African countries will fail to meet UN development goals by 2030
The UN goal of ending childhood malnutrition by 2030 will not be achieved by any African country, new research published by Nature finds.
In 2015 the UN established 17 new Sustainable Development Goals as successors to the UN Millennium Development Goals that were set in 2000. However, the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, describes the progress of ending malnutrition as “patchy” with indicators remaining consistently high in 14 countries since 2000, despite improvement in childhood stunting.
Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—a private foundation which “works with partners worldwide to tackle critical problems” in global health, development, growth, opportunity, and policy—the two papers display a series of maps that detail child growth and education at individual village level.
At such a detailed level, the data collected is far more accurate than that found using previous methods. Senior author of the papers, Simon Hay, comments that “most of the previous assessments were made at best at state level and many at a country level,” thereby concealing large variations in each country.
The papers examine 51 African countries between 2000 and 2015 and particularly focus on both child growth rates and educational attainment for women of reproductive age, as forecasters of child mortality.
The target set by the UN was “aspirational,” according to Hay, and one that is currently “very, very far away.” Hay recommends that the social inequalities that result in health disparities, including educational attainment for women, be addressed in order to witness any progress from investments in global health.
In his IZA World of Labor article, Female labor force participation in developing countries, Sher Verick writes that “particular emphasis is needed on keeping young girls in school and ensuring that they receive a good quality education” in order to aid development. Jungho Kim correspondingly argues that “the positive health impacts of education, on both women and their children, mean women are better able to give birth" and results in a higher child survival rate, in Female education and its impact on fertility.
The research also recommends adopting “evidence-based precision public health programmes to track and improve progress” to provide better knowledge on where to direct investment and resources.
Read related articles on the role of education in developing countries.
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