Myths & Misunderstandings about the Millennium Development Goals

A multimedia journey: how to engage the audience? A multimedia journey:

How to engage the audience with the MDGs

Lonneke van Genugten Deputy editor-in-chief OneWorld @longenug www.oneworld.nl

About OneWorld

Dutch leading platform on global & sustainable development

About OneWorld

Dutch leading platform on global & sustainable development

About OneWorld

Dutch leading platform on global & sustainable development

Our Mission

§  OneWorld is your link to the world: bringing global issues to a local level

§  Website, magazine & events §  www.oneworld.nl: daily news, data,

blogs, jobs, DIY §  120.ooo subscribers magazine §  130.000 unique visitors/month

This is how we do it

§  Investigative journalism §  Data §  Human interest §  Global connections §  Independent, innovative, future proof,

easy accessible, open, crowdsourcing §  Our motto: Be Part of it!

OneWorld audience

§  Citizens who care §  Young professionals §  Students §  Frontrunners & innovators §  Conscious family life

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

§  8 Goals (21 sub-targets and 58 indicators) §  Focus on social development §  Based on Millennium Declaration

September, 2000, adopted by largest gathering of world leaders (189 countries).

§  Poll: Facts & Positions: §  Globally 2 billion people live in extreme

poverty §  Each year 6.3 million children die before

their fifth birthday

§  Saving lives leads to overpopulation §  Trade, not aid, will save the world

Progress overview §  46% of countries is performing better than

expected at several targets (though not always on track to meet them)

§  Grand sweep from the bottom is easier than finetuning

§  90% kids go to school (82% 1990) §  6.3 million kids <5 die each year (12.7m 1990) §  42% decline malaria mortality §  2.3 billion people gained access to clean drinking

water §  Only 50% of pregnant women in developing

regions receive recommended health care

Progress MDGs

§  In general: mixed results. §  Sub Sahara Africa is lagging

behind in many cases.

What the critics say

§  “It’s very clear to my mind that those goals are not going to be met..[…] Ultimately you arrive at a situation where a child has an education but the economy has not grown”

Economist Dambisa Moyo

What the critics say

‘I thought we had done a useful job, inventing the MDGs. Now I’m starting to doubt it. The MDgs are becoming a simplification of the development agenda’

MDG-architect Jan Vandemoortele

What the critics say

‘The MDGs will go down in history as a success in global consciousness-raising, but a failure in using that consciousness for its objectives. What a tragedy for all of those who contributed such effort and enthusiasm. And a much larger tragedy for the world's poor.’

Economist William ‘Bill’ Easterly

What the critics say

§  “Dedicating money to development aid is a leftwing hobby”

Dutch rightwing PVV-politician Geert Wilders

What the critics say

§  “Why 0.7%? Because it’s our moral duty? Development aid is no core business of the government”

Politicians Stef Blok & Ingrid de Caluwe VVD (prime minister’s party)

Multimedia feature: our goals 2. Informing people to fund the discussion with fact based arguments 3. Connecting people: MDGs are relevant to everybody 1. Involving the Dutch audience in the MDG discussion to unmask the aid support paradox. While poverty has declined significantly over the past 25 years, criticism has increased.

Our Team §  Creatives, data scrapers,

developers, researchers & editors

No white saviour complex

§ 

No simplifications

No poverty porn*

*Any type of media (written, photographed or filmed), which exploits the poor’s condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy for selling newspapers or increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause

Our Guiding Principle

§  Show, don’t tell. Let data tell the story § 

OneWorld Data Atlas §  Data from Worldbank, OECD, UN etc §  API (communication tool to exchange

data to different platforms) §  CKAN: open source data management

system that makes data accessible §  Interlinking data (girls to school – child

marriage) §  Interactive maps are embeddable,

shareable §  Our data are downloadable and available

to everyone

Myths and misunderstandings about the MDGs

§  Myth: We’re done, we managed to halve the amount of people that live on less than 1,25 dollar a day!

§  Inflation: in 1990 1,25 dollar was worth 2,25 dollar today

Myths and misunderstandings about the MDGs

§  Myth: If we immunize all children against diseases (f.i. measles, polio) it will be too crowded on this planet!

§  7.3 billion people on earth today 123,000 births today 34,000.000 this year. Population growth this year: 20 million It takes a generation to adapt birth rate to better life circumstances

Myths and misunderstandings about the MDGs

§  Myth: If all countries share 0.7% of their GDP, we could make poverty history

§  125 dollar/year/person §  Experts say: 66 billion/year §  Tax evasion & corruption costs: 1 trillion/year

Involving artists around the world

MDG 1, Dingchang Peng, China

Brainstorm session: let’s have fun

How to keep an online game

Simple & Sticky

Online game Travel Your World

§ 

Fun Factor!

Portraits of citizens who dream of a world without poverty and act upon it

What we learnt from there §  Testing, testing, testing…and testing again §  Keep on tracking outcome & impact §  The general audience does care about poverty §  It’s not just about informing,

also engaging §  Timing is everything (launch summer game

after the World Cup) §  Provide the audience with follow-up. Not a

stand alone topic, but a continuing story §  Bring your content to different outlets

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movie

100,000 #thankyoufortapwater

Fighting for good food

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Past, present and future challenges

www.oneworld.nl #Millenniumdoelen #Data Atlas

Lonneke van Genugten Editor OneWorld @longenug www.oneworld.nl