Opportunity International Australia Blog

People living in poverty often have limited access to improved water sources and adequate sanitation. Micah Challenge’s Give Poverty the Flush campaign aims to draw attention to the difference that water, sanitation and hygiene improvement projects can make. The World Heath Organisation estimates that these improvements have the capacity to save two million lives annually and prevent 28% of all child deaths.

Millennium Development Goal 7C aims to halve the number of people living worldwide without access to clean drinking water – approximately 775 million people – by 2015. While great strides towards this goal have been made – with two billion people gaining access to clean water since 1990, there is still a lot more work to be done.

A renewed focus on water, sanitation and hygiene projects will also help us reach a number of other Millennium Development Goals by:
•    Reducing child mortality by decreasing the occurrence of septicaemia, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition
•    Improving maternal health through increased nutrition
•    Ensuring environmental sustainability
•    Achieving universal primary education – especially as more girls stay in school when there is access to private toilets
•    Stimulating economies through avoided health costs, improved productivity and better school attendance
•    Combating HIV/AIDS fatalities through improved treatment.

What do we want? And when do we want it?
Micah Challenge is asking for the following assistance from the Australian government:
1.    A timetabled commitment to increase the foreign aid budget to 0.7% GNI by 2020
2.    An increased budget to $500 million annually by 2015 for water, sanitation and hygiene projects
3.    At least half of this $500 million should be allocated to sanitation, with AusAID reporting separately on allocations made to sanitation and water.

Want to get involved?
Micah Challenge is encouraging the Australian public to get involved with a series of events, petitions and media promotions to help stop basic sanitation and clean water from being considered a luxury anywhere in the world. To find out how you can get involved, visit http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/give-poverty-the-flush-event

Gains have been made in the fight against poverty for some of the world’s poorest people, but living standards still lag for the ‘poorest of the poor’. The Millennium Development Goals Report, released by the United Nations in mid July, states that although there has been significant overall progress towards achieving these global targets, there is still much more work to be done.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have helped shape a broad vision that remains an overarching framework for development work across the world, fuelling action and progress in people’s lives; helping to enable millions of people to gain access to quality education, better health care and safe drinking water.

Despite the recent global economic downturn and food and fuel crises, we may still be on track to meet the MDG target for poverty reduction. Increased funding from several sources has translated into programs and resources for the neediest. Already, the proportion of people living on less than US$1.25 a day between 1990 and 2005 has halved. The fastest growth and sharpest reduction in poverty continue to be found in eastern Asia, particularly China, where the poverty rate is expected to fall to less than 5% by 2015. India has also contributed to the large reduction, with extreme poverty rates projected to fall from 51% in 1990 to an estimated 22% in 2015. As a total, global poverty is expected to dip below 15% by 2015 - well ahead of the original 23% target.

Although there have been significant reductions in poverty, the proportion of people going hungry worldwide in 2005 - 2007 remains too high - at 16%. While we should celebrate India’s successful reduction to its poverty levels, statistics from the World Bank state there is still 75.6 % of the population living on less than US$2 per day – which is more than 800 million people. 

Trends observed in south-eastern Asia, eastern Asia and Latin America suggest that they are also unlikely to meet the hunger-reduction rate by 2015. Wide disparities are found among countries in these regions; progress tends to bypass those who are at the lowest of the economic ladder or otherwise disadvantaged by their sex, age, ethnicity or disability. Disparity between rural and urban areas remains large and achieving the goals will require inclusive and sustainable economic growth, especially for the poor and marginalised. 

To combat these disparities, Opportunity International Australia provides people living in poverty with access to small loans and other complementary services. To ensure that equal access is given and to reduce poverty, Opportunity provides these services to people living in rural and marginalised areas and to both men and women.

Would you like to see the world achieve the MDGs? If so, you can join Opportunity in the fight against poverty by supporting our programs in Indonesia, the Philippines and India. Click here to make a difference.

