The Millennium Development Goals were first agreed upon in 2001 by world governments as an initiative to end world poverty, facilitate development, and improve living standards and life chances across the globe within fifteen years. Since that deadline has passed, the goals were revamped and nine new goals have been added with a new target year of 2030. The new goals expand on the original eight to address issues relating to gender equality and the root causes of poverty (Ford). End poverty in all forms everywhere and achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls are two of the 17 proposed millennium development goals that UN member nations want to achieve by 2030. Research from the last two decades has shown a link between gender …show more content…
There is a well-documented positive correlation between education levels and economic success. Women’s education is essential to not only economic development in third world countries but other forms of social development such as improved health and literacy rates in these areas as well. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals, more attention must be paid to women’s education and the role it plays in improving quality of life and in facilitating development in economic and social terms. Investment in human capital is vital to improving quality of life and economic growth and development and according to World Bank data, women make up 50.1 percent of the population the world’s least developed countries. When half the population lacks equal access to education, resources, and capital, how far can development go? A developing country will continue to struggle to achieve economic development on a large scale because they are not fully investing in all their human …show more content…
This leaves children in countries with poor infrastructure susceptible to diseases that developed countries have nearly eradicated like measles, small pox, tetanus, yellow fever, whooping cough, and polio and results in higher child mortality rate. A World Bank report on the relationship between gender and development found that children ages 12-23 months born to mothers with more education in the developing areas were more likely to vaccinated than there less educated counterparts (see figure 1). Education, even at the lowest levels, provides mothers with the knowledge and information necessary to ensure that their children are protected from deadly diseases. The increased vaccination and immunization rates also put less strain on weak health infrastructures in these regions when epidemics occur because more of the population is immune to the
Health care policies are put into place regarding childhood immunization requirements for schools, along with information on obtaining religious exemptions. Each state and/or country develops their own individualized guidelines through interactions with federal and state government agencies. One in five babies around the world are missing out on basic vaccines and may die from weak health systems and insufficient funding. UNICEF and its partners are working to change these numbers and ensure that all children are successfully protected with vaccines.
For parents, the responsibility of taking care of a child is their number one priority. They tend to build up a list of what their child needs to stay safe and healthy. Even the smallest way of a taking care of a child is important like putting them in a car seat is one of the ways to keep children protected. There is another important way that parents should not forget to do – vaccinating their children. Parents should not miss all of their children’s vaccinations. Children can be protected against severe diseases, such as polio, which was “America’s most-feared disease, causing death and paralysis across the country” (“Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child”). Today, there hasn’t been any news about Polio for the longest time because of vaccinations. However, there are people who don’t have an option to not get vaccinated because they aren’t allowed due to their protection such as pregnant women and newborns. In order to avoid contagious diseases, people who are allowed to do so should get themselves vaccinated for the benefit of those who can’t get vaccinated and have a higher risk of getting severe diseases. For example, “Newborns who are too young to get vaccinated for whooping cough are also most at risk of severe illness from the disease” (“10 Reasons To Get Vaccinated”). Newborn infants have a high risk of getting serious diseases, which should encourage more people to get
Despite such documented success we are still witnessing the deadly impact of vaccine preventable diseases. Millions of preventable cases of disease and death are still occurring in low and middle-income countries where disease burdens are often the highest. The time lag in the introduction of new vaccines between high-income and low-income countries has been a major issue. Some vaccines are introduced in high-income countries a full year before they are introduced to low-income countries where disease burdens are rapidly growing.
Some of the main challenges being cost of education, school environment, position of women in their societies as to how they are treated, conflicts and social exclusion. One of the main reasons why parents discriminate against the girl child when it comes to education is the cost when compared to economic returns to the household after the completion of education and also the expenditure of marrying off a daughter is enormous in many societies. It has also been documented that girls in most developing countries start helping in household chores from an early age and being highly educated causes constraints regarding marriage as many grooms don’t prefer a literate wife. Studies have shown that girls are the first to discontinue schooling to provide care to a sick member in the family or take care of younger siblings in case of death of a parent, and this is one of the main reasons why in Sub-Saharan countries there are many child headed families. Social exclusion is another barrier that prevents girls from going to school as they are excluded based on caste, ethnicity and religion (DIFD Report,
In this essay, I will be discussing the statement “Gender Inequalities exist and removing them is fundamental to development”. I will focus on how continents compare in their overall rankings taking in consideration health & survival, education, economic participation and political empowerment, with including a case study for an LEDC and MEDC country.
