Millennium Development Goals: no progress made in the fight against poverty

The possibility of achieving all the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) before the 2015 deadline remains very low, even impossible, and that is despite the progress that has been made so far. Four main goals are affected by this failure including eradication of poverty and hunger, reducing maternal mortality, environmental protection, including access to drinking water and appropriate sanitation, and finally the global partnership for development.

The resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Madagascar, Fatma Samoura, spoke of that non-achievement of the goals for the millennium during the launch of the 3rd MDG monitoring report which was held yesterday at the Carlton Hotel. In her own terms, she said that “no progress has been made ​​in reducing maternal mortality. Poverty increased in 2010. Three out of four Malagasy live below the poverty line. Problems of job insecurity and low wage and food insecurity remain real concerns”.  Three years from the planned deadline for the program, and despite the help of its partners and the progress made in the MDG program, Madagascar is still far from the goals and the achievements of all goals remain insufficient.

With regard to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1), progress is slow and a sharp reduction was observed. According to the report, three quarters of the population live below the poverty line, or 76.5 %, 82% of whom live in rural areas and 50% in urban areas. However, the MDG has set target of 35% of the population in 2015 as part of the eradication of poverty and hunger, a goal that is far from being reached because of the precarious and food insecurity experienced by the population during the past three years of the crisis, poor governance and lack of external support.