The United Nations International Volunteers Day will be held on 5 December 2010. Celebrated around the world to recognise the contribution of volunteers in the community, the day this year is particularly special as it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers. As well as a time for thanking our volunteers, the event is also an opportunity to remind people that volunteering contributes to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with the United Nations stating that in order for the MDGs to be achieved, they will require the ingenuity, solidarity and creativity of millions of people through voluntary action.

Opportunity International Australia has more than 26 volunteers and interns that help out in our head and state offices across Australia – organising fundraising activities, providing administrative support, sharing their IT skills and contributing to our research projects. They help us achieve our mission by enabling us to better steward our resources, increase our efficiency and ensure that more funds are put in the hands of those who need it most. We would like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers for their support and dedication.

If you would like to volunteer with Opportunity, please click here https://www.opportunity.org.au/Get-Involved/Volunteer.aspx

If you would like to donate to our programs as we work to achieve the MDGs, please click here https://www.opportunity.org.au/Donations---Events.aspx

With only five years left, Philippine President Benigno Aquino has acknowledged that at least three of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – poverty reduction, improvements in maternal health and universal primary education – are unlikely to be met in the Philippines. One major target set in 2000 was to reduce poverty by half. The food crisis and a shaky economic climate in recent years has been a major setback to government efforts.

According to Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga, there is only a ‘medium’ chance that poverty will be halved in the country, and that the government can only reasonably hope to reduce the percentage of people living in extreme poverty from 14.6% to 12.15%. He has also said that the government needs more specified intervention, as there are wide disparities across regions. 

One aspect of this intervention comes in the form of money and jobs offered to residents in its militant- hit south. The recovery program will provide the tens of thousands of people, that have been displaced, access to basic infrastructure and heath services, as well as employment through an employment guarantee scheme. The scheme guarantees the employment to one member of every household affected by the conflict, and skills training would be offered to the other adults. The government expects the program, which has been given a time frame of three years, to be implemented and working by January 2011.  

The President has also said that the government will broaden the reach of the Cash Transfer Program, which offers Php.1400 (around A$32) a month to poor families that keep their children in school. Under the program, families that would normally be unable to send their children to school due to cost have some of this financial constraint removed. 

With regard to the other goals, the Philippines is tracking well with gender equality, reducing toddler deaths, controlling malaria and tuberculosis and improving access to sanitary toilets. However, the spread of HIV Aids and maternal mortality remain areas of concern. 

The MDGs are interrelated, and cannot be fully achieved separately. The solutions reached need to tackle the cause of poverty, and not just its manifestations. Opportunity International Australia works with those living in need, giving a vital hand up that helps families break the cycle of poverty. If you would like to provide a small loan to a family living in poverty, please click here.

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In September the international community will come together in New York for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit, with the hope that an action plan will be established so we can reach the MDGs by 2015.

Back in June 2010, Opportunity International Australia was invited to join the Government’s 2010 Consultative Forum on Aid, along with other international aid and development agencies. This was an opportunity for us to provide our views on the priority actions that the Australian Government’s delegation should highlight during this summit.

After a brief delay due to the Canberra fog closing the airport, I was fortunate enough to join this group and participate in a roundtable concentrating on poverty, hunger and gender equality. Microfinance as a poverty alleviation strategy can be connected to all of the MDGs however it particularly resonates with MDG 1 (to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty) and MDG3 (promote gender equality and empower women).

Overall, the summit provided AusAID with a basis for the key elements that need to be actioned for the international community to meet the MDG targets. It was noted that some progress has been eroded by the recent financial crisis, and conflict and the increasing severity and frequency of natural disasters pose a further threat.

Despite the commitments made by many governments, many countries are still not on track to achieve their MDG targets by 2015. However in the past few years there has been an encouraging and important shift in the approach to fighting extreme poverty, which puts the human rights of the poor at the centre of the debate. 

It was agreed by all parties that there needs to be a renewed effort in collaboration between agencies and the governments of both donor and recipient countries, with a focused effort on the effectiveness of the programs currently taking place.

With all the current domestic political uncertainty and change in leadership it will be with interest we watch Australia’s position at the summit in September and the commitments to international aid that our government will make. We’ll keep you updated! 

Helen Cartwright

Marketing & Communications Director

Opportunity International Australia