Report #2

Group 2: John Allende, Denis Somoza, Victoria Montero

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) range from halving extreme poverty to
halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education. [1] The MDGs that
we will be evaluating in this report are:
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
This report will evaluate the data assembled from the Caribbean Region, and through this
evaluation we shall see if these countries achieved the Millennium Development Goals.
The first goal we shall discuss is Goal 4 Reduce Child Mortality. This goal is analyzed
through 3 indicators, which are: [1]
4.1 Children under 5 mortality rate per 1,000 live births
4.2 Infant mortality rate (0-1 year old) per 1,000 live births
4.3 Children immunized against measles (%)

The first indicator is the probability for a child born in a specified year to die before reaching the
age of five. [3] We can see a decrease in the Caribbean region in countries such as the Dominican
Republic, from 59.7% in 1990 to 30.7% in 2010, shows that the health care for children in this
country is getting better. For instance, St. Kitts & Nevis shows a decrease in children under-5
mortality rate as well, from 28.5% in 1990 to 11.3% in 2010. Infant mortality is considered to be
less robust than children under-5 mortality rate, because mothers may misreport their childrens
birth dates, current ages or ages at deathperhaps more so if the child has died. [3] With this
warning, we can see that like the children under-5 mortality rate, the infant mortality rate also

decreases in the last 20 years in the Caribbean region. Countries, such as Cuba and Haiti, which
have high population densities, but also share the big difference in their political and economic
sectors. We can see that Haiti has higher infant mortality rates, from 100.2% in 1990 to 72.7% in
2010, while Cuba has an infant mortality rate from 10.5% in 1990 to 5.4% in 2010. [2] Even
though Cuba suffers through various political and economic adversities than Haiti. The last
indicator is the proportion of Children immunized against measles, in Barbados, we see
fluctuations from 87% in 1990 to 94% in 2000 and then a decrease to 85% in 2010. [2] In
countries like Bahamas and Granada, it is shown that they have more than 90% of children are
immunized against measles in 2010. Most countries in the Caribbean have reached more than
80% by 2010 in children immunized against measles. This is a great indicator that affects the
rates of mortality of children in the region, it also fulfills the Millennium Development Goal 4
Reducing child mortality.
Even though advancement has been made in the Caribbean countries, the proportion of
ladies with the base suggested of four visits is still low. In outcome, it is important to keep
gaining ground around there as to encourage early analysis of issues that may advance in
maternal demise amid pregnancy. [3]
Data accessible about this subject demonstrates the presence of critical holes at nation
level. Nations like Haiti, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago have a rate of utilization of
contraceptives lesser than 40%, and on the flip side of the range in nations like Dominican
Republic and Turks and Caicos the same pointer is 78.2% and 77%, separately. [2]

This data is firmly identified with the event of undesirable pregnancy, as measured and
which alludes to unmet requirements for family arranging, and considers ladies who got to be
pregnant without utilizing any contraception technique and who today guarantee not to need
more kids.
Reproductive health infers that individuals are allowed to choose when to reproduce, and
incorporates the way that ladies and men have the privilege to be educated and have the privilege
to have admittance to sheltered, viable, and moderate family arranging techniques. Having entry
to family arranging routines permit ladies to consolidate their wish of making a family alongside
their capacity to work and have admittance to their own pay, or to proceed with their training
(Zapata, 20073).
Despite late decades increment in the utilization of contraceptives, unmet interest for
family arranging in a few nations of the district for which data is accessible keeps on being high.
Numerous examination studies demonstrate that ladies who get to be moms before
matured 20 achieve an instruction level which is much lesser than ladies who deferral settling on
this choice until coming to their 20's (Zapata, 2007).
An expansive number of young ladies, particularly the most youthful, face alongside their
kids an expanding danger of death and inability. In Latin America the high rate of births in
immature moms which has been noticeable since 1990 has not encountered any huge
diminishment in any case a consistent lessening altogether richness in the area (United Nations,
2007).

The Millennium Development Goals take us to another hopeful element in global

development. Goal number 6 involves combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. We
take a look at the people living with HIV aids, age 15-49, in the Caribbean region and do some
comparisons with countries within our group (Anguilla, Dominican Republic, and Turks &
Caicos). We search the United Nations Statistics Division website and the classmate table
compilations for documented statistics of the Caribbean nations. The Dominican Republic along
with Bahamas showed an increase in percentage of people living with HIV from 1990 to 2010. In
the year 1990, Dominican Republic showed having a prevalence of 0.41% of people living with
HIV, while the Bahamas was 1.96. In the year 2010, the number rose to 0.8% in Dominican
Republic, and 3.42% in the Bahamas. [2] This indicates that a continued effort is needed to
consistently decrease the prevalence of HIV of those 15-49 years old. Malaria is another global
concern, with the Caribbean a limited amount of information on the matter. The Dominican
Republic has a recorded statistic of 28 notified cases of malaria per 100,000 populations in 2012.
Montserrat had 21.79 notified cases of malaria per 100,000 in 1990. We now examine
tuberculosis incidence rate per year, per 100,000 populations (mid-point). The country of
Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Montserrat, St. Vincent & the
Grenadines and St. Lucia show a decreased rate for the three decades examined. Other Caribbean
nations such as Antigua & Barbuda and Dominica demonstrated an increase in the tuberculosis
incidence rate. Larger countries such as Dominican Republic and Haiti have recorded incidence
rates in triple digits. Dominican Republic went from an incidence rate of 147 in 1990 to 67 in
2010, demonstrating a significant improvement. Haiti also improved but not relatively well. It
had recorded an incidence rate of 250 in 1990 and a slightly improved rate of 229 in 2010. [2]

This data reflect an overall positive affect that the Millennium Development Goal number
6 has on the Caribbean nations that we have examined. In turn, it improves health and saves lives
while progressing toward an economic and social development in the Caribbean. The efforts in
the Caribbean have increased access to antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected people, along with
malaria interventions, and tuberculosis treatment. The GDP growths seen in these Caribbean
nations by statistics found in this course demonstrate that it is imperative to develop lives along
with the economy.
In retrospect, the remaining Millennium Development Goals which are reducing child
mortality, improving maternal health, and Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,
have been evaluated throughout the report. Unfortunately, data for some Caribbean countries in
the region could not be accessed, thus not evaluated. It is quite clear that most countries in the
Caribbean region have managed to reach the Millennium Development Goals discussed in this
report.

References
1. Millennium Goals. United Nations. Web. July 2015. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
2. United Nations Statistics Division. Millennium Development Goals Indicators. Web.
July 2015. http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Data.aspx
3. Goal 4. Indicators for Monitoring the Millennium Development. United Nations. Web.
July 2015. http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mi/wiki/AllPages.aspx?Cat=Goal%204
Sources

http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview/mdg_goals/mdg1.html
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/childhealth.shtml
http://www.cepal.org/mdg/noticias/paginas/2/35592/ficha_odm_5en.pdf