MDGs – UN Conference process: ideological continuum
The MDGs build on and integrate (“synthesize in a single package”, as UNDP puts it) the main objectives of the post-Cold War conference process of the UN: Jomtien (1990, education), New-York (1990, children), Rio (1992, sustainable development), Vienna (1993, human rights), Cairo (1994, population), social development (1995, Copenhagen), women (1995, Beijing), housing (1996, Istanbul) and food (1996, Rome).
An ideological continuum connects the MDGs to the UN conference process of the 1990s, in particular to the most controversial conferences - Cairo (ICPD) and Beijing. Even if reproductive health was formally added on to the MDG targets only in 2007, reproductive health agents, exercising their powerful influence in global governance, have interpreted the MDGs in the light of their agenda ever since 2001. Gender equality, which includes reproductive health as a prerequisite, is treated as a cross-cutting priority of the MDGs.
In the view of reproductive health and gender equality activists, the MDGs and the Cairo and Beijing conferences are “interlinked and mutually reinforcing”. The reproductive health and gender equality agenda would in fact be at the core of the achievement of all the MDGs. In their view, poverty cannot be eradicated without achieving the goals of Cairo and Beijing.
This view has also been that of the UN Secretariat. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the MDGs said at the launch of UNFPA’s State of World Population 2002 report: “Reproductive health services are not just desirable in and of themselves – which they certainly are – but are absolutely critical tools for alleviating poverty, and in particular for achieving the Millennium Development Goals” (1).
The UNFPA considers that its work “is directly related to five of the MDGs (1, 3, 4, 5 and 6)” and that “indirectly UNFPA plays a role in assisting countries to meet all eight goals.” (2)
Let us take a look at what the MDGs become when they are interpreted in the light of the Cairo and Beijing agendas:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Contraception, “safe abortion” and condom distribution (reproductive health) - not socioeconomic development - would be the way to eradicate extreme poverty and reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. In other words, the program is to eradicate a proportion of the poor rather than extreme poverty.
In the words of UNFPA: to achieve Goal 1, “universal access to reproductive health care for men and women is imperative…” For UNFPA, “unwanted births deepen household poverty”. And: “With half the world’s population under 25 years, investments in adolescents and youth, including… reproductive health… are critical for reducing poverty” (2).
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education. A proper analysis of Goal 2 must take into account the impact the UN conference process has had on reforming the content of education. UNESCO among other global actors advocates the deconstruction of gender stereotypes, HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual education, and a secularist approach to human rights and civic education in textbooks and curricula.
In the words of UNFPA, “to achieve universal primary education, the gender gap must be closed.” The Cairo goal of “basic education for all boys and girls by 2015 can be supported through the empowerment of women, training teachers to be gender sensitive,… providing universal access to reproductive health, and lowering fertility, morbidity and mortality rates.” (1) And: “When mothers are educated and families are smaller, the likelihood that all children will go to school increases. Thus a woman’s education has intergenerational ripple effects.” (2) By “educated mothers”, one must here mainly understand “educated about reproductive health”.
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women. The same remark about the content of education concerns, even more directly, the target of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education at all levels by 2015. The empowerment of women goes through giving them access to the means to control their fertility, the establishment of artificial and imposed quotas, the spread of a culture that deconstructs motherhood and male-female complementarity.
In the words of UNFPA: “Ensuring gender equity and equality and the empowerment of women depends in part on overcoming cultural, social and economic constraints that limit women’s access to education, as well as providing universal access to reproductive health services that allow them to control their fertility.” (1)
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality. The way to reduce child mortality would be to ensure mothers reproductive health so as to have less children (family planning).
In the words of UNFPA: “High fertility reduces the provision of health care to children…. Unwanted children are more likely to die than wanted ones. Providing universal access to reproductive health care will help to prevent unwanted pregnancy”. (1)
Goal 5: Improve maternal health. Paradoxically, the improvement of maternal health goes through enhancing women’s access to contraceptive information and services, if not to so-called “safe abortion”, as seen in the module on MDG 5.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The combat against HIV/AIDS goes through massive condom distribution and sexual education campaigns and programs which impose a western agenda on non-western cultures.
In the words of UNFPA: “Universal access to reproductive health care is critically important in the fight against HIV/AIDS… Preventing infection means enabling young people to protect themselves… including the responsible use of condoms.” (1) And: “Women living with HIV should have access to family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancies”. (2)
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability. Environmental protection goes through population control.
In the words of UNFPA: “The prevention of unwanted births through family planning can help stabilize rural areas, slow urbanization and environmental pressures, and ease demands on public services, thereby balancing natural resource use with the needs of the population. Improving access to education and reproductive health services, including family planning, can mitigate negative effects on the environment by promoting sustainable rural population growth.” (2)
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development. The words of UNFPA speak for themselves: “UNFPA works with many partners to promote sustainable development, reproductive health and gender equality. It also mobilizes support for the ICPD Program of Action, which is fully aligned with the MDGs. A global partnership is critical to securing adequate supplies of essential reproductive health drugs and commodities for poor countries… Population and reproductive health programs have lagged in the least-developed countries, especially those with high levels of mortality and unwanted fertility. These countries will benefit most from higher international assistance and debt relief, as well as domestic resources for health and education. They need universal access to reproductive health care coupled with affordable prices for essential drugs and a secure supply of contraceptives and other reproductive health commodities.” (2)
© Marguerite A. Peeters 2010 – Permission needed for any public or semi-public use of this module.
Sources:
1. UNFPA. Population, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals. How the ICPD Programme of Action Promotes Poverty Alleviation and Human Rights.
2. UNFPA. Master Plans for Development. How the ICPD Programme of Action supports the MDGs.