The Brookings Institution -- Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Education is the Key Missing Link

[Guest guest]

http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0730_mdgs_education_gartner.aspx

Achieving

the Millennium Development Goals: Education is the Key Missing Link

Development, Developing Countries, International Education, Education, Global Poverty

Gartner,

Co-Director, Center for Universal Education

The

Brookings Institution

July 30, 2010 —

President Obama is releasing a plan for achieving the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 in advance of the largest gathering of world

leaders in at least a decade at the United Nations. While the

Administration’s outline includes useful ideas on tracking development

outcomes and increasing transparency and accountability, it also represents a

missed opportunity to deliver on Obama’s commitment to invest $2 billion

in a Global Fund for Education to achieve universal primary education. For

most of the MDGs, particularly those that are most off-track, success will be

nearly impossible without the achievement of universal primary education, MDG

2. With 72 million children still not in primary school, achieving

universal education would offer extraordinary leverage in the broader fight

against global poverty.

While

there is some progress in poverty reduction for MDG 1: “Eradicate extreme

poverty and hunger,” there is much less progress on the commitment to

halve the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015. Child

malnutrition is a key dimension of world hunger and 137 million children under

the age of 5 are still underweight globally. Educating women is an important

tool for reducing child hunger, according to a cross-country analysis of 63

countries. The study found that educational gains in women’s education

accounted for 43 percent of all progress in reducing child malnutrition.

MDG 3:

“Eliminate gender disparity,” commits to closing the gender gap in

all education levels and increasing female representation in the wage

employment and national parliaments. The latest data indicate that 28 countries

still have fewer than 9 girls in school for every 10 boys. Nearly two-thirds of

these countries are located in sub-Saharan Africa, where there are fewer than 8

girls for every 10 boys enrolled in secondary school. A focus on educating

girls, especially in Africa, is not only essential to achieving universal

education, but it is also vital to achieving the nutrition and health MDGs.

The goal

that is most off-track is MDG 4: “Reduce child mortality,” the

commitment to cutting child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2010. A

recent study published in the Lancet finds that despite progress in the last

20 years in all regions, child mortality will still need to be reduced by

another 3.7 million over the next five years in order to meet that goal. Half

of all child deaths now occur in Sub-Saharan Africa with rates as high as 180

deaths per 100,000 children in Equatorial Guinea; compare that to just 2.5

deaths per 100,000 children in Singapore.

An

analysis some years ago by President Obama’s top economic adviser, Larry

Summers, found that children in Africa born to mothers with just five years of

education were 40 percent more likely to live to age 5. The children of

educated mothers are much more likely to be immunized against killer diseases,

their mothers are much more likely to have received antenatal care, and they

provide better nutrition to their children. Achieving universal primary

education and reaching gender parity in education could save millions of

children’s lives and put MDG 4 within reach.

The next

health commitment, MDG 5: “Improve maternal health”, calls for

reducing maternal mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. Despite

some progress globally in reducing maternal deaths related to childbirth, there

has been much less progress in Africa in recent decades. While medical

interventions are critical to responding to this challenge, education is again

one of the most leveraged investments according to recent studies. One recent

study found that female education alone, both female literacy and the ratio of

female enrollment, could explain 50 percent of the variance between countries

in rates of maternal mortality. In Bangladesh, the significant fall in maternal

mortality over recent decades can in part be explained by the dramatic expansion

of education for girls.

Education

is also a crucial strategy for a leveraged response to AIDS. MDG 6:

“Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.” MDG 6 commits

to halting and reversing the spread of these diseases by 2015. Yet, despite

impressive progress in recent years in expanding access to AIDS treatment, the

results on the prevention sides show that much work remains to be done to

reverse the spread of the disease. Research on the last decade of the AIDS

epidemic indicate that increased schooling is lowering the rate of AIDS

infections and that expanded access to secondary education is especially

significant in reducing female vulnerability to infection. Alongside other

comprehensive prevention strategies, expanding educational opportunities in the

most affected countries is critical to reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

MDG 7:

“Ensure environmental sustainability” focuses on promoting a

sustainable environment by protecting environmental resources, halving the

number of people without water and sanitation, and achieving significant

improvements in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers. Once again, education

is critical when it comes to improving the lives of those living in slums. The

overwhelming response to expanding free primary education to children living in

Africa’s largest slum, in the Kibera division of Nairobi, Kenya

demonstrates how universal education is an incredibly tangible improvement for

millions of slum dwellers.

With just five years left before the 2015 deadline for achieving

the Millennium Development Goals, the world is running out of time. While many

interventions will be needed, one of the best single levers we have to achieve

these goals is to accelerate progress toward universal education. President

Obama should join other world leaders at the upcoming MDG summit in announcing

how together they will invest in multilateral mechanisms to deliver on their

promise to give every child the chance to go to school. There is no other

investment that will have as significant an impact when it comes to promoting

health, gender equity, and nutrition in the fight against global poverty.

Stefanie Ostfeld

Senior Policy Officer

Global AIDS Alliance

1121 14 Street NW, Suite 200

Washington, DC 20005

202.789.0432 ext 216

www.globalaidsalliance.org