PAHO - Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals
El Salvador

Located on the Pacific coast of the Central American isthmus, El Salvador is the region's smallest country and has a population of 6,704,932. The country suffered through a decade long devastating civil war that ended in 1992. That year El Salvador initiated a new era of peace with the signing of an accord between the government and the leftist guerillas putting an end to the bloody civil war. Under the agreement a set of reforms were approved and democracy was entrenched as the country's main form of social change. Since its emergence from civil war, El Salvador has made remarkable progress in the economic, social and political fronts. Since then, repeated earthquakes, hurricanes and social problems have brought new challenges to this tiny nation. The economy of El Salvador today is more deregulated and diversified than before, less reliant on agriculture, and is developing strong service and manufacturing sectors. Over the last decade there was a marked increase in the standards of living and poverty declined. Net enrollment in primary education increased by close to 10 percentage points, infant mortality declined by 40 percent, population without access to safe water was halved and extreme poverty was reduced by half. According to El Salvador's National MDG report, the country is well positioned to meet most of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals ahead of schedule. However the report also states that in order to reach all of the goals a lot of work remains to be done. Some of the suggestions issued in the MDG report include: making the MDG a priority in nationals politics, to make all Salvadorans aware of their importance, and to give priority to these objectives in social, economic and environmental politics as well as in the national budget.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. According to the report, the percentage of people living on less than a dollar a day has been reduced from 57.8% to 38.9% between 1991 and 2002.

Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. This is an area where El Salvador will have to make a greater effort in order to reach the goal since data shows that the reduction in hunger has been decreased to 11.2% in 1993 to 10.3% in 2002.

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education.

Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. In this area El Salvador has shown significant improvement in net enrollment in primary education. From 1991-2002 there was an increase of 78% to 88% respectively.

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.

Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. The report indicates that there is no great gender disparity in education, since it states that the ratio between boys and girls has been maintained from 1991 to 2002 from 99% to 100% respectively. The report also states that the situations are similar in urban and rural areas.

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.

Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five. Statistics show a positive change in the mortality rate of children under five. There has been a reduction in mortality from 52/1000 live births in 1993 to 31/1000 in 2003, that is equal to a reduction of 21 points over a nine year period and leaving an additional effort of 14 more points in order to reach the goal by 2015.

Goal 5: Improve maternal health.

Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio. The indicators for maternal mortality ratio are worrisome. While the number dropped from 158 to 120 deaths/100,000 live births between 1993 and 1998, the number jumped to 172 deaths in 2002.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. Because until recently in El Salvador there had been some underreporting in the number of cases of HIV/AIDS, the number of cases has increased from 54 men and 42 women in 1990 to 1,002 and 595 in 2002.

Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. The number of children vaccinated against measles dropped from 98% in 1990 to 93% in 2002. That is a worrisome fact that the report states must be quickly addressed. The report also states that there must be a 7% increase in coverage in order to meet the MDGs.

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources. According to the report it does not seem likely that this goal will be met because of the fact that the coverage of forests fell from 9.3% in 1990 to 5.8% in 2000, the total area of protected regions fell from 0.5% in 1994 to 0.4% in 2002 and the amount of CO2 emissions which rose from 0.5 metric tons in 1990 to 0.9 in 1999.

Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. According to EHPM the percentage of people without access to a water source fell from 23.9% in 1991 to 11.9% in 2002. Similarly the number of people without access to better sanitation fell from 21.9% to 7% between 1991 and 2002.

Achieve significant improvements in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. No data given in report.

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development.

One of the indicators for this goal includes a reduction in youth unemployment from 14% to 12 % from 1991 to 2002.