Health-dedicated millennium development goals: What has been done wrong?

Abstract

Aim: To discuss the inequalities of maternal and infant health in developed and developing countries based on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report from 2015. Results: When almost 20 years ago United Nations General Assembly launched Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there was a hope that inequalities in the world will be decreasing. Among the MDGs, there were goals 4 and 5 dedicated to the child and maternal health, mostly treating maternal, neonatal, and under-five mortality rates. The analysis of the achievement of MDGs revealed that time for developing countries to reach the same chance of neonatal survival as in 2012 for newborn babies in high-income countries, based on the average annual rate of reduction from 2000 to 2012, is for sub-Saharan Africa 110 years and for South Asia 99 years. These distressing data urged world leaders at United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20 Conference in 2012) to launch 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be implemented till 2030. Sustainable development goals differ from MDG because they cover all aspects of human life and development, such as environment, peace, justice, security, equality, education, and health, and SDGs apply to all countries not just to developing world. Most of the SDGs carry forward the matters not solved by the MDGs. In contrast to the MDGs, SDGs have been brought together within one framework as universal whole, with the interactions among them, which are brought into focus in the 2030 Agenda. Conclusion: There is a hope that approach offered by SDG can decrease existing gap in maternal and infant health in the world.