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Millennium Development Goals: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

10/30/2013, 11:00pm CDT
By Kaaren Kargbo-Reffell

What progress is being made here?

Hey WAMMers. It’s been a while as I’ve been researching about what I’m about to talk about, but let’s dive right back into where we left off and talk about the first Millennium Development Goal as it relates to our Technology Resource Center Project in Sierra Leone.

Hey WAMMers. It’s been a while as I’ve been researching about what I’m about to talk about, but let’s dive right back into where we left off and talk about the first Millennium Development Goal as it relates to our Technology Resource Center Project in Sierra Leone. MDG 1 aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger throughout the world, and not just in the developing world, but in developed countries as well. So how is that going so far? The United Nations has given the deadline for all the goals to be reached by 2015. Is everyone on track to reach them, particularly number 1? According to the United Nations Development Programme, Sierra Leone is not, despite major efforts and improvements to the economy and social and political life. However, another West African country is showing enough progress to be on track of meeting the goal in time. That country is Nigeria. In a recent article in All Africa, Precious Gbeneol, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals reported stated that employing more people was the key to eradicating poverty in Nigeria, particularly in the agricultural field. How simple does that sound? Really simple if you ask me, but of course, it isn’t. However, it has been working for Nigeria thus far as they have shown major progress and are currently on track to meet the 2015 MDG to eradicate poverty and extreme hunger. A younger me would have asked why this was fair, how this could happen for one West African nation and not the other. Now as a young adult, I have come to understand that life just isn’t that simple. Things are different in every country, although many may be going through similar struggles or successes.

If you want to find out more about which countries are on track for reaching the MDGs, you can go to this website http://www.cgdev.org/page/mdg-progress-index-gauging-country-level-achievements. Check it out and look at how Western Africa is doing with MDG1. If you do, you’ll actually see that Sierra Leone has made “some progress” and Nigeria is “off track.” Say what???? How can that be when I just talked about how Sierra Leone wasn’t making enough progress and Nigeria was kicking butt? That’s a great question that even I don’t have the answer to. So if you are confused, you’re not alone my friend. And that’s okay. I will continue to research the global progress on this particular MDG and make comparisons. I think it’s worth looking into and asking more questions. In the meantime, you can also read the All Africa article I was talking about here: http://allafrica.com/stories/201310210375.html. Tell me what you think. What are your comments, questions, and concerns?

Take it easy WAMMers. Until next time, take it easy.

Peace and Out,

Kaaren

Tag(s): Kaaren's Blog