USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: UN Millennial Goals

8/9/2019 USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: UN Millennial Goals

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Collegiate

Case

Study

THE NATIONS NEWSPAPER

Innovative ways to prevent AIDS languish on drawingboardBySteve Sternberg

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Greenpeace, others pan G-8global warming dealByDavid Jackson

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Bolton struggles to steer U.N.toward changeByBarbara Slavin

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Critical inquiryDiscussion and future implications

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U.N. disputes U.S. position onfree trades impact on povertyByPaul Wiseman

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www.usatodaycollege.com

Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

On September 8, 2000, the United Nations adopted the MillenniumDeclaration, a resolution that includes eight major goals towards building abetter world by 2015. These goals, called the Millennium DevelopmentGoals, address issues such as extreme poverty, AIDS, child mortality, univer-sal primary education and global development. As we near the halfwaypoint to the completion date, questions arise as to how close the UN istowards meeting these goals. This case study focuses on the progress andwell as problems associated with some of these critical global issues.

UN Millennial Goals

By David J. LynchUSA TODAY

Globalization long has been regarded as a made-in-America phenomenon, drivenby Silicon Valley's technology, Hollywood's movies and Wall Street's cash. Butsuddenly, countries formerly on the periphery of world events seem poised tochallenge American dominance of this age of global integration.

USA TODAY Snapshots

At the end of 2006, the number of refugeesreached 9.9 million, according to the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees. Refu-gee population, by UNHCR-defined regions:

Source: UNHCR By David Stuckey and Marcy E. Mullins, USA TODAY

Forced from home

Note: CASWANAME comprises Central Asia,Southwest Asia, North Africa and the Middle East

Asia andPacific

3,811,800

1,733,700

2,421,300

875,100

1,035,900

CASWANAME

Africa (excludingNorth Africa)

Americas

Europe

USA TODAY

Developing nationspoised to challengeUSA as king of the hillWorld economy might not revolvearound Americans in coming years


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Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Page 2

It's not only that developing countries are proving to bewhite-hot investment opportunities, though they are: theMorgan Stanley Emerging Markets index gained 242% the pastfour years. It's also that emerging markets, once knowndismissively as the Third World, are now central to Americans'lives.

Not long ago, these countries were of interest only to thePeace Corps. Now, everything from the financial lifeline thatmakes possible the modern American lifestyle to the identityof your next boss, customer, competitor or cultural trendsetterlikely can be found in the developing world.

"We're in the middle of the biggest shift in 200 years sincethe Industrial Revolution. It's really that big," said Antoine vanAgtmael, the investment manager credited with coining theterm "emerging markets" in 1981.

The new prominence of emerging markets represents a sharpdeparture from the flurry of financial crises that tore throughMexico, Asia and Russia in the 1990s. Since then, scores of developing countries have cleaned up their balance sheets,slashed inflation rates and accumulated enormous stockpiles of hard-currency reserves. China alone sits atop a $1 trillionmountain of cash. Russia, Mexico, India and South Korea alsoare swiftly building their cash hoards, according to TreasuryDepartment data.

Developing nations have gone from beggar to banker. The U.S.must borrow enormous sums each day to finance the gapbetween its anemic national savings rate and its consumption.Increasingly, those funds largely raised by selling Treasurysecurities come from poorer nations.

Through November, the most recent data available, morethan 29% of the $806 billion in net securities purchases camefrom developing countries compared with just 5% in 1998,according to Bank of America. The river of capital flowing intothe U.S. economy enables Americans to continue consumingbeyond their means. But some analysts find it worrisome thatthe world's wealthiest nation now depends on loans fromsome of the globe's poorest countries.

"The average American doesn't realize where this liquidity

comes from. Capital is supposed to flow from rich to the poor,"says Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist for Bank of America.

For the USA, the danger is that an unexpected developmentcould cause emerging nations to retrench on purchases of dollar-denominated assets. What could trigger such a pullback?A sustained oil price decline that pinches Middle Eastern oilproducers, a global ec onomic slump or an outbreak of protectionism in the USA, says Quinlan.

