Goal 4 : Quality Education

Quality Education

“Education is pre-eminently a matter of quality, not amount.”
- Henry Ford.

The Fourth goal is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.Education has long been an agenda of the UN. The first attempt in making primary education an access to all started at the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand in the year 1990 in which six goals were adopted which was to be achieved by the year 2000. However, the targets were not achieved. In the year 2000, there were six Education for All (EFA) goals adopted in the World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal.

A few months later, the United Nations established the eight Millennium Development Goals which were to be achieved by the year 2015. Two important MDGs with respect to the newly adopted SGDs are Goal which aimed to achieve universal access to primary education and Goal 3 which aimed in establishing gender parity in education. Ensuring quality education ensures greater economic growth, improved public health and more resilient and peaceful societies. Education also contributes to reducing inequalities and eradicating poverty, while supporting the expansion of more just, inclusive and sustainable societies.

Statistics post MDGs:
• Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 percent in 2010, up from 82 percent in 1999, which means more kids than ever are attending primary school.
• In 2011, 57 million children of primary school age were out of school.
• Even as countries with the toughest challenges have made large strides, progress on primary school enrolment has slowed. One in ten children of primary school age was still out of school in 2012.
• Gender gaps in youth literacy rates are also narrowing. Globally, 781 million adults and 126 million youth (aged 15 to 24) worldwide lack basic reading and writing skills and more than 60 percent of them are women.

Goal 4 of the SDG pushes the bar higher and sets broader and more ambitious targets when compared to the MDG.

With respect to Goal 4 of SDG, it aims to achieve:
The SDG on Quality Education aims to, by 2030
• Ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality primary and secondary education
• Increase the number of young adults with relevant skills
• Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access of University level education to all men and women.

Further, it aims to:
- Build and upgrade educational facilities which are accessible and provides for an effective learning environment.
- By 2020, increase the number of scholarships available to developing and least developed countries.
- By 2030, increase the supply of qualified teachers in developing and least developed countries.

India

In India, universal education has been a constant struggle since the constitution was drafted. After the judiciary included Right to education as a fundamental right under Article 21, the legislative was pushed enact and pass the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act in 2009. This was a major step taken by the Indian Government to achieve the goal of universal education set by the MDG.

Though we are moving closing to achieve universal primary education, we are far from achieving inclusive and quality education. The aim of the Government must now be to move towards establishing an education system which is universal, inclusive and improve the quality of the present day educational system, not just the primary educational institutions but higher educational institutions as well.

Conclusion

The goals adopted over the past few years have made far reaching gains over the past few years. Countries have used these goals as a foundation to build on and move towards improving their education policies. Since 2000, the international community has made remarkable progress in expanding educational opportunities and has made education a reality for all those who dreamt of it. Achieving the targets set by the SDG will require the commitment from both the governments and international organizations to allocate sufficient and efficient financing towards education, especially in developing and under developed countries.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
- Nelson Mandela

Goal 3 : Good Health and Well Being

Good Health and Well Being

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality. Major progress has been made on increasing access to clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the spread of HIV/AIDS. However, many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues. Global Goal 3 focuses on all aspects of health in the world.

Why does Global Goal 3 matter?

Have you ever been so sick you couldn’t get out of bed? Broken a bone? Couldn’t stop coughing? Usually you go to the doctor, or a hospital, they do some make a diagnosis and prescribe something and you walk out a healthier person. But not everyone has that, and we usually take it for granted. Across the world over 1.3 billion people do not have access to effective and affordable health care, and 93 percent of them are in low and middle income countries. These countries only make up 18 percent of global income, and represent 11 percent of global spending on health care, meaning there’s a huge imbalance.

Maternal mortality rates are 14 times higher in developing countries than in developed countries, and only half of women in those regions have access to the recommended amount of health care.

According to the UN, over 16,000 children under 5 die every day, mainly from malnourishment, dehydration and preventable diseases. Though progress has been made, it is important to further achieve certain goals by 2030. Recognizing the interdependence of health and development, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an ambitious, comprehensive plan of action for people, planet and prosperity and for ending the injustices that underpin poor health and development outcomes.

