In the issue of global health governance, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seem to reflect the global burden of disease highly. The United Nations Millennium Summit saw the global community make a commitment of the historical value to improve health and to eradicate poverty in about 15 years since the year of the declaration which was the year 2000 (Dodd & Cassels, 2006). Since then, there have been major developments seen throughout developed and developing countries. The results of the MDGs were envisioned to create a world of equity in health access and provision. However, recent trends in achieving the MDGs and SDGs have shown that making the commitment a possibility would need the cooperation of developed countries. The cooperation would be in the form of financial aid that would work towards building bridges to cross the wide rivers of the challenges that face the MDGs towards effecting a world of health improvement.
In this way, the MDGs have shown that there are challenges that need to be addressed at a global front and cannot be overcome without the cooperation of global nature. The MDGs and SDGs have in a way shone a light on the evident challenges that face the health sector and the corresponding achievement of improvement of health and health-related MDGs (Benziger et al., 2016). The current global health system has been the mirror that reflects the global burden of disease through the image of MDGs and SDGs. The improvement of health and eradication of poverty cannot be stressed enough. However, to achieve this, the global health burden needs to be acknowledged. Nonetheless, the acknowledgment alone will not be enough more need to be done. The MDGs have shown that the existing global burden of disease needs to be made lighter if these goals are going to be achieved within a considerable time period. Furthermore, the global community needs to offer full cooperation to the process of addressing the challenges, especially from the aspects of finance and infrastructural support.
The MDGs have not yet succeeded as their targets have not been reached. The eight MDGs seem to be having a global impact on policies of developing and developed countries. The impact of policy changes in these countries cannot go unnoticed. However, policy changes are termed by specialists as the foundation of building something much bigger. This can be viewed from the perspective of the recurring enactment of the policies on a national and global level. The significance of the policy changes is unbounded (Marmot et al., 2008). Nonetheless, there is no significant way to show that the MDGs rare gong to success by implementing the desired changes within the given period. On the matter of Global Health, MDGs are gearing towards it, but there have been no major changes that depict the achievement of these goals in the near future. The global community has failed to keep their word in committing towards achieving improvement of health and eradication of poverty on a global scale. Still, recent statistic shows that the future will be guarded for the coming generations since policies have been put in place for the sole achievement of the MDGs.
Global Health Data and Global Burden of Disease: Using UN Population Division Data
Table 1: Global Health Data
The age distribution in the three countries differs widely. Malawi seems to have a higher percentage of children under the age of five and most of the population under the ages 15-64. However, Malawi has a small percentage of their population aged over 65 years (United Nations, 2015). Japan, on the other hand, has a very small percentage of the population aged below five, while the most of their population belong to the ages 15-64. However, the percentage of the population that is aged 65 years and above is relatively high in comparison with the other countries. Mexico has a lower percentage of the population aged under 5 years old in comparison with Malawi. Nonetheless, this percentage is higher when compared with Japan. Mexico can also boast of having the highest percentage of the population ages 15-64 among the three countries. Still, the percentage of the population seems to be considerably low compared to Japan, but high when compared to Malawi. The three countries seem to hold different percentages through the given age groups with Malawi having the highest percentage of the population aged under five years, Mexico having much of its population between the ages 15 and 64 while Japan has a relatively highest percentage of the population aged 65 years and over.
Figure 1: Death under age five per 1,000 live births. (United Nations, 2015)
The age distribution in the three countries differs greatly. With respect to the burden of disease, the age distribution seems to have much influence. Data shows that with an increased population of children aged under five years old, there increases the need to provided better health care to eradicate child mortality. Therefore, the burden of disease will be greater in Malawi that in the other two countries. However, there is still the consideration of the population aged between 15 and 64 years. This age group is considered to be sexually active and productive for most of their lifetime. This brings about the issue of the prevention of HIV, maternal mortality, and other communicable diseases (Koplan et al., 2009). Moreover, it also creates a huge burden of disease for the respective countries.
From the line graph, Japan seems to have a relatively low number of deaths under age five per 1000 live births, followed by Mexico then Malawi comes in last with the highest number. The basis of the mortality trends in high, middle and low-income countries seems to be pneumonia, malaria, and diarrhea. According to WHO, these are seen to be the main basis of child deaths that are prevalent across the three categories of countries. However, the severity of the situation seems to be different across each country due to the unmatched development of health systems. The basis of the projections past 2016 seems to be the improvement of health facilities on a global scale. Currently, there is more aid going to developing countries that helps them provide better health care and improved services to the vulnerable part of the population aged under five years. The present trends in global health governance show that the issue of child mortality is moving towards eradication on a global scale and thus fewer child deaths with be experienced in the coming years.
Millennium Goal 4 Evaluation: the Case of Malawi
The main objective of the paper is to conduct an investigation into finding out who the country has succeeded in a significant reduction of child deaths. The main purpose of the case study was to find out the measures taken in improving child survival in Malawi (Kanyuka et al., 2016). The authors of the paper made using first-hand data that was collected through household surveys that were conducted on a national level. The data collected from the surveys was used to estimate child and neonatal mortality for the years 2004 to 2014 (Kanyuka et al., 2016). The authors also made use of data from the recalculation of significant indicators for the given period to come up with a list of tools for saving lives of children through various medical interventions. Furthermore, the authors also utilized secondary data sources that included health and demographic surveys (Kanyuka et al., 2016).
The type of analysis performed by the authors of the research paper was trends. The authors analyzed trends through comparing different indicators by utilizing full birth history datasets from the Demographic and Health Surveys and MDG Endline Survey. The authors majorly conducted their evaluation of Millennium Goal 4 through analysis of key trends in relevant data to come up with informed findings (Kanyuka et al., 2016). The findings of the study demonstrated that there was a key decline of child mortality in an annual decline rate of 5.4 % (Kanyuka et al., 2016). The rapid decline rate was attributed to interventions and treatment for pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria. Furthermore, the provision of vaccines, insecticide –treated bed nets, facility birth care, and prevention and treatment of HIV. The case study confirmed that Malawi had achieved the MDG 4 by the year 2013. The study also concluded that the achievement of child survival in Malawi was due to the scale-up of effective interventions and treatments pertinent to the major causes of child mortality. The study also indicated that the government of Malawi was accountable for the success due to their adaptation of evidence-based policies and implementation of programs aimed at preventing unnecessary child deaths (Kanyuka et al., 2016).
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