Consequences in the USA

For more than half a century, Americans could take forgranted that the world economy would orbit around them. Nolonger. The USA today produces about 30% of world output atmarket prices. That figure already is down significantly fromabout 46% in the aftermath of World War II, when Europeanand Japanese factories lay in ruins. And it is headed lower stillas China and India continue their ascent.

Over the next generation, fast-growing developing nations areexpected to see a significant uptick in their share of worldoutput from 23% today to about 33% in 2030, according to arecent World Bank study.

That shift has enormous consequences for CorporateAmerica. "The change is from globalization going one way toglobalization going every way. It's as much about whatdeveloping countries are doing as developed countries," saidMark Foster, a London-based Accenture consultant.

Assuming continued economic growth in the developingworld, the ranks of the global middle class are expected totriple by 2030 to 1.2 billion, according to the World Bank. Today,a bit more than half of that free-spending group resides indeveloping countries. By 2030, almost all of it, 92%, will call thedeveloping world home.

For multinational corporations, that means paying ever moreattention to what's happening outside the United States andespecially in Asia, Latin America, parts of the Middle East andAfrica. Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley said in a Jan. 30conference call that in the past several years, the company has"added about 1 billion consumers" to the ranks of those whohave ever used or purchased its products. "We think we canadd another 1 billion consumers over the next three to fiveyears, and most of them are going to come from developingmarkets," Lafley added.

In the most recent quarter, P&G's developing-country salesoutpaced its overall 8% sales growth. Examples: Sales of Cresttoothpaste rose more than 10% in Russia, while Duracellbatteries posted a 20% gain in Latin America.

Likewise, at PepsiCo, two-thirds of revenue growth is comingfrom the company's international operations and 60% of thatfrom emerging markets, says Michael White, chief executive of PepsiCo International. "We've seen a real, material change inthe performance of our emerging markets, and I expect it tocontinue," White told a recent panel at the World EconomicForum in Davos, Switzerland.

Those aren't isolated examples. FedEx, Manpower andCaterpillar all report impressive growth in their developing-world business. By 2010, GE wants emerging markets to


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account for 30% of its sales, twice the current level. "America isrealizing for the first time that globalization is a two-way

traffic," says Azim Premji, the billionaire chairman of Indiansoftware firm Wipro.

Trends from C hina?

As the developing world's purchasing power grows, it is likelyto exercise greater influence over global tastes. To date, U.S.brands such as McDonald's, Nike or Apple mesmerize overseasconsumers. By 2030, when the World Bank estimates that thenumber of middle-class consumers in China will exceed theentire U.S. population, Americans might be on the receivingend of as many trends as they start. Zhang Yimou, not ClintEastwood, might direct the world's most-popular movies. Fast-food dumplings might rival burgers and fries. "New fashions,

new trends are just as likely, indeed more likely, to start inChina and India or Brazil as they are today (to start) in Europeor the United States," says Uri Dadush, director of the WorldBank's international trade department.

That's in the future. But already, Americans are being affectedby the rise of multinational corporations based in thedeveloping world. Once regarded as second-tier manufacturersof shoddy goods, companies in the most mature developingcountries are making their presence felt by acquiringcompanies in the developed world. From computer researchcenters in North Carolina to steel mills in Oklahoma, Americanworkers are finding their new boss often hails from far, far away.

Among the best-known acquisitions: Chinese computermaker Lenovo's 2005 purchase of IBM's personal computerbusiness. But there have been plenty of other deals.

Last month, Mexican bank Banorte bought UniTeller, a U.S.-based remittances company. That deal came two months after

Banorte snapped up INB Financial of McAllen, Texas. Russia'sEvraz coal and steel producer in January completed its

takeover of Oregon Steel Mills of Portland, Ore. And in June,Brazil's Gerdau Group acquired Sheffield Steel of Sand Springs,Okla. European companies, too, are in the cross hairs: India'sTata Steel earlier this month purchased London-based Corus.

