Tuesday, May 30, 2006

THE MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE: MBOLA VILLAGE TO REPRESENT MIOMBO WOODLANDS OF EASTERN, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA.

The International community through the United Nations Organization has agreed to reduce extreme poverty, diseases, and hunger by the year 2015. There are eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to be met by 2015 using different approaches. One approach is 'The Millennium Village'. It draws upon the leading science-based action plan to fight poverty in rural Africa. It aims to identify the practical ways in which impoverished villages in Africa and elsewhere can adapt and implement the interventions. The Millennium Village approach recognizes the interdependence of the various Goals and stresses the need for simultaneous investments across agriculture, health, education, environment and infrastructure- all critical for success, and implemented in a time-bound manner with clear targets and goals.

The Millennium Village Project (MVP) is implemented using the MV approach and is funded by the Government of Japan. It has a total of 8 villages across different agro-ecological zones of Africa. Mbola village has been nominated to represent the Miombo woodland of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. Mbola village is located in Uyui District, Tabora Region about 850 km West of Dar es salaam, in Tanzania. Other villages are found in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Senegal, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana and Mali.

Closely related to the MVP is the Millennium Promise (MP) a non-profit organization and an implementation partner of the millennium project, that seeks to out-scale performance of MVP to the surrounding villages.

On 26 May 2006, Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Director of Millennium Project, the MVP Cluster leader,
and the ABC reporter joined Tabora leaders and Mbola village community to discuss various issues related to MVP implementation.

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