'Urgent practical action' can still save Millennium Development Goals

Urgent action is needed to help achieve the MDGs and dramatically improve the lives of millions of children.

THE Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can still be achieved if practical measures are taken quickly, international children’s organisation Plan said today, as world leaders gather in New York for the MDG Review Summit.

The United Nations has admitted that without concerted effort, attempts to meet the Goals and reduce global poverty by 2015 will fail in most areas.

Plan says action in three key areas over the remaining five years will help achieve the MDGs and dramatically improve the lives of millions of children.

Plan is focusing on three key areas it believes are vital in attaining the MDGs. These are:

• Improving the lives of girls

• Universal birth registration

• Stopping violence in school

Lack of investment in girls threatens several MDGs. Crucial investments are needed in access to healthcare to stop more girls dying (MDG 4); to prevent girls from missing out on school due to persistent illness (MDG 6); and to establish pre-school education so girls and families become more engaged in their education (MDG 2 and 3).

Universal birth registration provides essential, accurate population data for monitoring MDGs, in particular reducing child mortality (MDG 4), improving maternal health (MDG 5) and promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG 3).

Without a birth certificate a child may not be able to receive immunisations or free health care, sit exams or claim rights to inheritance or legal protection. Proof of age is also critical for prosecuting crimes against children such as trafficking, sexual offences, early recruitment into the armed forces, child marriage and child labour.

MDGs 2 and 3 will not be achieved unless international organisations, governments, local communities, teachers, parents and children work together to uphold children’s right to a violence-free education. The billions spent on education are wasted if children are simply too scared to go to school.

"The next five years offer a small window of opportunity in which world leaders must take swift, decisive action. There will be no 'second chance' for millions of vulnerable children," said Plan International Australia's Chief Executive Ian Wishart.

"Plan’s very practical campaigns are going some way towards giving marginalised children the protection, opportunity and rights in life to which they are entitled. But what is now needed is far more commitment from governments. Otherwise millions of children will die simply because of the increasing gulf between the very rich and the very poor," he said.

Plan is calling upon all governments to:  Ensure that child rights are central to all decisions made on the MDGs; increase global efforts to achieve Universal Birth Registration; outlaw all violence against children in schools and increase investments in girls' education from early childcare and development to secondary school.

ENDS

To speak to Ian Wishart or for more information, contact:

David Cook

Media Officer
Plan International Australia
Ph: 03 9672 3652
Mobile: 0448 816 900
Email: David.cook@plan.org.au