The dealmaking is among the first visible signs of the growingclout of emerging-market multinationals. In his new book, TheEmerging Markets Century, van Agtmael profiles 25 companies such as Mexican cement maker Cemex, whose U.S.operations produce more cement in the USA than any othercompany, and Indian generic-drug maker Ranbaxy thatqualify as genuine global powers.

To many Americans, the notion of innovative, market-leading

companies based in areas where widespread poverty anddisease still hold sway might seem extraordinary. But vanAgtmael notes that, in fact, it was the Western world's 20th-century economic dominance that was unusual.

For centuries, trade and commerce were rooted, not in theUSA or Europe, but in more distant parts of the globe. In 1820,for example, today's "developing" countries were theacknowledged economic powers, accounting for 68% of theworld economy, according to economic historian AngusMaddison. As late as 1870, the Chinese economy was almosttwice as large as that of the United States.

Viewed from this vantage point, the contemporaryemergence of countries such as China or Brazil represents less anew phenomenon than a reversion to history's norm.

"We still hold onto notions that are dear to us but wrong,"says van Agtmael. "We will not always be the center of theworld."


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Greenpeace, others panG-8 global warming dealBy David JacksonUSA TODAY

ROSTOCK, Germany An agreement to curb global warmingby the Group of Eight industrialized countries was hailed as"excellent" by one of its authors, but environmentalists dispute

the deal's real impact.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who shepherded the deal

as the G-8 summit's host, said Thursday that the climate-change agreement represented "very great progress and anexcellent result."

President Bush and other G-8 leaders said they arecommitted to "substantial" cuts by 2050 of greenhouse-gasemissions, which are caused by the burning of fuels such asgasoline and coal. But critics note that the deal has no bindingcaps, only a pledge to "consider seriously" a 50% cut bymidcentury.

Greenpeace USA was one of several groups to say theagreement fails to provide clear targets for dealing with thethreat of global warming.

Greenpeace and other groups blamed Bush, who has longfavored voluntary reductions, for blocking the 50% cut soughtby Merkel and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Merkel andBlair also suggested a target of keeping global temperatureincreases to less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, which is notpart of the deal.

Still, both Merkel and Blair praised the G-8 statement as astep forward. "We agreed that we need reduction goals, andobligatory reduction goals," Merkel told reporters.

Bush, after meeting with Blair privately, said the United Statesis "deadly earnest" about dealing with global warming, and"will be actively involved."

G-8 members supported Bush's idea of holding a conferenceof the 15 countries that produce the most greenhouse gases.Those polluters would include China and India, which Bush saidmust be part of any global plan on climate change.

The 15 countries would develop their own climate-changeplans, as well as a "global framework," by the end of 2008,according to the G-8 agreement. A broader deal would emergeby the end of 2009, after Bush leaves office.

The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank inWashington, called Bush "the skunk at the garden party" forrejecting the Merkel-Blair targets. Daniel Weiss, the center'sdirector of climate strategy, said Bush's global warming planamounts to "more talk, less treatment."

The G-8 members did support Merkel's demand thatcountries endorse the United Nations framework for climate-change talks. That framework begins with a December meetingof environmental ministers.

The U.N. framework is a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, aninternational treaty that expires in 2012. The United Statesrefused to ratify the treaty, in part because it did not apply toChina and India.

David McCormick, deputy national security adviser forinternational economic affairs, said the G-8 recognizes thatclimate-change policy has to be developed so it does not hurtenergy security or economic growth. He said the Bushadministration also wants to promote energy efficiency, such asalternative fuel sources. "The president absolutely supports thedevelopment of a global goal by the end of 2008,"McCormick said.


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By Barbara SlavinUSA TODAY

UNITED NATIONS -- When diplomatscrafted a new United Nations HumanRights Council, John Bolton said it wasn'tgood enough for the United States.

"We want a butterfly. We're not goingto put lipstick on a caterpillar and declareit a success," the U.S. ambassador said.

