Why is there only one MDG on education but three on health?
by Alex Evans | Jun 29, 2011
Did you ever wonder why it should be that there’s only one Millennium Development Goal on education, but no fewer than three on health (specifically, on child health, maternal health and HIV/AIDS)?
I found out the answer yesterday, while talking to some of the people involved in pulling together the MDGs a little over a decade ago. The reason, apparently, is because the UN system has three agencies leading on different parts of health – UNICEF on kids’ health, UNFPA on maternal health and UNAIDS on HIV – and they each wanted an MDG of their own. Bless. Hurrah for system coherence.
-
Alex Evans is founder of Larger Us, which explores how we can use psychology to reduce political tribalism and polarisation, a senior fellow at New York University, and author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough? (Penguin, 2017).
He is a former Campaign Director of the 50 million member global citizen’s movement Avaaz, special adviser to two UK Cabinet Ministers, climate expert in the UN Secretary-General’s office, and was Research Director for the Business Commission on Sustainable Development.
Alex lives with his wife and two children in Yorkshire.
View all posts