Targets of Goal 3

Some of the targets of Goal 3 are as follows:
- By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
- By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases
- By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being
- Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
- By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents 3.7
- By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes
- Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all

What tactics will be used to achieve Goal 3, and what can you do?

The UN is spearheading a social media campaign to raise awareness of these global goals and other main platforms for world improvement in 2015.

A huge part of this is simply spreading the word any way you can. Show a friend a documentary. Send out invitations on facebook or twitter to share in the dissemination of information. Vaccinate your children.

Implore world leaders to pass laws that increase foreign aid to countries where health care may be lacking.
And possibly the most important thing is to remember. Remember that there are those less fortunate than you, who need your help. Stay up to date, stay informed, talk to friends, co-workers, take every step you can to get the word out.
2015 is a year of action.

It’s the year we stand up, not as members of individual countries, but as Global Citizens in the fight to make the world a better place for our children and for each other.

Goal 2 : Zero Hunger

GOAL NO. 2: ZERO HUNGER

There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

- Gandhi

The realization of the need to fight hunger has long been felt by many. The presupposition that Global Hunger is the call of the hour is indeed a categorical truth. But what is more important than the tenets of The UN and the organizations spearheading this global cause, is the modus operandi that briefly follows this decade and the next. Though the initiatives are nascent, it is important that the commonwealth are well informed about the big tidal wave that is about to follow.

Simply stated, the title says it all. “Zero Hunger”, the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), aims to battle the global malnutrition by ensuring the denizens of the world get adequate and nutritious food. On a grandiose scale, it is a global political mission involving the participation of several Individuals, NGOs, Governments and Civil Society. Inspired by the success of countries like Brazil in reducing hunger, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon initiated the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. The Challenge has an integrated approach, with logical objectives. It calls on all stakeholders to work together in an amalgamated manner, and help them recognize that Zero Hunger can only be achieved if all elements are taken together: zero stunting and good nutrition, with access to adequate food for everyone at all times. The twelfth SDG calls on member states to “Ensures sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns” which similarly includes a target on global food waste and loss. With these goals in hand, The UN aims to eradicate hunger and improve prudential consumption of food.

Having established such a daring proposal, the UN faces a demanding mission which requires a diligent and meticulous undertaking. The 2030 Agenda recognizes that the UN cannot claim success if any goal is unmet, or if any country or person is left behind. Hence the UN recognizes that each goal can only be achieved in the company of the others.

The Birth of the Goal

“If, by the end of my term, all Brazilians are able to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, I will have fulfilled my life's mission,” said Lula in his inaugural speech as his country's president on January 1st 200. To end this national threat that plagued his country, the flagship of his administration's all-out attack on poverty became Fome Zero (Zero Hunger), a scheme to ensure that even the poorest Brazilian will get three square meals a day. That was 9 years before the Rio Summit. Today Rio is successful in reducing its nation hunger by 93%. The United Nations decided that Rio would be the perfect place to hold the summit.

Ban praised the previous efforts of the Brazilian government to reduce poverty and hunger through its Fome Zero program, launched in 2004 at the summit. The initiative has lifted millions of people out of poverty by supporting local farmers and community kitchens and introducing social welfare policies such as the Bolsa Familia scheme. He went on to propose a similar vision of his for the world at the summit. He named it Zero Hunger. He called on everyone to take action that would reduce the number of undernourished people – more than 870 million at that time – and help build sustainable food systems that could provide adequate nutritious food to all people all year round while supporting smallholder and family farmers.

The Causes of Hunger and Food Security include the following

1. Depleted Assets and Depleted Resources.

2. Insufficient Income.

3. Climate Change and Global Warming.

4. Lack of livelihood diversification.

5. Weak Global nets and Weak Policy Environment.

The Objectives of the Zero Hunger Program

1. 100% access to food for all, all year round

2. An end to stunted growth among children under two, due to lack of nutrients in their infancy.

3. Ensuring food systems are sustainable (although there is no reference to how this could be achieved).

4. Doubling smallholder productivity and income

5. A reduction in food waste beginning from the sowing of the seed till the final consumption.

The Modus Operandi

Three years after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his Zero Hunger Challenge he wanted it to be a millennium development goal. He invited more than 40,000 people from more than 130 countries, UN officials and civil society leaders to share his vision of the future. The 23 UN agencies, funds and programs of the High-Level Task Force for Global Food Security have aligned their collective work plans around the elements and vision of the Zero Hunger Challenge. This instilled hopes in the minds of millions of people around the world who are expecting a rapid change in the developmental process.

