Achieving the millenium and sustainable development goals in Africa: what role for female social workers

Abstract

The point that African continent has been trying to solve its development challenges will be an overstatement. One of the major efforts was the decision taken at the United Nations (UN) Millennium Summit in September 2000 where the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was adopted as a framework for the continents development strategy. This agenda is to provide all the developing countries of Africa the prospect and motivation to reduce poverty and reverse the deterioration in human developments. Since the Millennium Declaration, the MDGs have become important tools of monitoring and evaluating progress across nations. The eight time-bound goals are aimed at achieving the following by 2015: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV&AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. Consequently, African countries have shown their commitments through a number of initiatives. Interestingly, since the adoption of MDGs 16 years ago, even with the recent adoption of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), evidence has shown that little success has been made in this regard. Why has this been so, can social worker, especially the female, come to the rescue, if yes, in what way can their impact be felt, these, among others, remain the focus of this paper.