Category: MDG progress of South America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean have made considerable progress towards achieving the targets included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), though the recent global crisis may have affected the sustainability of the achievements. Furthermore, progress has been varied among different countries and MDGs.

Although the region has managed to reduce by half the proportion of people suffering from hunger, progress towards poverty reduction has been insufficient. Considerable progress has, however, been made in reducing the proportion of the population with food energy consumption level below minimum rates.

Education

With regard to the education goals, the region has managed to achieve universal primary education and enrolment, though progress in completing primary education has been slower, plus not all countries have achieved universal net enrolment for the entire primary cycle. The targets regarding the gender MDG of eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education have been largely achieved.

Health

The health MDGs have also been largely achieved, with reduced infant and child mortality coupled with improved child health. With regard to maternal mortality, Latin America and the Caribbean seems to be lagging behind other regions, and will need to put the most effort in this area once the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs come into play. There have been varied results in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases, and reversal has started in just a few of the countries.

Environment

The scope of environmental sustainability in this region presents a great challenge, with serious deterioration of the environment and depreciation of natural capital, which has impacted health, income and productivity, physical vulnerability, and the quality of life. So, the environmental MDGs are largely off-track, and more should be done post 2015.

With regard to the 8th MDG, the region has done fairly better than other developing regions in terms of access to trade, debt sustainability, development assistance, youth problems, and the development of landlocked nations and small island states.

Fact sheet on current MDG progress of Belize (Latin America and the Caribbean)

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The Millennium Development Goals provided Belize with a basis on which to track and measure its development progress. The country’s strategies have been clear, deliberate, and consistent, resulting in considerable advancement towards most of the MDG goals compared to the rest of the region.

MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger – off target

None of the targets under MDG1 were achieved, since instead of trending downwards, poverty and indigence increased from 2002.

Between 2002 and 2009, the proportion of Belize population below $1.25 per day increased from 33.5 to 41.3 percent (15.8 percent of whom are classified as extremely poor). The target for halving the poverty gap ratio was also not achieved, and only negligible change was recorded within the same period, from 10.9 in 2002 to 10.8 in 2009.

The growth of GDP per worker has trended downward since 2000, and was at 3.12 percent at the end of 2007. However, the downward trend changed and increased to 4.7 percent in 2012 following increased efficiency in the use of labour coupled with a shift in the type of productive activities in the economy after Belize became a petroleum exporter in 2005. (more…)