Endorsing the challenge, the UK's deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, said Britain would be allocating £150m from the international climate change fund to support about 6 million farmers, particularly in Nigeria and Ethiopia. The money will be channelized through the adaptation for smallholder agriculture program to help farmers adapt to the impact of climate change.

The man who designed the Fome Zero program for the Brazil, Graziano da Silva, is currently the director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He promised to work along with the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD), the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, the World Bank and Biodiversity International to collectively amass money for the Sustainable Development Funds.

Also the World Bank has pledge to invest 35 billion US $ for the mission with investments in technology of leading Corporates such as Biogen, Amway and PepsiCo.

The Global Response

Unilever and DSM

In Bangladesh, Unilever has invested more than $800,000 this year in programs to improve the nutritional health of school children in government schools within India by initiating a free school meals program that is reaching more than 47,000 children. DSM, is providing its expertise to help WFP improve the nutritional value of the food it distributes in the form of micronutrients enhanced fortified rice.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The world’s largest private foundation — will spend $776 million over the next six years to fight malnutrition, a strong signal of support for a historically underfunded sector, according to the foundation’s leaders. Co-chair Melinda Gates announced the new pledge — and its accompanying new program strategy —at the European Development Days, the European Commission’s development forum held annually in Brussels, Belgium. In her remarks, Gates highlighted nutrition’s chronic underrepresentation in global development budgets and called on other donors to step up their own commitments.

The Indian Response

The Midday Meal Scheme

The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal program of the government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The MDM scheme has many potential benefits: attracting children from disadvantaged sections (especially girls, Dalits and Adivasis) to school, improving regularity, nutritional benefits, and socialization benefits. Media reports have also highlighted several implementation issues, including irregularity, corruption, hygiene, caste discrimination, etc. The toddlers are also given only a 270 Calories intake despite the promised 450 Calories. Hence, the efficacy of the scheme is highly debatable.

M.S.Swaminathan’s Commitment

2015 is the International Year of the Soil and Mr Swaminathan, the Father of Green Revolution, aimed to highlight the importance of land and soil in achieving the Zero Hunger Challenge. He promised to contribute 18000 GM Seeds to farmers in Punjab for free of cost. He helped farmers in Punjab construct Solar Panels which are connected to a hydroponics system of irrigation. He also held an All India Workshop at Gurgaon - Haryana, to educate farmers on the scientific method of Farming and told them about the UN SDGs.

The Future and Solution

Eliminating hunger and malnutrition means building policy frameworks and investing in programming approaches that prioritize nutrition for children in their first 1,000 days, sustainable smallholder agriculture, rural development, poverty reduction, climate control, social protection and equality of opportunity. The only two solutions to this conundrum are Technology and Sustainability. Today’s crops crisscross the globe: Mexico's tomatoes end up on our plate, our wheat heads to Africa. As a result, the challenge of growing twice as much food by 2030 to feed nine billion people—with less and less land—is everyone's problem. But scientists are hard at work, fomenting a second green revolution.

The Future Solutions

1. Farming the Deserts

2.  Increasing Biodiversity in countries  

3. Rebuild Rice by altering its genome

4. Replace Fertilizer with Recycled Food waste

5. Re-Map a Continent

6. Use Robot Labour

7. Resurrect the Soil using Carbon Nanotubes and Nanotechnology

8. Make Super-crops adjust to Global Warming

As we work towards the objectives set out in the Zero Hunger Challenge, we recognize that no single organization – however committed it is, and however deep its pockets – will be able to help the world reach these goals on its own. It is only with the arduous efforts of many people can such an audacious issue be confronted.