YOGYAKARTA –The target of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) carried out by governments around the world is not merely a consequence of the global agreement, but it has become an international norm in developments of all areas.
The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) consist of eight goals: poverty and extreme hunger alleviation, equity in basic education, gender equality and women empowerment, reduction in child deaths, mother’s health improvement, anti-HIV, AIDS, and malaria as well as other diseases, guarantee of environment supports, and global partnerships development.
Researcher from Auckland University, Prof. Saville Kushner, said the international community continues to encourage the achievement of gender equity and woman empowerment amidst difficulties. “Gender equity through gender imbalance removal in many aspects is still hard to improve,” said Kushner in the 5th International Conference of Graduate Students in the UGM Graduate School on Wednesday (30/10).
Another barrier is the discrepancy between data and analysis in the programme implementation of the MDGs. “Misinformation often occurs; what is globally agreed has not been understood around the world,” he said.
The MDGs will end by 2015 and replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Kushner assessed that the agreement needs to observe the condition of member countries that will implement them as not all countries can adapt to the agreement. The MDGs target, however, can be used by governments to evaluate the success or not of the programme. They can even get aid from donor countries. “The success of a progamme can then be held responsibly,” he said.
He added that the MDGs should be able to be felt by all members of community through government policy. “Countries can adapt themselves by changing old policy in resolving their problems,” he said.
Post- MDGs 2015, Kushner explained that the SDGs is not only an international norm. The SDGs will be able to observe the development problems in each country objectively.