Charting Progress
The September 2010 UN MDG Summit heralds the final five-year push toward the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs. The experience highlighted from the Millennium Villages suggests that with political support, effective partnerships, and modest financial resources well within the bounds promised to Africa by the donor countries (though not yet delivered), villages across rural Africa can achieve the MDGs and escape the poverty trap.
The Millennium Villages Project was launched at scale in 2006 and now reaches nearly half a million people across ten countries. The goal is to show how an integrated approach to communit-level development can translate the international MDG agreements into ground-level breakthroughs throughout rural sub-Saharan Africa.
Significant progress has been seen after the provision of long-lasting insecticidal bednets (LLINs) for every sleeping site was introduced. Three years later, there is a seven-fold increase in bednet utilization rates and a 60% reduction in malaria prevalence on average across the sites. Levels of measles immunization, an intervention that can be delivered through coordinated campaigns, have increased to over 80%. In agriculture, input support for improved seeds and fertilizers accompanied by training of farmers in agronomic techniques has resulted in well over a doubling of staple crop yields. This has contributed to a 35% reduction in levels of chronic undernutrition (stunting) among children under two years old (those conceived since the start of the Project). Through partnerships with communities and local farmers, who donate a portion of their crop surplus, 80% of children now receive a school meal—an intervention linked to increased school attendance and better learning outcomes.
Chart: Progress on MDG Indicators
Alongside supporting quick wins, the Project initiated parallel efforts to improve access to basic infrastructure and services. In education, classrooms were renovated, schools were electrified, and the supply of learning materials was increased. Levels of gross primary school enrolment were maintained at high levels. In health, clinics were built or refurbished, and supplied with appropriate levels of staff and equipment including essential drugs, water, and electricity. Free primary health care at the point of service has been the cornerstone of the Project, to remove access barriers for patients. Local hospitals were strengthened to support emergency referrals and obstetric services—a process enhanced by access to emergency transport, road improvements, and critical partnerships to expand mobile phone coverage. Some of these longer term effects are beginning to show—as evidenced by a threefold increase in HIV testing rates and a 30% increase in women giving birth in the presence of skilled birth attendants—an important intervention for reducing the number of maternal deaths. Finally, through partnerships between the government, local communities, and the Project, major gains have been made in improving access to basic infrastructure—including more than a threefold increase in access to safe water and a sevenfold increase in access to high quality sanitation facilities.
While encouraging evidence of solid progress has been made on a number of fronts, consolidating these gains and ensuring their durability will require effective coordination between Project partners in the final two years of the Project’s first phase. In agriculture, this will entail efforts to enhance the diversity of crop production, increase market access, and extend the value chain through agroprocessing and business development interventions. In education, efforts to enhance the enrolment of girl learners in some sites, improve school quality, and facilitate the transition to secondary school are a clear priority. In health, with basic infrastructure present in most sites, improving the continuum of care, extending intervention coverage to the household level through a community health worker program and linking all the components into a self-correcting system all remain a critical focus. The application of mobile phone-based technologies to generate real-time information on program performance will greatly enhance these efforts. Finally, ongoing efforts to complete major infrastructure projects while developing locally appropriate strategies for their ongoing maintenance remains a major priority.
