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Is Poverty Necessary? Looking back at the Millennium Development Goals

2015-09-22 · explainer · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, heavy topic

Ahead of the UN meeting on new global goals, John reviews the eight Millennium Development Goals of 1990-2015 and argues they largely worked: poverty, hunger, child and maternal deaths fell, so the new goals deserve attention.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; John's oral surgery the day before

  • ★ John had oral surgery the day before (21 September 2015) and is in pain and on pain medication, so he apologises in advance if he slurs his words. — 00:00:01

00:00:09 — The coming meeting in New York on global goals for 2030; the Millennium Development Goals sort of worked; plan for the week

  • ★★ John says that later this week (week of 21 September 2015), at a big meeting in New York City, 193 world leaders will agree to global goals for humans to achieve by 2030. — 00:00:13 · New York City
  • ★★★ John says world leaders earlier agreed to the eight Millennium Development Goals to change the world's history, and surprisingly enough it sort of worked. (hedged) — 00:00:21
  • ★★ John will look back at the eight goals and suggests Hank might look forward to the new ones in his Friday video. (hedged) — 00:00:32

00:00:38 — The eight MDGs one by one: poverty and hunger, education, gender equality, child and maternal mortality, HIV and malaria, environment, partnership

  • ★★★ Goal one, halving extreme poverty and hunger between 1990 and 2015, seemed impossible but was done: 1.9 billion people lived on under $1.25 a day in 1990, now over a billion fewer. — 00:00:38 · extreme poverty
  • ★★ Most of the fall in poverty came from China, South Asia and South America, but the poverty rate in sub-Saharan Africa has also fallen since 1990. — 00:01:01 · extreme poverty, China
  • ★★ John says the goal of halving hunger will probably be missed, but barely: 23% of the developing world was undernourished in 1990, under 13% today. (hedged) — 00:01:09
  • ★★ Universal primary education is not reached but progress is impressive: primary enrolment in the developing world is over 90%, and youth literacy rose from 83% to 91% in 25 years. — 00:01:19 · education
  • ★★ On gender equality: South Asia went from 75 to 103 girls in school per 100 boys since 1990, and women's share of non-agricultural work rose from 35% to 41%. — 00:01:36
  • ★★ Massive disparities between men and women remain, and John hopes they will be a big focus of the new Global Goals. (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ The 66% child-mortality target will be missed, but global child mortality has more than halved since 1990; for example, measles vaccinations prevented about 15 million child deaths. — 00:02:02 · child mortality, vaccine
  • ★★ On the goal of cutting maternal mortality by 75%, a Gates Foundation chart shows little progress until 2005, then a dramatic fall once worldwide investment in maternal health rose. — 00:02:34 · maternal death
  • ★★ Halting HIV/AIDS and malaria has been a huge success: HIV deaths fell once investment in prevention and treatment rose, and global malaria deaths fell about 20% since 2000. — 00:02:50 · malaria
  • ★★ John says the goal of ensuring environmental sustainability has not gone well. — 00:03:06
  • ★ Of goal eight, a global partnership for development, John jokes that he doesn't know the meaning of a sentence that seeks to develop a development. (playful) — 00:03:12

00:03:20 — A good 25 years for humans; the MDGs' attention and investment made a difference; pay attention to the new goals; sign-off

  • ★★★ Overall it has been a really good 25 years for humans: people are less likely to be poor, hungry or illiterate, girls more likely to go to school, mothers less likely to die or lose a child. — 00:03:20 · progress
  • ★★★ The MDGs had a lot to do with this progress: not the only factor, but the attention and investment that resulted from them made a huge difference. — 00:03:35
  • ★★★ That is why John says it is so important for everyone to pay attention to the new goals. — 00:03:44
  • ★★★ Young people watching may be among the first humans to see a world where extreme poverty and hunger are rare. (hedged) — 00:03:47 · extreme poverty

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: child mortality · extreme poverty · Millennium Development Goals · progress

Also: People: Bill Gates · Melinda French Gates

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: Buddhism · education · gender inequality · HIV/AIDS · hunger · literacy · malaria · maternal death · measles · sustainability · vaccine

Places: China · New York City · South America · South Asia · Sub-Saharan Africa

Policies: Sustainable Development Goals

Only in the description or credits: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation · Max Roser · Our World in Data · Rosianna Halse Rojas

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