Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

5 2 8 / F I T T I N G T H E P I E C E S T O G E T H E RThe World’s Water Crisis: Fitting the Pieces Togethertwo thirds. In addition to those countries where the target has alreadybeen reached, eighty-five countries with 24 percent of the world’spopulation are on track, many of these countries located in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean. Eighty-one countries with 61 percent ofthe world population are not on track to achieve this goal, with sevenlagging and fifty-nine trailing far behind, almost half of these in sub-Saharan Africa, where ten of the fifteen countries that have actuallyslipped backwards in their progress are also located (see table 23.4)Millennium Goal 1: eradicating extreme poverty and hungerTable 23.5 summarizes the prospects of individual countries attainingMillennium Goal 1, the halving by 2015 of the proportion of peoplesuffering hunger, as indicated by levels of malnutrition. Again in additionto those where the target has already been reached, it is estimated thatfifty-one countries with 46 percent of the world’s population are ontrack. Twenty-eight countries with 25 percent of the world populationare not on track to achieve this goal, with four lagging and twenty-fourfar behind, many of these again in the sub-Saharan African region. Hereas well, an alarming fifteen countries have slipped back in their progress.Attaining Millennium GoalsEvaluation of national status of progress across all of the relevantMillennium Development Goals is presented in table 23.6, againdrawing on content of the Human Development Report 2002. Theevaluation is preliminary, as it is based on information extrapolatedduring the 1990s. But such evaluations, ideally from rigorousnational analysis, underpin the monitoring of progress towardstarget attainment. They bring country relevance to the globaltarget. The evaluation shows how certain countries are on track toachieve all of the targets. It also shows how certain countries thatare on track to achieve most targets are lagging or slipping back onone or two of them. For many countries, the magnitude of theoutstanding effort across the range of development areas is clear.Yet the table also shows that very few countries are behind on allof the targets, and even where progress is behind on most, nearlyall countries are on track to meet at least one target.In ConclusionThere is a water crisis. It is a crisis of governance, and it is a crisisdirectly impacting life, livelihoods and well-being as these areexperienced each day. Despite some action, despite some strategicplanning, on a day-to-day basis and from year to year, the everydaylives of an alarming number of people have steadily worsened and willcontinue to do so if we assume business as usual. The fact remainsthough that reaching the Millennium targets by 2015 will improve thedaily lives of several billion people, yet many countries are still not ontrack to reach those targets. If they are not reached, or are onlypartially achieved, many millions of people will subsist in poverty.We know how difficult the road to attaining these targets will be.What we do not know is whether or not we are even able to attainthem. But they are an essential tool for gauging progress and act asincentives to push on. When the mothers of the world see that theirchildren are healthier, that they are better fed, they will know thatprogress has been made. These are the best indicators.What is at stake is whether we – the family of nations,countries, local communities and individuals – can honestly say thatwe have seized every opportunity and mustered every bit of talentand energy to work towards the desired goal. Although it is indeeda daunting task that faces us, every one of us has a role to play inbringing our planet and our people back to health. Ensuring abroader knowledge base and thus empowering everyone to act, is aresponsibility we all can – and must – assume. We are allstakeholders in the Earth, and integrating the efforts ofgovernments, institutions, communities and individuals is the onlyway in which to press forward. To give up is to abandon the Earthand its inhabitants to a world without hope.Table 23.5: Summary of regional progress towards attaining Millennium Development Goal 1Achieved On track Lagging Far behind Slipping back No dataSub-Saharan Africa 2 14 2 11 6 9Arab States 1 5 0 1 0 10East Asia and the Pacific 0 6 0 3 1 9South Asia 0 3 0 3 0 2Latin America and the Caribbean 3 10 2 5 3 10Central and East Europe and the CIS 1 0 11 0 0 1 13Total 6 51 4 24 15 68The purpose of Millennium Development Goal 1 is to halve world hunger. Regions include only Human Development Index countries, whereas total includes all UN member countries excluding highincomeOECD members.1CIS: Commonwealth of Independent StatesSource: UNDP, 2002.