Mr. Mwanongwa LusekeloThe Open University of Tanzania

Faculty of Education

Essentials of Open Distance Learning in Enabling the Move from Millennium

Development Goals MDGs to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Historical Background of the MDGs

• The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a well known song.

• Were established by the international community following the 2000 Millennium Summit of the United Nations; 189 member states and 23 international organizations

• Committed themselves to achieve the following by the end of 2015 :

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• To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; • to achieve universal primary education, • to promote gender equality, • to reduce child mortality, • to improve maternal health, • to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases • to ensure environmental sustainability and • to develop a global partnership for development

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• MDGs had specific targets, indicators and dates for their achievement

• World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) cancelled the debt of billions US Dollars to Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) to give financial energy in achieving the MDGs.

Some Success Stories with Millennium Development Goals

Review of global performance indicates that MDGs contributed to:

• cut in half the world’s extreme poverty rate falling from 1.9 billion people in 1990 to 836 million in 2015

• improve universal primary education eg.net enrolment rate in developing countries

rose from 83 percent in 2000 to 91percent in 2015

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The number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide has also fallen by almost half

The number of paid women workers has increased from about 35 percent in from 1990 to 41 percent in 2015.

The number of women representation in public offices has been increased

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• maternal mortality ratio has declined4 5 per cent to 41 per cent between 1990 and 2013

• new HIV infections fell by approximately 40 per cent between 2000 and 2013

• deaths from malaria has been reduced to a large extent

• Mortality from tuberculosis has fallen from 45 per cent to 41 per cent between 1990 and 2013

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• terrestrial and marine environments have been greatly improved.

• Official development assistance from developed countries increased 66 percent in real terms from 2000 and 2014, reaching $135.2 billion

Shortfalls for the Millennium Development Goals

• Gender inequality persists• discrimination in access to work, economic assets and

participation in private and public decision-making• Women are also more likely to live in poverty than men. • Big gaps between the poorest and richest households exist, and

between rural and urban areas eg.16 % of the rural population do not use improved drinking water sources, compared to 4 per cent of the urban population.

• 50 % of people living in rural areas lack improved sanitation facilities, compared to only 18 % of people in urban areas.

• Climate change and environmental degradation Global emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by over 50 per cent since 1990.

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• Conflicts remains to be the biggest eg. by end of 2014, conflicts had forced almost 60 m. people to abandon their homes

• Every day, 42,000 people on average are forced to displace their home for protection

• Millions of poor people still live in poverty and• hunger, without access to basic services (about 800m

people still live in extreme poverty) • About 57 m. children of primary school age are not in school• Child mortality still persist eg. 16,000 children die each day

before celebrating their fifth birthday

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• maternal mortality ratio in the developing regions is 14 times higher than in the developed regions.

• Diseases such as HIV/ AIDS, Malaria, tuberculoses still persist in our communities

Way forward to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Experiences, evidence gained and efforts invested in achieving the MDGs demonstrate that implementers of agreed plans know what to do with any other future plan for our case the SDGs.

• The SDGs, build on realized successes with the ending MDGs, reflect the unattended needs and put all countries, together, firmly on track towards a more equitable and prosperous world.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• SDGs) is a new outlook and extension of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

• were agreed by the UN member state Governments in September 2015

• Commence in 2016 to take another 15 years up to 2030• “Safari moja huanzisha nyingine” (one journey leads to the next

journey), world cannot be left in a vacuum after the target end of the MDGs hence SDGs

• Sustainable development intends to maintain current best practices without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own development needs and aspirations.

The Goals include the following:• to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. by 2030. • To end hunger, achieve food security, improved nutrition

and promote sustainable agriculture. • To ensure healthy lives and promote the well-being for all

at all ages including the reduction of global maternal mortality ratio and end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age by 2030, while ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.

• To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all including ensuring that all people women and men have equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education.

• To achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls by ending all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.

• To ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

• To ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. • To promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and

productive employment and decent work for all.• To build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable

industrialization and foster innovation. • To reduce inequality within and among countries.

• To make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

• To ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, • To take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. • To conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources for

sustainable development. • To protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,

sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

• To promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels and

• To revitalize and strengthen global partnerships for sustainable development

• To make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

• To ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, • To take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. • To conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources for

sustainable development. • To protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,

sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

• To promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels and

• To revitalize and strengthen global partnerships for sustainable development

The Role of Higher Education in achieving the SDG

• to provide learners with knowledge and skills to see the world as a single complex entity.

• to provide knowledge, skills and abilities for implementation of the agreed SDGs through a balanced approach

• to promoting learning and creation of new knowledge through research and consultancies

• to produce competent and skilled graduates for increased productivity and expert public services provision;

• to promote global links and partnerships with business and industry community.

Understanding Open and Distance Learning:

• is a flexible mode of education delivery • characterized by Separation of the teacher

and the learner in terms of time or place or both time

• enabling learners to determine whether or not to learn, what programme to learn, how to learn, when to learn, from whom to learn and how to evaluate the learning

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• Open access and removal of impediments to admission including stringent entry qualifications, non-availability of vacancies, lack of funds to pay high fees, restrictions of age, distance between the learner and the providing institution and pre-occupation with social and domestic engagements;

• Two way interactive learning communication;• Planned periodic face-to-face sessions between learners

and teachers via tutorial seminars;• Deployment of mixed multimedia teaching and learning

approach such as print materials radio and television broadcasts and computer mediated learning,

The Role of ODL in achieving to the SDGs

• Education vital in achieving SDGs ODL• is the only mode of education delivery that

provides to the mass high quality education at the affordadle costs hence directly achieving to the SDG No 4“To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all including ensuring that all people women and men have equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education”.

Contin..• ODL the mass to acquire skills and knowledge that are highly

needed in achieving other millennium development goals• For example, in Tanzania The Open University of Tanzania (OUT)

has total of 30968 students enrolled in various non-dgree programmes, 52319 students who are undertaking undergraduate degree programmes and a total of 20101 taking the postgraduate programmes, making a total 85388 while the conventional university such as Sokoine University of Agriculture had a total number of 7228. Categorically, there were 1553, 5475, 158 and 48 students taking postgraduate, undergraduate, diploma and certificate courses respectively students hence Making the OUT to be the leading University in the country in terms of enrolling a large number of students

Conclusion

• Open and Distance Learning (ODL) represents on the important education modes of delivery in contemporary world as it provides access to high quality and affordable education. Therefore efforts from various education stakeholders called for in terms of investing much in higher education with particular concern to Open distance learning. It is through a robust Open Distance Learning where the world and the country concern will achieve the SDGs.