Middle East / North Africa and the Millennium Development Goals ...

Markus Loewe
come poverty and hunger. In some countries, poverty has even further
spread. Nor has there been sufficient progress on efforts to increase
school-enrolment and literacy rates. Many countries of the region still lack
modern technologies, and all MENA countries are far from reaching the
goal of environmental sustainability (MDG7) as well as from achieving
the goal of good economic and political governance (MDG8).
At the same time, however, the countries of the region have made good
progress in implementing MDG3. As in other regions – excepting sub-
Saharan Africa – nearly all MENA countries have succeeded in raising
school enrolment ratios for girls, in this way reducing the gap between the
educational chances of girls and boys – although this development has not
yet found expression in improved vocational, political, and legal equality
for women in the region.
The MENA countries have also made some progress in the field of public
health. Many of them have succeeded in appreciably reducing infant,
child, and maternal mortality rates, which means that they are likely to
reach MDG4 and MDG5. Only for the three low-come countries in the region,
Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen, are there reasons to fear that these
two goals may not be reached by 2015.
At present not much can be said about MDG6, since there are no reliable
data available on the number of persons who have been infected or have
come down with HIV/Aids. One reason for this is that a taboo continues to
hang over this immune-deficiency disease. All in all, the prevalence of
HIV/Aids is likely to be lower than in other parts of the world, but the
number of new infections has risen considerably during the last few years.
One country in the region has proved particularly successful with regard to
the MDGs: Tunisia is more than likely to reach at least six of the eight
goals. It has encountered some difficulties in implementing MDG5 and
MDG7 – although its main problem is meeting the good-governance target
in MDG8. As far as human rights, freedom of the press, and the participation
of the population in political decision-making are concerned, the
situation in Tunisia has even deteriorated since 1990.
42 German Development Institute