems should help to involve high-income countries and improve life there alongside life in LMIC. In an attempt to represent the priorities of people all over the world the U.N. has created a website, My World, where you can vote for which six SDGs you would prioritize. The SDGs are expected to be finalized this year at the UN New York Summit in September and become applicable from January 2016 - December 2030, so get voting!

This post was written by Zoey Ponder and Emily Stallings

Family Planning and Overpopulation in Malawi

The Malawi Minister of Health, Dr. Jean Kalilani, recently released a statement saying that the birth rate in Malawi is too high. The current fertility rate in Malawi is 5.66 children per woman with an average age at first birth of 18.9 years of age. (CIA World Factbook) Over population is tied to a plethora of issues not only limited to medical care, though that is the current focus of the Minister of Health. Overpopulation effects deforestation (see last blog post) and food security, as well as poverty and other issues facing Malawi. The population of Malawi has faced a huge spike from three million in 1950 to fifteen million in 2010 and Malawi finds itself struggling to support so many people. (IRIN)

According to Dr. Kalilani, overpopulation is largely to blame for the overcrowding of hospitals saying, “We are doing our best to decongest the hospitals, but what is happening is that we are     just making too many children and the population is growing and there will be more patients going to the hospital.” (Nyasa Times) As of 2011, Malawi’s hospital bed density was 1.3/1,000 people, meaning that for every 1,000 people in Malawi there is 1.3 beds available in a medical care facility. This can lead to hospitals being unable to accommodate all patients and sometimes putting more than one person in a bed or having patients sleep on the floor or in hallways. In some cases, hospital overcrowding forces hospitals to release patients as quickly as possible to accommodate those with the greatest need. Situations like this have an effect on everyone’s health, especially the health of children and pregnant women. In Malawi the infant mortality rate is 48.01 deaths/ 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate is 460 deaths/ 100,000 live births. As Dr. Kalilani puts it, if there were less infants and pregnant mothers, hospitals would be more capable of providing better care to mothers and children and reduce these rates.

The current situation in Malawi is, however, better than it has been. The fertility rate has dropped from 7.62 children per woman in 1980; the infant and mother mortality rates have dropped respectively and the life expectancy has risen to 59.99 years of age. This is largely due to international attention to the issue of overpopulation: countries around the world are seeing the effects of population increase and Governments, NGOs and other organizations have begun family planning and education programs to help reduce the rate. The Malawian Government even recently increased the minimum age of marriage to 18 in the hopes of increasing the age at first birth and reducing maternal/infant mortality rates. (Reuters) A large part of the issue is a lack of understanding of reproductive health and contraceptive choices. 
 
Contraceptive prevalence (the number of sexually active women who use some form of   contraception during intercourse) in Malawi is 46.1% currently, meaning that about half of all   women will admit to using contraception. As for the other half there are three main barriers:   cultural acceptance; accessibility, and; understanding. In some areas in Malawi (particularly   rural areas) women need their husband’s or even elders’ permission to use contraception,   meaning that on top of educating women of their reproductive choices there also needs to be   education for men and the village as a whole. This education can help to relieve the confusion   and disapproval for contraception in the eyes of everyone making it easier for women to seek   contraception if they desire it. Another issue is accessibility. Women need access to reliable   reproductive care that is affordable. Some people cannot afford condoms or other forms of contraception and need options for how to protect themselves at little or no cost to them. Finally, education is key: proper hygiene and understanding of contraceptive choices/ methods can help everyone to stay healthy. (IRIN)

This blog was written by Zoey Ponder

Deforestation and Malawi's Floods

As Malawi continues to recover from the recent flooding many Malawians have begun asking why this year’s floods caused so much devastation. It is true that there was an unusually high amount of rainfall this rainy season due to weather patterns, but that is not the only factor. Deforestation played a major role in making this year’s flooding so widespread and devastating.
Trees help mitigate heavy rainfall by helping to disperse heavy rainfall in a number of ways. Trees hold more water than many other forms of vegetation, like grasses or crops, acting as a sponge to soak up much of the rainfall. In addition, tree roots loosen the soil, creating space that can be filled with excess water, preventing run off. Lastly, trees slow the route rainwater to streams, allowing the streams more time to expand as needed to transfer rainwater to ponds and lakes. A lack of trees compacts the soil, leaving it less able to properly absorb rainfall, as well as allowing the soil to be eroded into rivers and lakes. Soil erosion is currently causing large-scale issues in Lake Malawi, polluting the water and harming the fish population, which is a large part of the Malawian diet. (Nyasa Times)
Malawi used to be a heavily forested country, with its sub-tropical climate, plenty of rainfall, and lots of open landscapes to support forests. Currently, Malawi has only 27.2% forest cover, meaning almost ¾ of the land in Malawi is lacking trees. (Ripple Africa) Malawi has the world’s fifth highest rate of deforestation, a pattern which has occurred primarily over the past 30 years. Deforestation in Malawi is largely due to the nature of slash and burn farming practices. Farmers will cut down all the trees in an area and burn them where they fall to create space for agriculture. When the population of Malawi was small, the environment was able to recover from such practice, but with the population doubling every 25 years and 80% of the people working in agriculture, trees hardly stand a chance.
  The Malawian government has attempted to slow the deforestation rate in Malawi with   little success. Bans on the cutting of certain trees and the promoting of better farming   practices, such as crop rotation to help keep the soil rich (as opposed to the use of   chemical fertilizers), have had little success. People did not seem to have a good   understanding of the dangers of burning trees and eroding the soil, they simply used the   soil until it was depleted and moved onto the next plot, as they have grown up doing.   However with the increasing lack of available farmland and the severity if recent flooding,   Malawians are growing more concerned for their home.
  An uptick in concern for the environment is underway in Malawi. TNM, a mobile service provider, has recently planted 36,000 tree seedlings at schools around Malawi. (Maravi Post) Many schools have contacted various organizations, such as the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust asking for assistance with planting trees around schools that were damaged in flooding.  It is unfortunate that such a disaster had to happen to draw attention to the importance of reforestation but, the inspiration to preserve is has caused is invaluable. The future of Malawi is a little brighter with the hope that the people will strive to reforest Malawi.

This blog post was written by Zoey Ponder