In September 2000, the United Nations Millennium Declaration was passed by the world leaders committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out Millennium Development Goals. The leaders made commitments to reduce poverty, hunger and disease by 2015, The MDGs are as follows;
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Develop a global partnership for development
African Development Bank Group 2012 Report findings confirm that steady economic growth and improvements in poverty reduction on the continent continue to have a positive impact on MDG progress. Africa has sustained progress toward several MDGs and is on track to achieve the targets of: universal primary education; gender parity at all levels of education; lower HIV/AIDS prevalence among 15-24 year olds; increased proportion of the population with access to antiretroviral drugs; and increased proportion of seats held by women in national parliament by 2015.
African continent’s development priorities after the MDG’s 2015 deadline as endorsed by African heads of state on 16 July 2012 are as follows;
- Promote educational and technological innovation.
- Promote transformation and sustainable growth
- Promote human development
MDGS Achievements in Uganda
- Progress has been particularly strong in reducing the share of the population that lives in poverty, and Uganda is on track to meet the MDG target of halving poverty by 2015. There has also been significant progress towards reducing the share of the population suffering from hunger.
- Progress has been made in terms of gender equality and empowerment of women, the target of gender parity between boys and girls in primary education has been achieved, and the country is on track to meet the targets for access to HIV/AIDS treatment and access to safe water.
- There has also been progress in areas related to the global partnership for development, notably in ensuring debt relief and sustainability, as well as expanding access to information and communication technology.
- While access to primary education has improved especially after the introduction of universal primary and secondary education, the rates of completion of a full course of primary education have stagnated in recent years.
- Health targets including those related to child and maternal mortality, access to reproductive health, and the incidence of malaria and other diseases have also progressed slowly.
- HIV/ AIDs the government has tried to combat the epidemic disease through sensitization and encouraging positive living among the infected people through provision of drugs.
- In other areas however, the Government acknowledges that progress has been too slow to meet the MDGs and in a few cases, there has been critical challenges.