The United States has an opportunity to exercise global leadership by emphasizing the Millennium Development Goals in its foreign policy. Last time, we noted the importance of success in Iraq and Afghanistan to American goals in the Middle East and Central Asia. We stressed the importance of partnership with the United Nations in achieving viable nations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, let's look at the bigger picture.

The United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals in the year 2000. The US and 188 other nations agreed to (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) achieve universal primary education, (3) promote gender equality and empower women, (4) reduce child mortality, (5) improve maternal health, (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, (7) ensure environmental sustainability, and (8) develop a global partnership for development.

Each of these goals has specific targets to be met by 2015. For goal 4, for example, child mortality should be reduced by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. Child mortality is the number of deaths of children under 5 per 1,000 live births.
To put this in perspective, the number of deaths from the tragic terrorist events of 9/11 resulted in 3,000 deaths. If ten times that number were killed because weapons of mass destruction were used in a terrorist attack, 30,000 would perish. The number of deaths around the globe every day of children under 5 from preventable causes is 30,000. The top 40 countries of the world, in order of highest child mortality rate, found Afghanistan at number 4 and Iraq at number 33 in 2001.

The Millennium Development Goals address the preventable causes which cause 30,000 child deaths per day. Secretary of State Colin Powell (Aid for the Enterprising, Washington Post, June 10, 2003) cited President Bush's support for sustainable development as a major goal of the nation's national security strategy. "Lifting humanity out of poverty is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. And whether we, the world's greatest democracy, rise to that challenge carries profound implications for freedom, growth, and security worldwide." Colin Powell's appeal for support for the Millennium Challenge Account cited 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, more than 1 billion without safe water, 2 billion with adequate sanitation, and 2 billion with no electricity.

The Administration has requested $1.2 billion for 2004 for the Millennium Challenge Account which will be used to help countries with commitment to good governance, including rule of law, property rights, and transparency; commitment to health and education; and commitment to a market economy.

Draining the swamp or keeping an eye on the alligators? Striving for the Millennium Development Goals or fighting terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan?  Both deserve our full attention. Green Valley readers know that Mexicans risk death crossing the border. Mexico and the United States have been added to the table showing the  top 40 countries in child mortality to illustrate the relative incentive of the 3 billion living on less than $3 a day to enter the United States.  

The 30,000 preventable deaths per day of children under 5 dwarfs the 3,000 deaths from 9/11 and helps to explain the little to lose attitude that inspires the desperation of terrorism. US foreign assistance must focus more sharply on the Millennium Development goals. Money is not the whole answer.  

A recent report in Lancet estimated that ten percent of the 30,000 deaths of children under 5 could be prevented if all women breast fed for the first six months. Another 7 percent could be prevented by distributing bed nets impregnated with pesticide (no pesticide wasted in streams and fields!) in malaria prone areas.  

The Economist reports that South Africa reduced people without water from 13 million in 1965 to 4 million today by adopting a pricing policy that made the first 45 liters free. Charges for remaining water usage paid for a self-sustaining water delivery system in South Africa. The US should carefully consider using international agencies and experts as full partners to multiply effectiveness in addressing the Millennium Development Goals. The stakes are very high for all of us.