The unequal pace of MDG progress and how it relates to
children
With five years to go, the world leaders have gathered together
again to celebrate what has been achieved and to take stock of what
has not. That there have been gains is undeniable. But in the
necessary translation of the declaration into goals, we lost sight of
the fundamental values of the Declaration and its vision of social
justice. The focus of the MDGs on ‘average’ measures of progress
fails to capture the unequal pace of this progress and the systematic
exclusion of certain groups in society.
Figure 1. Ratio of indigenous to non-indigenous infant mortality rate, 2000-
02, selected Latin American countries
Source: Del Popolo, F. and Oyarce, A. (2005).
A report funded by the MDG Achievement Fund focuses on
precisely these groups. In almost every society, in every region of
the world, both rich and poor, there are certain groups of people
who face systematic social exclusion as the result of the intersecting
inequalities that characterise their lives. These include: