Analysis of MDGs and SDGs in Kenya and Burundi - Paper Example

Introduction

Millennium development goals are targets that all United Nations member states agreed to work towards achieving by the year 2015. A total of 191 world leaders committed to the agreement by signing United Nations Millennium Declaration in September, 2000. Of the eight millennium development goals, this paper focuses on gender equality and women empowerment in Kenya, and extreme hunger and poverty reduction in Burundi.

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Understanding the Issues in Kenya and Burundi

Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Kenya

Gender inequality is a form of social injustice that has been around the scene in Kenya since the beginning of time. It is a state in which people are treated differently due to their gender. In Kenya, women and girls are perceived as lesser beings than their counterparts. This belief was fueled by religious and cultural heritage as well as long defined gender roles and stereotypes that have persisted till today in some parts of the country (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

Major religions in Kenya (Christianity and Islam) require women to be submissive and respectful to their husbands. Besides, cultural beliefs for the Kenyan communities put the position of women second to that of men and give distinctive roles to the two genders. For instance, women are known to be caretakers at home, while the men work to take care of them. These beliefs expose women to so much vulnerability and abuse that the call for gender equality can no longer be contained in an effort to alleviate the situation (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

Extreme Hunger and Poverty in Burundi

While many African states today focus on industrialization and building infrastructure, which are necessary for an economy's take off to sustainable development, Burundi still battles extreme hunger and poverty within its borders. This pandemic is largely due to civil wars that have persisted for the last 15years. Burundi which is an agricultural economy has majority of its citizens doing subsistence farming. However, the country's national produce is insufficient, forcing international donors to chip in (Mapango, 2012).

Efforts to Address the Issues

Kenya

The government of Kenya has implemented certain intervention strategies to alleviate the plight of the Kenyan women. In 2000, the National Policy on Gender and Development was introduced to aid in identifying any form of discrimination in line with customary law, law of succession, citizenship, and cultural practices that discriminated women. This policy helped in highlighting the concerns of Kenyans, particularly the women in the development process (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

In 2001, the Children's Act was passed into law (United Nations Development Program, 2005). This law helped in addressing child related issues such as early marriages, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation, prostitution, harmful drugs, child labor and rights to access education, legal assistance, and medical care. In 2003, the government introduced free primary education, which offered equal basic education to both boys and girls and reduced gender disparity in primary school enrolment. In 2010, affirmative action was passed to law. This law ensured that the government implemented policies and programs that enabled women to access education, employment, positions in governance, equal political rights, and protected them from discrimination, exploitation, and abuse (United Nations Development Program, 2005)..

Burundi

The Burundian government with the support of International non-governmental organizations present in Burundi has made efforts in implementing projects that focus on sustainable agriculture, natural resource protection, and adaptation to climate change. However, the country still depends on international donor organizations such as the World Food Program. The government has also worked towards ensuring stability through preventing past instances of war from reoccurring (Mapango, 2012).

Importance of Addressing the Goals

Kenya

Sustainable economic development is a concept which embraces economic development, social development, and environmental protection. Working towards gender equality and women empowerment is key in enhancing the position of women in poverty reduction, equitable resource distribution, improving quality of life, safeguarding the environment, promoting female entrepreneurs, and driving economic progress, all of which promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, innovation, and infrastructure development (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

Burundi

Through reducing extreme hunger and poverty, the Burundian government will be able to make steps towards achieving other sustainable development goals. Burundi has the largest percentage of its population in the poverty bracket than any other nation in the world. Extreme hunger perpetuates poverty by severely reducing the productive capacity of a country's population. Reducing the incidences of hunger is, therefore, an excellent investment, as it enables people to shift from a state of economic dependence and exclusion to participating in and contributing with their talent and energy to growth and development (Mapango, 2012).

Targets of the MDGs

Kenya

The Kenyan government aimed at ending all kinds of discrimination and violence against women and girls all over the country. Harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and early marriages are among pressing issues that were targeted to stop. It also targeted recognition and valuation of domestic work through social protection policies that promote shared responsibility within the household as deemed appropriate nationally and ensuring that women are accorded equal participation and opportunities in leadership and ownership of property (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

Burundi

By committing to the MDG agreement, the Burundi government targeted to reduce the level of hunger and poverty within its borders. The number of people who earned an income of less than a dollar a day were targeted to reduce by 50% by year 2015. Besides, it also targeted to reduce the number of people suffering from hunger by 50% by year 2015 (Mapango, 2012).

