Millennium Goals, Five Years to Go

by | 9.20.2010 at 8:58am | 2 Comments
Maize harvest, Mbola Tanzania

As 140 heads of state and government gather Monday at the United Nations for the Millennium Development Goals summit, they and the public will ask what has come out of this decade-long effort. The answer will surprise them …

Promises, Promises: The Clock is Ticking in Africa’s Cities

by | 9.17.2010 at 11:04am
Pre-schoolers in Kumasi, Ghana, who are part of a pilot program using an interactive curriculum, with specially-trained educators and newly created model classrooms.

Back in the flush days of 2005, a confident, wealthy G8 promised sub-Saharan Africa $25 billion more per year to help the region achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015, then 10 years hence.

Drylands of Africa Pose Unique Challenge to Acheiving MDGs

by | 9.16.2010 at 9:53am
2749750977_a6db46779d_z

Dryland regions make up roughly 43% of the earth’s surface. In Africa alone, it’s over 60%, but despite this, decision-makers have generally neglected development of these regions. One of the main reasons is that drylands are assumed to be wastelands, with little potential, and in need of constant supplies of food aid. Contrary to this erroneous belief, the drylands have proven it can sustain agriculture including tree-based livelihoods and animal production.

Reaching the Millennium Development Goals in the Millennium Villages and Beyond

by | 9.15.2010 at 6:32pm
_sitefiles_image_mediapage_mvp_baby-on-back_um_350

There are just five years left until the deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, eight ambitious objectives to tackle extreme poverty and its many dimensions and reach a more equitable and sustainable world by 2015. World leaders are gathering this month at the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals to see that this crucial pledge will be met.

Through efforts like the Millennium Villages project, the Earth Institute, Columbia University, is committed to helping the world achieve the MDGs. Our generous donors are allowing us to come closer to this objective–promoting the achievement of the MDGs in the Millennium Villages and beyond.

The Sustenance in Achieving Global Nutrition Security

by | 9.15.2010 at 10:28am | 2 Comments
Diversifying crops

As the world focuses on the ten-year progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the MDG Summit in New York City, it is with great hope that nutrition is front and center in the discussions and decision making at the luminous building that sits on the East River at 42nd Street.

Transforming Health in the Millennium Villages

by | 9.15.2010 at 10:20am
Community Health Workers in Mbola, Tanzania learn how to use RapidSMS system on their mobile phones donated by Ericsson.

If someone asked me what is the single most important thing that has caused these positive developments in health I would say the Community Health Worker (CHW) system. There are definitely other equally important program interventions in setting up health facilities, ensuring commodity security for health-related consumables, and providing equipment and staffing to optimize the utilization of these health facilities, but the deployment