The Mil­len­nium Devel­op­ment Goals are fac­ing another set­back, pop­u­la­tion rates ris­ing too fast. The MGDs already suf­fered a set back from the global eco­nomic reces­sion, but experts fear pop­u­la­tion growth that is faster than expected could put the goals out of reach.

From this IPS story, reporter Thalif Deen exam­ines what effect pop­u­la­tion has on the MGDs.

The goal of halv­ing the num­ber of peo­ple liv­ing in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 could be jeop­ar­dised by soar­ing pop­u­la­tion growth, mostly in the devel­op­ing world.

World pop­u­la­tion is expected to reach seven bil­lion by 2011, a year ear­lier than expected, accord­ing to the lat­est fig­ures released by the Pop­u­la­tion Research Bureau last week.

“The pop­u­la­tion will hit seven bil­lion in the sec­ond half of 2011,” pre­dicts Jose Miguel Guz­man, chief of the Pop­u­la­tion and Devel­op­ment Branch at the U.N. Pop­u­la­tion Fund (UNFPA).

Since 1975, he said, world pop­u­la­tion has been increas­ing by about a bil­lion every 12 years.

“Given that the six bil­lion mark was reached in 1999, the attain­ment of seven bil­lion seems to be more or less on track,” Guz­man told IPS.

Of the growth between 1999 and 2011, he said, 95 per­cent is in the devel­op­ing world.

Asked how the rise in pop­u­la­tion growth will impact on devel­op­ing nations reach­ing their MDGs by 2015, Guz­man said that many devel­op­ing, and par­tic­u­larly the least devel­oped coun­tries (LDCs), will face a con­tin­u­ous increase in the demand for ser­vices, specif­i­cally in edu­ca­tion and health.

That means there will be an increas­ing need for social invest­ment just to catch up with pop­u­la­tion growth, giv­ing fewer oppor­tu­ni­ties to increase the qual­ity of ser­vices, which is needed to gen­er­ate the changes requested to attain the MDGs, he added.

The MDGs include a 50 per­cent reduc­tion in extreme poverty and hunger; uni­ver­sal pri­mary edu­ca­tion; pro­mo­tion of gen­der equal­ity; reduc­tion of child mor­tal­ity by two-thirds; cut­backs in mater­nal mor­tal­ity by three-quarters; com­bat­ing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other dis­eases; ensur­ing envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity; and devel­op­ing a North-South global part­ner­ship for development.

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