http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu The Millennium Development Goals have triggered the largest cooperative effort in world history to fight poverty, hunger, and disease. They have become a rallying cry in poor and rich countries alike. Ten years after their adoption, they are alive and stronger than ever, inspiring breakthroughs around the globe. The world wants them to work. We are just five years from the target year 2015. If we aim high, great outcomes are within reach. Africa can achieve food security; all boys and girls can complete primary education, and millions more, secondary education; solar and other energy sources can bring electricity into remote villages; and primary health care can prevent millions of deaths annually and encourage families to have fewer children in the confidence they will stay alive. We can choose, in short, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and look beyond 2015 to the end of extreme poverty in our generation. - Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute Wed, 22 May 2013 13:23:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/28/in-the-fight-against-poverty-higher-priority-needed-for-environmental-sustainability/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/28/in-the-fight-against-poverty-higher-priority-needed-for-environmental-sustainability/#comments Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:19:57 +0000 Earth Institute http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=7071 By Cheryl Palm As the state of the environment directly affects human health and economic wellbeing, the attainment of Millennium Development Goal 7: Ensuring environmental sustainability is critical to the success of all the MDGs.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/28/in-the-fight-against-poverty-higher-priority-needed-for-environmental-sustainability/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/24/mdg-media-rundown-4/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/24/mdg-media-rundown-4/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:33:51 +0000 Kyu Lee http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=7004 ...]]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/24/mdg-media-rundown-4/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/24/educating-girls-leads-to-empowered-societies/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/24/educating-girls-leads-to-empowered-societies/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:13:58 +0000 Susan Karuti http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6995 Educating girls and women is an important step in overcoming poverty. Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3 reflect the commitment that female education has a strong relationship with many other development indicators, and that education is an indispensable tool for women empowerment and the reduction of poverty. Girls' education and the promotion of gender equality in education thus become vital tools for accelerating rural development.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/24/educating-girls-leads-to-empowered-societies/feed/ 3 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/22/mcis-mdg-heroes-series-physicians-for-peaces-ron-sconyers-helps-millennium-cities-attain-health-related-mdgs/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/22/mcis-mdg-heroes-series-physicians-for-peaces-ron-sconyers-helps-millennium-cities-attain-health-related-mdgs/#comments Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:09:22 +0000 Susan Blaustein http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6920 Since 2006, Physicians for Peace (PfP), a U.S. based non-profit focused on providing health care training and education to developing countries, has been working with the Millennium Cities Initiative to help the Millennium Cities in their efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals. Under the leadership of Brigadier General Ron Sconyers, PfP has shipped containers of life-saving medicines and medical equipment to the Millennium Cities in Mali and Senegal; has led several missions to research the most acute medical training needs in Millennium Cities in both east and west Africa; and has dispatched multiple surgical teams to perform fistula repair surgeries that have transformed the lives of many women and girls in Kaduna, Nigeria, and Segou, Mali. PfP has also been instrumental in advocating for a blood bank in Segou, Mali, which will bring millions of people access to safe blood transfers. To coincide with this week's UN MDG Summit, MCI interviewed this "MDG Hero" about his work with Physicians for Peace to advance health-related MDGs. ]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/22/mcis-mdg-heroes-series-physicians-for-peaces-ron-sconyers-helps-millennium-cities-attain-health-related-mdgs/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/over-1m-in-new-private-sector-commitments-announced-to-support-earth-institute-collaborations-to-achieve-the-mdgs/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/over-1m-in-new-private-sector-commitments-announced-to-support-earth-institute-collaborations-to-achieve-the-mdgs/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:39:26 +0000 Megan Winston http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6844 Today, two of the world’s leading companies announce grants and technical support totaling more than $1,000,000 aimed at ending global poverty by 2015. ]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/over-1m-in-new-private-sector-commitments-announced-to-support-earth-institute-collaborations-to-achieve-the-mdgs/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/mdg-summit-media-rundown-3/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/mdg-summit-media-rundown-3/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:46:12 +0000 Kyu Lee http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6834 ...]]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/mdg-summit-media-rundown-3/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/useless-condoms-and-the-trap-of-hiv-sensitization/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/useless-condoms-and-the-trap-of-hiv-sensitization/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:34:31 +0000 Yanis Ben Amor http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6724 In Ruhiira, Uganda, one of 14 clusters of Millennium Villages across sub-Saharan Africa, combating HIV, including Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT), through sensitization campaigns, condoms, and antiretrovirals (ARVs) is only half the battle. Addressing the other half—a deeply ingrained culture of female disempowerment— is an unavoidable challenge, which is dangerously neglected. The victimization of females through cross-generational sex serves as a major vector for the spread of HIV. It is common and it is getting worse.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/useless-condoms-and-the-trap-of-hiv-sensitization/feed/ 4 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/mdg-summit-media-rundown-2/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/mdg-summit-media-rundown-2/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:05:20 +0000 Kyu Lee http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6717 ...]]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/21/mdg-summit-media-rundown-2/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/20/the-challenge-of-the-half-acre-plot/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/20/the-challenge-of-the-half-acre-plot/#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:53:22 +0000 Rustom Masalawala http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6699 Ask most who have worked in this region, “what characterizes small holder farming in sub-Saharan Africa ?”, and the answer, which sadly, has remained unchanged for the past ten years, will go something like this: mono-cropping, reuse of seeds season after season, no fertilizer, and ever diminishing land holding sizes. Add to that the fluctuations in global weather patterns, and what you get is an entire population living on the very fine edge of food security.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/20/the-challenge-of-the-half-acre-plot/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/20/media-rundown-on-mdgs/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/20/media-rundown-on-mdgs/#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:32:35 +0000 Kyu Lee http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=6670 ...]]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2010/09/20/media-rundown-on-mdgs/feed/ 0