Bolton, 57, is remarkably candid in aninstitution accustomed to vaguediplomacy-speak. Over the past 20 years,in and out of Republican administrations,he developed a reputation as a toughbureaucratic fighter and a harsh critic of multinational institutions. President Bushhas said that's why he picked Bolton forthe job.

"John Bolton is a blunt guy," Bush saidlast year. "John Bolton can get the jobdone at the United Nations."

Bush has been proved at least half-right. Bolton has been blunt. But hismanner has, by some accounts, made itdifficult to get results at the U.N.

Bolton acknowledges disappointmentsat the U.N. Besides forming the newHuman Rights Council over the Bushadministration's opposition, the 191-member General Assembly has votedagainst management changes that wouldmake it easier to hire and fire staff.Because of U.S. pressure last year thatwas meant to encourage changes, a June30 deadline looms when theorganization could run out of money topay salaries.

Even getting meetings to start on timehas been a challenge. When Bolton tookhis turn as president of the SecurityCouncil in February, he insisted ongetting the council to open its meetingspromptly at 10a.m. That punctualityended in March when his presidency did.

Bolton, testifying before the SenateForeign Relations Committee last month,acknowledged that "progress has notbeen good" on changing an organizationhe once said could lose 10 of the 38stories in its headquarters buildingwithout anyone missing them. He faultedwhat he called a "culture of inaction" atthe world body.

Some adjustments

Bolton has adapted to the diplomaticlifestyle. He goes to breakfasts, lunches,cocktail parties and dinners with otherambassadors, and he entertainsfrequently at his suite in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, says his spokesman, RickGrenell.

When he arrived at the United Nationsin August, Bolton made a point of goingto other U.N. missions to introducehimself. While president of the 15-nationSecurity Council, he took the other 14council ambassadors to see the NewYork Knicks play basketball. Bolton toldthe Associated Press he wanted to getthem out of their "bubble."

When it comes to negotiations with

other countries, particularly those fromthe developing world, Bolton's style hascaused friction with many diplomats,said Mark Malloch Brown, U.N. deputysecretary-general. In an interview lastmonth, Malloch Brown said he fearedthat Bolton's uncompromising mannerhas deepened the historical tensionbetween wealthy nations that bear thebiggest share of U.N. expenses and

developing countries that pay little buthave the votes to block change.

"He's a real force here, but in a waythat provokes a lot of reaction andopposition from others," Malloch Brownsaid. Given the bitterness caused by theU.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, whichmany U.N. members opposed, "what youneeded was an ambassador who wouldheal, not deepen, rifts."

Bolton's behavior, Malloch Brown said,has made it more difficult to win supportin the General Assembly for changes thatwould make the United Nations moreeffective. "This has led to a naked powerstruggle where reforms are seen eitheras weakening or strengthening U.S.

control over the organization," he said.It is unusual for a top U.N. official to

criticize the ambassador from the hostcountry a nation that provides 22% of the organization's $3.8 billion annualoperating budget, said Lee Feinstein of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Feinstein said part of the problem is

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Bolton struggles to steer U.N.Blunt style got himthe job, but notnecessarily results

By Tim Dillon, USA TODAY

Lightning rod: U.S. ambassador John Bolton.


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that Bolton intervenes on issues, such as the Human RightsCouncil, after difficult compromises have been made and

countries are reluctant to make further changes. Bolton hasshown "bursts of energy but not the consistent effort" neededto persuade other countries to support U.S. views, Feinsteinsaid.

The previous U.N. Human Rights Commission had beencriticized by the United States and other countries because itsmembership included nations with dismal human rightsrecords, such as Zimbabwe and North Korea. The new councilexcludes some of the worst offenders, but it still includes China,Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Peru's ambassador, Oswaldo de Rivero, told Bloomberg Newsthat Bolton was "isolated. He lives in another world, with this

belief that he is morally superior."Rivero said Bolton tried to get his way by "flagellating" other

U.N. members.

Interests, not personalities

Bolton declined requests for an interview. Speaking toreporters outside the Security Council last month, he deniedthat his brusque manner had set back U.S. goals. At the UnitedNations, "countries vote their interests, not their personalities,"he said.

