Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

The targets for this goal are to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all including women and young people, and to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. In 2009, 6% of people in South Africa were living on less than two dollars a day. In the same year relative poverty was 42%.

 

The target is to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. In South Africa, the net enrolment ratio in primary education for both sexes was 92% in 2008; for boys it was 92% and for girls it was 94%. In 2007, 89.5% of persons 15 years and older were literate.

 

The target is to eliminate gender equality disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) reflects females’ level of access to education compared to that of males. 1.00 indicated perfect equal access, while below that figure indicates less access for females and vice versa. The primary GPI was 0.980 in 2008 and the secondary GPI was 1.080.

 

The target is to reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five. The under-five mortality rate, which is measured per 1 000 live births, was 68 in 2009 and the infant mortality rate was 47. The proportion of one-year-old children immunised against measles was 90% in the 2008/09 financial year.

The target is to have a three-quarters reduction in the maternal mortality rate (deaths per 1 00 live births of women while pregnant). In 2005 it was 400. The proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel was 91% in 2008 .The second target for this goal is to achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health, which was 60% in 2008. Between 2003 and 2008, 92% of women were receiving antenatal care.

 

The first target is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. The estimated overall HIV prevalence in 2010 was approximately 10.5%. Condom use at last sex as an indicator shows that some 57% of males and 46% of females between 15 and 49 years used condoms in 2008. In addition, the proportion of the population with correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS was 42% in 2008. The second target is to achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it. The proportion of the population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs was 28% in 2008. The proportion of people who received antiretroviral therapy (ARV) out of all people who needed it was 58% in 2009. The third target is to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. This takes into consideration incidence and rates associated with malaria, which dropped by 88% between 2000 and 2008. Tuberculosis cases increased by 135% between 2000 and 2007.

 

The first target here is to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse loss of environmental resources. The second target is to reduce biodiversity loss, achieving by 2010 a significant reduction in the rate of loss. The third target is to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The fourth target is to achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.

The target is to get into co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications. There were 9 telephones lines per 100 people in 2008, while for cellular phones there were 91 per 100.

 

The concrete and numerical nature of these goals makes it possible to measure progress and take corrective steps. South Africa fares well in some areas, but there is still room for improvement this is mainly because the country tends to concentrate more on quantity than on quality.

-Nachi Majoe