Indicators of the MDGs

Kenya

Indicators to gender equity are as follows:

• Presence of legal frameworks in place to encourage, impose, and evaluate equality and non-discrimination of gender.
• Number of women in relationships and girls aged at least 15 years who are victims of physical, sexual, or psychological violence by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months.
• Number of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work by sex.
• Number of positions occupied by women in national parliaments and local governments.
• Number of women in managerial positions.
• Number of women aged at least 15 years who make informed decisions regarding sexual relationships, contraceptives, and reproductive health care.
• Number of women among agricultural land owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land by type of tenure.
• Number of people who own a mobile telephone by sex (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

Burundi

Indicators to extreme hunger and poverty are as follows:

• The percentage of people earning less than a dollar a day.
• The poverty gap ratio.
• The percentage of the poorest fifth of the population in national consumption.
• The proportion of children below age 5 who are underweight.
• The percentage of people below the minimum dietary energy consumption level. (Mapango, 2012).

Reasons for Not Meeting the MDGs

Kenya

High levels of poverty especially in the rural areas and cultural practices have continued to force young girls to take up roles at home, which limit their chances of completing education like their male counterparts. The cultural practices have perpetuated ubiquitous gender stereotypes, biasness, and abusive acts against women. Additionally, national education statistics indicate a low women enrolment in higher learning institutions, which translates to lower literacy levels of women compared to men. Besides, the number of women in leadership positions in the government has remained low due to high costs of conducting national campaigns, intimidation from male politicians, and political violence (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

Burundi

Burundi faces some challenges that have deterred extreme hunger and poverty reduction strategies from taking shape. For instance, there have been inadequate promotion of cross border exchange of agricultural goods and services for sustainable food security. There has been limited use of available natural water sources for irrigation to ensure bumper harvest. Moreover, shelf life for farm produce is limited due to poor storage and inadequate value addition, which makes the produce run out soon after they are harvested. The country does not have adequate agricultural research centers that can generate new ideas for agriculture (Mapango, 2012).

Post 2015 MDGs

Kenya

Gender equality and women empowerment through ending all forms of discrimination and violence against women is a human right and a means for achieving sustainable development goals. If Kenya fails to empower her women through increasing their participation in governance or leadership positions, strengthening their economic empowerment, protecting their rights through easy access to justice, and strengthening their leadership in peace building and humanitarian response, then the country's development blueprint of the year 2030 remains a dream. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the country to meet the indicators of gender equality and women empowerment in order to realize its key development agendas (Hanson, Puplampu, & Shaw, 2018).

Burundi

The Burundian government has a vision 2025 blueprint that focuses on reducing major challenges facing the country as a result of past civil wars including reduction of hunger and poverty levels. Even though it was difficult for the government to meet the extreme hunger and poverty reduction targets by the year 2015, its commitment towards the course made a big difference in lowering the degree of hunger and poverty levels in the country. With application of policies and necessary support from international community, Burundi is targeting a country with no instances of poverty by 2025 (Hanson, Puplampu, & Shaw, 2018).

Recommendations

Based on my analysis of post 2015 gender equality and women empowerment goals in Kenya, I hereby recommend ideas that can be appropriate in the achievement of the set goals. To begin with, the government of Kenya should make full use of labor force from women for economic growth. It should also educate and ensure that women are in good health to drive productivity and social development. Additionally, the government should ensure a considerable number of women in all decision-making levels in the country to aid in protecting their rights. Women rights should be protected against all odds to motivate them to participate in areas that spur economic development such as environmental protection (Hanson, Puplampu, & Shaw, 2018).

On the other hand, the Burundian government should introduce a national food security Act to ensure that everyone abides by rules governing crop farming and storage. This law worked in favor of India and it can be replicated to produce the same effect in Burundi. Similarly, the Kenyan government has overcome poor agricultural performance through training of farmers; thus, this can be borrowed by the Burundian government too (Hanson, Puplampu, & Shaw, 2018).

References

United Nations Development Program. (2005). MDGs status report for Kenya, 2005. Nairobi: Kenya. Ministry of Planning and National Development.

Mapango, J. (2012). Poverty reduction...