Frederick Jones, a White House spokesman, said Bushbelieves Bolton is doing a "great job."

Bolton "has made significant progress in furthering ouragenda for U.N. reform," Jones said. "He is also carrying out thepresident's agenda in the U.N. Security Council at a time whenmany critical matters are before it, such as Iran and Sudan, and

so has helped to shape the international community'sresponse."

The United States has long tried to get the United Nations tobe more efficient and to trim its bureaucracy. Those efforts tookon new energy after the worst financial scandal in U.N. history.A $64billion program under which Saddam Hussein's Iraq wasallowed to sell oil to pay for humanitarian supplies led to nearly$2 billion in kickbacks from foreign companies to Iraqi officials.U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son got a contract underthe program.

In response to the scandal, Annan submitted to anindependent investigation led by former Federal Reservechairman Paul Volcker. Annan also created an ethics office andis requiring U.N. employees to submit financial disclosure

forms. But he has failed so far to eliminate old programs. Time isrunning out: Annan's second five-year term expires inDecember.

By then, Bolton may also be gone. The White House has toresubmit his nomination to the Senate before January, when histerm expires. Bolton is serving under a temporary appointmentBush made during a congressional recess because there wasn'tenough support in the Senate to bring the nomination to a vote.

The administration has not said whether it will resubmit hisname for nomination.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who last year called Bolton"the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corpsshould not be," said last month that he had not yet decidedwhether he would support Bolton if the nomination wasresubmitted. "He's a smart guy. He's got a personality thatsometimes rubs people the wrong way."


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Innovative ways to prevent AIDSlanguish on drawing board

AS SEEN IN USA TODAYS NEWS SECTION ON MARCH 26, 2007


By Steve SternbergUSA TODAY

TORONTO Creative approaches toAIDS prevention now on the horizon,such as male circumcision anddiaphragms, may never reach the peoplewho need them because many countries

wouldn't be able to roll them out, areport said Tuesday.

Researchers are studying whethermale circumcision and diaphragms canbe used to prevent HIV infection. Resultsmay be available within two years.

Other methods include antiviral drugs,herpes treatments, vaccines and vaginalgels that kill the virus.

The development of one or more of these methods could help rein in an

epidemic that is growing by an estimated4million infections every year.

"We all know the harsh reality," saysHelene Gayle, president of Care USA andco-chair of the 150-member Global HIVPrevention Working Group that wrotethe report. "Until we can reduce the rateof infection, there's no hope of bringingthe epidemic under control."

Prevention efforts have beenhampered by a lack of money along withpolitical wrangling over educationprograms, access to condoms andproviding clean needles to drug addicts,says Cristina Pimenta of ABIA, theBrazilian Interdisciplinary AIDSAssociation. As a result, a fraction of those who need prevention services getthem.

The United Nations Joint Committee onHIV/AIDS estimates that $11.4 billion willbe needed each year for AIDS preventionby 2008, more than double what's being

spent today.

More than 80,000 volunteers will beneeded for research trials to prove thatthe new methods work.

Among the studies:

u Male circumcision. . A study of 3,274men in South Africa found that thosewho were circumcised had a 60% lowerrisk of infection than men who weren't,and they also were less likely to infecttheir partners. Studies are underwayinvolving more than 10,000 men toconfirm this result.

A study released Monday by Jim G.Kahn and Elliot Marseille of theUniversity of California-San Francisco andBertran Auvert of the University of Versailles found that it costs $181 toprevent an HIV infection usingcircumcision. But it saves $2,411 inmedical costs to treat a person with HIV.

u Latex diaphragms. A study of 5,000high-risk women in South Africa andZimbabwe is expected to yield resultsnext year, Nancy Padia of UC-SanFrancisco says.

u Preventive drugs. Tenofovir andTruvada, medications to treat HIV, arebeing tested in 4,200 people in

Botswana, Peru and Thailand to seewhether they can protect againstinfection.

u Herpes treatment. Studies of morethan 6,000 people in the USA, LatinAmerica and Africa aim to show whetherdrying up herpes sores reduces thespread of HIV.

u Microbicides. Gels that kill HIV arebeing tested in more than 30,000 womenworldwide.