Vaccinated mothers protect their unborn children from viruses that can cause birth defects. For example in 1969 a global rubella outbreak caused deaths of 11,000 babies and birth defects of 20,000 babies. (Vaccines 5). Woman who were given vaccination when children are less likely to pass it on to the offspring and make them ill. Being vaccinated eliminates birth defects, such as heart problems, hearing and vision loss, metal disabilities, and more. Not only does vaccinating children save them from disease at a young age, but protects them and their children in the
Melinda Gates said, "Having children made us look differently at all these things that we take for granted, like taking your child to get a vaccine against measles or polio" (Paulson, 2003) I can agree with that. After the birth of our first child, Paxton, my husband and I knew we wanted to do everything possible to protect our kids. Especially from diseases that are easily preventable and when there are vaccines readily available here in the United States. Living in the United States is truly a blessing because of the economy and infrastructure we have built. We have access to the most advanced technologies and medicines, as well as an abundance of doctors to treat us whenever we are ill. For a long time in America, measles was just something that happened to every kid once; now it is something that barely happens at all thanks to immunizations. Some places in this world are not so lucky, and measles is a killer that preys on the young. Many of these places have weak economies and no infrastructure. Doctors are scarce and medicines are second rate or unavailable altogether. How can there be such different worlds in such close proximity? According to the World Health Organization, over 95% of measles cases and measles related deaths occur in low income countries (WHO, 2009). Something we have for all practical purposes eradicated in the United States still ravages parts of the world. With the knowledge of how measles devastates other parts of the world, it shocks me how parents here in the U.S. still choose not to vaccinate their children.
There are countless causes of poverty in under developed countries such as overpopulation, disease, and how the government distributes its wealth. When you have people in developing countries have far too many children than they should and don’t have the means to take care of them you get overpopulation, when you get overpopulation you get less job opportunities, and when that happens you people who can’t take care of themselves or their children. Two factors have been shown that correlate with overpopulation which is poverty and education. When you have higher education in a community you will tend to have a decrease in birth because when people get education especially in women you will have a decline in birthrates because when they get their education they usually want to get a good job. (Poverty and overpopulation).
Preventing diseases is every countries’ responsibility, whether they are poor or rich. Poor countries lack the knowledge and the money to gain, and expand medical resources. Therefore, many people are not been able to be cured. For wealthy countries, diseases are mutating at incredible speeds. Patients are dying because drug companies do not have enough data to produce vaccines to cure patients. When developed countries help poor countries to cure their people, the developed countries could help underdeveloped countries. Since developed countries can provide greater medical resources to poor countries, people living in the poor countries could be cured. As for the developed countries, they can collect samples from the patients so that the drug companies can produce new vaccines for new diseases. When trying to cure diseases, developed countries and poor countries would have mu...
The inequality of genders is a factor to the issue of poverty. Many nations are trying their best to fix the issue of gender inequality. Gender inequality is very visible in the primary and secondary levels of education in Ghana. The amount of boys always tends to outnumber the girls. Due to the fact that many women do not have any educational background, they either end up trading or get engaged in agriculture activity. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are barely recognized in issues that are non-agriculture. About 64% of women are mainly employed in the agriculture sector. The low employment level of women makes poverty a stronghold in the household of women. Women tend to not get enough income to support themselves and their families, especially when they are single parents or the man is unemployed. Women also tend to face low employment rates, and those with a good education, who have the chance of being employed, rarely get the opportunity. The women who are lucky enough to get employed are rarely promoted due to their
King E and Hill A, Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies. London: World Bank publications. 1997. Print.
“Target 4.A: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate”(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/childhealth.shtml) This goal is number four of eight total goals of the UN Millennium Goals that were established in 2000. The UN and leading world figures established these goals to address some of the major issues affecting underdeveloped countries. Child mortality rates need to be fixed because it is necessary to sustain the population in a country or area for future growth. Also it is important to reduce the child mortality rate so that cultures in different areas can be carried on in the future. It is sad to see a preventable problem that is so hard to fix.
The achievement of universal primary education (UPE is the second of the MDGs. It requires that every child enroll in a primary school and completes the full cycle of primary schooling. Every child in every country would need to be currently attending school for this to be achieved by 2015. Considerable progress has been made in this regard in many countries, particularly in encouraging enrolment into the first tier of schooling. Few of the world’s poorest countries have dramatically improved enrolments, restricted gender gaps and protracted opportunities for disadvantaged groups. Enrolments across South and West Asia (SWA) and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in particular flew by 23 percent and 51 percent respectively between 1999 and 2007. The primary education net enrolment rates (NER) increased at a much faster pace than in the 1990s and by 2007 rose at 86 percent and 73 percent respectively in these two regions. For girls, the NER rates in 2007 were a little lower at 84 percent and 71 percent respectively. The number of primary school-age children out-of school fell by 33 million at g...
...ds & Gelleny, 2007). Moreover, the status of women is independent on policy adjustments in developing countries. Governments in developing countries should organize an economically and political stable environment, to be economically attractive (Maxfield, 1998 as cited in Richards & Gelleny, 2007). Other critics state governments are forced to cut expenditures in education and social programs. This phenomenon especially affects women (Ayres and McCalla, 1997, as cited in Richards & Gelleny, 2007). Since the public sector is one of the main employers of females, women are often the most disadvantaged by governmental efforts to cut expenditures in the public sector (Hemmati and Gardiner, 2004, as cited in Richards & Gelleny, 2007). As a result, women will become unemployed and unable to expanded education among themselves or their children. (Richards & Gelleny, 2007)
World Bank. Gender and Development Group. Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals. 4 April 2003