WHY THE WORLD IS BECOMING A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN

  With terrorist attacks a daily occurrence, other atrocities no less in evidence and the phantom of the war looming over many parts of the word it may not seem likely that the overall living conditions in the world at large have become anything but better. However, millions of people who have finally become literate or were lifted from poverty in the last two decades will doubtlessly reap the benefits of social progress, which may transform their lives. Certainly, the UN is not solely responsible for these substantial improvements, but as the world’s only genuinely international forum with every country represented there, it deserves significant share of praise for these spectacular achievements. Let’s examine some of the humanity’s biggest successes in the past 28 years.

LITERACY:

The literacy rate among youth aged 15 to 24 has increased globally from 83 per cent to 91 per cent between 1990 and 2015. Number of children out of school has been reduced; 1995-120 million; 2015 56 million.

 

What is the most important the biggest changes occurred in the regions most affected by the low literacy, i.e. Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Despite these changes the world still needs more efforts to achieve the universal literacy, which is defined by the UN as condition when  96 percent of members of a respective population are literate.

POVERTY:

Global number of extreme poor has been significantly reduced from some 1.9 bln in 1990 to less than half that number in 2015 (830 mln).

Source: http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/

Two countries accounting for the preponderant share of that stunning uplifting of millions are China and India. In 1990 China had 756 million people living below the poverty line, while India had 338 million. Twenty-five years later China had only 25 million people living below the poverty line, while India 218 million.

Source: http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/

Some  other major gains in combating extreme destitution were mostly achieved in other Asian developing countries like Indonesia (change from 100 mln in 1990-25 mln in 2015 ) , Vietnam (39 mln in 1990-3 mln in 2015), Pakistan (62 mln in 1990-12 mln in 2015) or Bangladesh (45 mln in 1990-18 mln in 2015).

Unfortunately, simultaneously the extreme poverty has progressed in some Sub-Saharan African countries: in Nigeria the number of people subsisting below the level of poverty line has skyrocketed from 51 million to 86 million, while in DRC it increased from 24 to 55 million people. This can partly be attributed to the demographic explosion currently taking place in many parts of Africa. For instance, in the time span of the last 26 years Nigeria’s population has increased by 57 million, while that of DR Congo by 46 million. As a rule impoverished people are more likely to have more children as they often constitute the only safeguard for their parents future.

GLOBAL FIGHT WITH HIV/AIDS:

Global fight with HIV/AIDS is one of the fields where results are most tangible. In 1990, close to 3.5 mln people living in developing countries contracted the deadly disease, while in 2015 this number has been significantly reduced to close to 2 mln new infections annually. Unfortunately in the similar period the number of new HIV infections in developed countries has slightly risen from some 170.000 new cases in 1990 to 190.000 new infections in 2015. What is equally important the antiretroviral therapy outreach has been dramatically increased from mere 800.000 in 2003 to almost 14 million people enjoying the treatment by June of 2014.

MALARIA PREVENTION:

The areas highlighted in red still report malaria cases, the ones highlighted in blue have eradicated malaria; Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/daily-chart-7?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/theshrinkingmalariamap

Similarly to global fight with many other widespread diseases, global fight with malaria is ripe with significant (although often unreported) achievements. Since 2000, the incidence of malaria has been cut in almost half to 90 million new cases per year in 2015. It is partly a result of increased consciousness of the disease and handing over of millions of anti-mosquito nets in Africa that allow members of local populations to enjoy healthy sleep, while contributing to the decreased occurrence of the disease. It is projected by the scientists that malaria can be totally wiped out by 2040. On the other hand, we are witnessing rise of various drug resistant types of malaria, which must be combated in a more efficient manner.

ACCESS TO CLEAN DRINKING WATER :

What deserves attention is the fact of close to 1.9 bln people gaining access to piped drinking water during the recent years and the overall figure of humans enjoying access to clean, piped drinking water presently stands at 4.2 bln. Moreover, 91 percent of people are now using water of better quality.

Alarmingly, if no new actions are to be undertaken, by 2040 the world’s water scarcity may be further enlarged by some 40 percent and the brunt of that will be especially borne by the most vulnerable communities of Western Asia, Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

EQUAL  ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR WOMEN:

Although equal access to education for girls is still a distant dream in many parts of the world (mostly least developed countries), however the situation has improved dramatically over the past years and now 64 percent of developing countries have achieved parity of boys and girls at the level of primary schools. The prospects of reaching equality at the level of secondary education are still relatively dim (only 3 percent of the countries managed to achieve it).  

One of the biggest success stories in improving equal access to education took place in South Asia where in 1990 primary school enrolment ratio for women was close to 74 (for 100 boys), in 2015 reaching ratio of 103 girls for 100 boys.

What is interesting, in 2015 women in many regions have not only achieved equal access to education, but in some parts of the globe number of female students has by far exceeded that of males; for instance Eastern Asia, Latin America, Northern Africa, South-Eastern Asia all have more female than male students at a university level. It has tipped the scales in imbalance yet again with boys now being severely underrepresented at the university level (close to 120 women for 100 men), especially in Northern Africa and Latin America.

SOME OF LARGELY UNRESOLVED WORLD-WIDE ISSUES INCLUDE:

• International Terrorism, the rise of international terrorism is mostly visible in Western Europe, but in fact countries mostly affected by it lie in Africa and South Asia
• Refugees related problems, including both external refugees and internally displaced persons (Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, DRC, CAR, Somalia,Ukraine), due to numerous ongoing conflicts the number of refugees has decidedly risen in the past 5 years to the levels not witnessed since the times of WW2. Contrary to common belief the bulk of the refugees reside in Northern Africa.
• Climate Change- a question which threatens the very existence of human race  
• Gender equality-women earn on average 25 percent less than their male counterparts doing the same work and their promotion prospects are often limited
• Lack of sustainable development model in many countries- this includes lack of access to electricity in many parts of Africa, reliance on fossil fuels in the production of electricity,  or lack of commitment to combat the negative effects of climate change from many developing and developed countries alike

CONCLUSION

Appreciating numerous successes witnessed by the last quarter of a century doesn’t necessarily indicate that the world as we know it today has been miraculously transformed into the Garden of Eden. Seemingly never ending conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Palestine, South Sudan, people dying on an almost daily basis in terrorist attacks, refugees desperately trying to save their lives and to search for opportunities of a dignified life elsewhere, this is also the present reality. But in the boundless ocean of human misery and sorrow the UN is still one of the brightest beacons of hope and light in these tumultuous times we happen to live in.

SOURCES/FURTHER READING; unless stated otherwise all the numerical data in this articles is based on the below sources:

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgatlas/SDG-01-no-poverty.html

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

Other sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-27921938