"We are working on gels that can beused at the time of sex and some thatcan be used once a day. Otherapproaches could be intravaginal ringsthat could deliver a microbicide for 30days or more," says Zeta Rosenberg of the International Partnership forMicrobicides.

*HIV vaccines. Researchers have beenstymied by HIV's ability to disguise itself and cripple the immune system.

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of the PasteurInstitute in Paris says the answer lies inpursuing basic research that will tellwhether researchers can develop avaccine.

"I believe that in this century we'll havethe answer," she says.

Access to HIV prevention, worldwide

6%

of adults haveaccess to HIVtests.

4%

of adults whoinject drugshave access to

sterile needles.

9%

of HIV-positivepregnantwomen have

access to meth-ods that preventtransmission toinfants.

9%

of adults haveaccess to con-doms.

Sources: UNAIDS,USAID


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U.N. disputes U.S. position onfree trade's impact on poverty

By Paul Wiseman

USA TODAYHONG KONG Asia's poorest

countries are being out-muscledeconomically by China and remainstranded in poverty despite a regionalboom in free trade, the United Nationssays.

In a 152-page report released lastweek, the U.N. Development Program(UNDP) disputes the U.S. position thatbusting down trade barriers is the surestway to reduce poverty. Instead, the U.N.

agency advises poor Asian countries todo what Japan and South Korea didsuccessfully in the 1970s and '80s:protect key industries temporarily withtariffs before exposing them to foreigncompetition.

"Trade policy is like a marriage," MinhPham, manager of the UNDP's Asianregional center in Colombo, Sri Lanka,says in a telephone interview. "Youalways have to manage it. You cannotjust say you hope for the best and expectit to work out."

Free-trade advocates "assume thatfreer and freer trade will create greaterand greater wealth," says Walden Bello,executive director of the anti-povertygroup Focus on the Global South inBangkok. "But experience has shown thisis not the case."

The UNDP says Asia's poorestcountries have been left behind even as

trade has exploded across the region.From 1980 to 2000, tariffs fell from anaverage 34% to 8% in East Asia and thePacific and from 60% to 18% in SouthAsia. As tariffs came down, tradeboomed -- rising from 45% of Asia-Pacificeconomic activity in 1990 to 81% by2003. The region now accounts for about30% of world exports, a figure the UNDPbelieves could hit 50% within a decade.

But across Asia, job growth fell from337 million in the '80s to 176 million inthe '90s, not fast enough to keep up withrising populations. Increasingly, theUNDP says, expanding trade is creatingjobs for skilled laborers, not foruneducated rural Asians who can nolonger make a living on the farm.

One problem: Inexperienced tradenegotiators from poor countries arefrequently outmaneuvered and enterinto trade pacts on unfavorable terms.Before it joined the World TradeOrganization in 2004, for instance,impoverished Cambodia agreed toexpose its farmers to more competitionthan the wealthy European Union andthe United States were willing to acceptfor theirs even though more than 80%of Cambodians live on farms, accordingto the anti-poverty group OxfamInternational.

The Cambodian government, human-rights activist Thun Saray says, "onlywanted access to the WTO. They didn'tcare about the conditions."

Moreover, China's rising economicclout is doing little to benefit the poorestAsian countries, UNDP says. Reason:Their low-tech economies don't producethe sophisticated machinery andproducts that China needs. More than

three-quarters of China's Asian trade iswith the region's wealthiest countriessuch as Japan, Singapore and SouthKorea. And China's trade with thepoorest Asian countries is unbalanced: In2004, it ran trade surpluses of $1.8 billionwith Bangladesh, $422 million withCambodia and $731 million withMyanmar.

Pham called on China to offer favorabletrade terms to the poorest Asiancountries, something it has done withAfrican countries. The UNDP also urgedpoor countries to impose tariffs on farmimports to protect their own farmers andfood supplies.

