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Sri Lanka’s Endeavour to achieve Millennium Development Goals by

2015 : the contribution from the LIS sector

By

Jayatunga AmaraweeraLibrarian

Buddhist & Pali University of Sri LankaHomagama

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2000 Millennium Summit• ‘The United Nations Millennium Declaration is a landmark document

for a new century …….(we are) initiating a Millennium Campaign to make the commitments better known throughout the world….

• As part of this, the United Nations system will work with national governments, civil society, the international financial institutions and other partners to produce a series of regular national reports…to measure and monitor progress towards achieving the MDGs on a country by country basis. Our hope is that, in this age of democracy, annual reporting will force action. …..

• It is not at the United Nations, or by the work of the organization's officials, that the goals could be achieved. They have to be achieved in each of its Member States, by the efforts of their Governments and peoples.’

Kofi Annan UN Secretary General

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By 2015 all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to:

Goal1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Goal2:   Achieve Universal Primary Education

Goal3:   Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Goal4:   Reduce Child Mortality Goal5:    Improve Maternal Health Goal6:    Combat HIV / AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

Goal7:    Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Goal 8:   Develop a Global Partnership for Development

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Goal 1

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day

• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

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Goal 2

2. Achieve universal primary education

• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

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Goal 3

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

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Goal 4

4. Reduce child mortality

• Reduce by two thirds (2/3) the mortality rate among children under five

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Goal 5

5. Improve maternal health

• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

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Goal 6

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

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Goal 77. Ensure environmental sustainability

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources

• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

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Goal 8

8. Develop a global partnership for development

• Address the least developed countries' special needs

• Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory, includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction - nationally and internationally

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UN policy on MDGs

• All MDG targets are equally important;• Broad national ownership and participation are

pivotal for the achievement of the MDGs;• Partnerships with the Government, civil society

and the private sector are essential;• Much of the work required to achieve the MDGs

is already on-going, but needs greater focus and sense of urgency;

• A focus on the MDGs neither diminishes nor precludes the work of the UN in other mandated areas.

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• MDGs are not new in essence

• What makes them different is– limited number (8 goals;18 targets; 40 indicators);– quantitative specific targets;– time bound;– indicators to measure progress;– easiness to communicate;– an unprecedented political commitment and agreement

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MDGs are a “mixed bag”

• Some qualitative, some quantitative

• Some focus on inputs, some on outcomes

• Some have targets, some don’t

• Developing and rich countries have roles

• Most focus on national averages, not minimum standards for groups or regions

• Some targets are defined relative to inadequate starting points

• Some goals still need to be mapped into indicators that can be monitored

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For a more productive achievement of MDG

• Requisites: • Identifying the validity & importance of the

Information for every goal• Identify the importance & role played by the

information creators, providers, gatherers, consolidators and disseminators

• Offer due recognition for the LIS professionals & organizations

• Need of a national policy for Libraries & Information Communication sector

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Data Collected But Not Used

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• Freedom of the media and right of the public to have access to information strongly advocated in the Millennium Declaration

• No mention of the « digital divide » in the Millennium Declaration

* No mention about Libraries & Information Centers in the Declaration

• In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

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ICTA ‘s strategy

• Facilitate the formulation and adoption of an effective National ICT Policy, Action Plan and necessary Legal Framework

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Contribution of LIS personnel for MDG

• Organizing Library & Information resources for easy and speedy access (eg. Schools for primary education needs; Health Institutions for the requirement of Goals 4,5& 6 )

• Organizing e-resources, designing Websites, creation of Multimedia learning kits etc.

• Organizing out-reach programs • Organizing info sharing networks• Organizing educational programs on information

activities• Supplying necessary information to Policy planners

Administers & implementers

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Collaboration between Library & Information Center

• Upgrade existing Public & School Library system (in both trained man power and infrastructure facilities)

• Nenasalas, Viswa Gnana Kendra (VNK), Vidatha Centers need to be linked with library networks

• Sharing of related information with the network and disseminate to the planners and stakeholders of MDG

• Shared training facilities for both sectors

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