Unite For Sight's 2010 Global Health & Innovation Conference
Blog Report By Indu Voruganti, Unite For Sight Global Health Leadership Intern
Keynote Address By Sonia Sachs
An audience of over 2000 eagerly received Dr. Sonia Ehrlich Sach’s keynote address. Dr. Sachs, MD, MPH, is the Director of Health for the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Dr. Sachs presented the advances in the Millennium Village Project health system, an approach to ending extreme poverty in communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. She evaluated the feasibility of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are eight objectives that address the problems of poverty, health, gender equality, and disease. At the village level, the project focuses on growing more food, providing better access to primary health, education, water, and business development. According to Dr. Sachs, the cost of getting out of the poverty trap is approximately $120 per person per year. A breakdown of this cost indicates that this is feasible if villagers contribute $10, the government contributes $30, partners contribute $20, and the remaining $60 comes from a combination of village members, local and national governments, and partner organizations.
Dr. Sachs then went on to describe the MDGs that the project has targeted:
- MDG 1: Poverty and Hunger- Originally, the project's region was plagued by stunting, a sign of chronic malnutrition. This, however, was dramatically improved by implementing more farmers training, as well as improving food storage facilities.
- MDG 2: Universal Primary Education- This goal was addressed in the Millennium Villages by building more schools, and increased hiring and training of educators.
- MDG 3: Gender- By making education more readily available, the attendance ratio of girls to boys in primary education greatly increased after a period of three years.
- MDG 4, 5, 6: Health- The project aimed to reduce the child mortality rate by 2/3, improve maternal health, and control pandemic diseases by integrating science technologies into healthcare, as well as introducing a more systematized approach to delivering healthcare. Also, providing free and continuity of care is essential to address these issues.
- MDG 8: Partnerships- the Millennium Villages Project is working with dozens of partners, governments, businesses, NGOs, foundations, universities and research centers to achieve results. These partnerships are the cornerstone of the success of the project thus far, and will continue to be integral in delivering change in the future.
The progress made thus far by the Millennium Villages Project has been impressive in promoting sustainable, scalable, community-led progress. Dr. Sachs closed by saying that with the continued support of local and global partners, the project can continue to be successful and make further progress in addressing each of the Millennium Development Goals.