Economist Fahmida Khatun, seniorresearch fellow at the Centre for PolicyDialogue in Dhaka, Bangladesh, agreesthat free trade creates losers as well aswinners. But in her country, she says,many of the problems are homegrown:rampant corruption, governmentbureaucracy and crumblinginfrastructure, especially at Bangladesh'sports.

She also notes that Bangladesh's hugetrade deficit with China isn't necessarilyevidence of a lopsided relationship.Instead, Bangladesh needs Chinesemachinery and textiles to feed its ownthriving garment industry. She says thatshe and her colleagues have beensurveying dozens of local garmentfactories and have found that managersare confident their low-wage workforcewill keep them competitive in globalmarkets.

"They're not afraid of China at all,actually," she says.

Agency advises tariffsas protection in Asiancountries


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1. Choose a company that makes a product that you own.Using USA TODAY, find current news articles about thecompany. How is this company affected by the worldeconomy and globalization? How far along do you think we are in reaching the UNs goal of developing global partner-ships for development? Create a 2-3 minute oral presentation addressing these questions to share with the class.

2. Research the coverage of the global AIDS issue in current issues of USA TODAY. What is the current status in regards toeradicating AIDS around the world? What is your opinion of the coverage? Write a brief 2-page report describing thestatus of this particular Millennium Development Goal and how is it portrayed in the media.

3. Choose a developing country mentioned in this case study and report on its progress towards meeting one or more of the Millennium Development Goals. Using current issues USA TODAY, create a presentation for your class.

1. Several articles in this case study outline progress thathas been made to improve living conditions across the

globe; however, in many cases roadblocks are slowingthis progress. What are some of the impediments to each of the following three initiatives: a.) AIDS prevention, b.)maternal and child mortality reductions, and c.) free trade improvements? Make a three-column chart and list thehindrances for each initiative. Place a checkmark next to the one you believe is most critical. As a class, tally yourcheckmarks and discuss your findings.

2. Free trade has long been thought to be the answer to reducing poverty in developing nations. This case study discuss-es possible drawbacks to free trade and advantages for the use of tariffs. On a sheet of paper, make two columns andlist the pros and cons of free trade. Choose a side to debate and do a 2-minute quick-write describing your stand onthe free trade issue. Find a peer with an opposing view and share your writings with each other.

3. Why have Asias poorest countries been left behind in the world economy? In small groups, list the factors cited in thecase study and then share your findings with the class as a whole. As an extension, use a current issue of USA TODAYto report on the status of one the countries mentioned in the case study.

4. Summarize the findings of the World Health Report concerning maternal and child health. Use a current issue of USATODAY to learn the current status of child and maternal mortality rates. Are improvements being made? What conclu-sions can you draw? Write a brief two-page essay describing the current status of this issue.

5. Business leaders, celebrities, politicians and other individuals seem to be getting more involved in many of the issuesaddressed by the Millennium Development Goals. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bonos ProductRed, UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfreys Leadership Academy have all been featured promi-

nently in the news. Using current issues of USA TODAY, track the progress of the work of a known leader in this areaand compare the work of individuals vs. the work of government organizations and the impact of each. Create a 2-3minute oral presentation to share with your class.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

CRITICAL INQUIRY


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FUTURE IMPLICATIONS continued

v United Nations Millennium Development Goalswww.un.org/millenniumgoals

v United Nations Development Programmewww.undp.org/mdg

v The World Health Or ganizations Si te for MDGswww.who.int/mdg/en

v Joint United Nations Programme on HI V/AIDSwww.unaids.org/en

Additional Resources

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4. In groups of 3-4, brainstorm ideas for solutions to global health-related issues. Choose an issue and come up with acreative solution to share with the class. Include a description of the issue, your solution, and how you would imple-ment it. Elect a panel in the class to serve as judges to choose the best presentation/solution.

5. How best can individual citizens get involved to help with the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals?Choose one of the MDGs that interest you most and explore resources and opportunities for how you can get involvedin helping with that goal. Summarize your findings in a brief 2-3 page report and share with the class.

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USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: UN Millennial Goals