Say Yes, Autumn 2005: In This Issue

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The largest gathering of world leaders in history met at the Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000 and committed themselves to freeing all of the world’s people from poverty and want.

In order to make the right to development a reality, a set of eight concise objectives known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were set for the year 2015. The MDGs are a distillation of outcomes from various world summits during the previous decade that began in 1990 with Education for All (EFA) in Thailand and the World Summit for Children (WSC) at the United Nations in New York.

The MDGs encompass specific targets that are measurable by 48 indicators from their levels in 1990:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. Achieve universal primary education;
3. Promote gender equality and empower women;
4. Reduce child mortality;
5. Improve maternal health;
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
7. Ensure environmental sustainability;
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Between the 14th and 16th of September, Heads of State from around the world will meet again in New York for the Millennium Review Summit or Millennium +5. This will be the first official opportunity for a global review of progress in achieving the MDGs.

With five years gone and ten more to go, the big question will be how much progress has been achieved and what needs to be done in order to ensure that the MDGs are met?

Although some of the MDGs are more child-focused than others, all of them have positive implications for the well-being and development of children. As the lead agency responsible for monitoring progress on the MDGs for children, UNICEF stresses that:

the MDGs are not a charitable enterprise but a moral imperative.

Download the Millennium Development Goals Report for Turkey [PDF 2.1MB].

Turkey and the MDGs

The MDGs Report for Turkey, published in June, was prepared by the State Planning Organisation (SPO) with UNDP support and contributions from the Bosphorus University Human Development Centre, Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies and the State Institute of Statistics (SIS). Paying particular attention to MDGs 1, 3, 4 and 5, the Report finds that there are still pockets of deep poverty in the country. As starkly illustrated during the financial crises of 1994 and 2001, issues such as poverty, education and health are intimately connected.

Much progress has been made towards achieving the MDGs in Turkey: the gender gap in primary education is closing; rates of child mortality are decreasing; the country is polio-free and looks set to follow suit with the successful elimination of measles. Yet much more remains to be done.

Noting that Turkey faces significant challenges and structural barriers in issues of inequality, particularly based on gender and geography the MDGs Report concludes:

Turkey needs to redouble its human development efforts in certain areas, including girls’ education and health, to better achieve the MDGs

Minister of State Abdüllatif Şener was reassuringly optimistic at the launch of the MDGs Report in June, saying that:

Turkey has the potential and the capacity to attain these goals by 2015 by means of implementing the decisive policies that she has been executing in the past years

The issue of gender inequality and its effects on education, health and overall development is of particular concern to UNICEF. In anticipation of the Millennium +5 Summit, this issue of Say Yes focuses on Turkey’s progress towards achieving the MDGs and looks at what remains to be done in order to alleviate poverty and ensure more positive outcomes in health, education, equality and protection for children by 2015.

Note: All data in the tables featured throughout this issue was derived from the MDGs Report for Turkey 2005.

Read more about Turkey and the MDGs.

Congratulations!

UNICEF Turkey would like to congratulate our colleagues at UNDP on the appointment of Kemal Derviş to the post of UNDP Administrator. Mr Derviş succeeds Mr Mark Malloch Brown in the post, the third highest position in the UN System.

As the State Minister for Economic Affairs and the Treasury between March 2001 and August 2002, Mr Derviş was instrumental in guiding Turkey’s strong recovery following the financial crisis of 2001.

Announcing Kemal Derviş’ appointment by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in April, the UN expressed confidence that:

Mr. Derviş will be able to build on the successful reform effort implemented by Mark Malloch Brown over the past six years and consolidate the UNDP’s critical role in helping address global development priorities from the MDGs to crisis prevention and recovery.