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Introduction
Namibia is proud to have played a key role in the formulation of the Millennium Declaration, with the President and Prime Minister as cochair of the Millennium Summit and President of the General Assembly, respectively. The Millennium Declaration, which has been adopted by all UN member states, sets out within a single framework the key challenges facing humanity; it outlines a response to these challenges, and establishes concrete measures for assessing performance through a set of interrelated goals on development, governance, peace, security and human rights. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Develop a global partnership for development.
Each of the goals is associated with a series of time-bound targets and a number of indicators to assist the systematic monitoring of global and national progress made against the Millennium Declaration. The Declaration also defines the roles and responsibilities of key actors: namely, national governments to achieve the goals and targets; international organisations to marshal their resources and expertise in the most strategic and efficient way; and citizens, civil society organisations and the private sector to rally behind global and national campaigns towards achieving
the MDGs.
The Government of the Republic of Namibia is implementing the Millennium Declaration and systematically monitoring the MDGs within the context of national and sectoral development frameworks. The MDG campaign forms part of the national process of strengthening policies that can mobilise all
Namibians and the international community behind the grand Vision for the year 2030, through which Namibia will enjoy “Prosperity, Harmony, Peace and Political Stability”.
This report is organised into eight chapters, one for each of the MDGs. Each chapter reviews the status and trends in terms of progress, the main challenges and opportunities in reaching the goal, and the supportive environment, as well as outlining priorities for development partners. From the global framework of the Millennium Declaration, national targets and indicators have been developed to ensure
that the MDGs are firmly rooted in the national development milestones of Vision 2030 and the objectives of the Second National Development Plan (NDPII).
While the report does advocate certain changes in policies, it does not make elaborate policy recommendations. This is done in the context of other ongoing national processes, such as the National Poverty Reduction Action Plan (NPRAP) and NDPII. The MDG report serves as a foundation for continued
debate on the challenges and opportunities in realising Vision 2030.
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