After the Millennium Development Goals. Remarks on the ethical assessment of global poverty reduction success

The Millennium Development Goals were effective from 2000 to 2015. Statistics show that most of the goals were met, and particularly success in the goal of reducing extreme poverty (MDG1) gained wide recognition. Despite the strong ethical language related to poverty reduction, there has been littl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Teppo Eskelinen
Format: Article
Language:Danish
Published: Norwegian University of Science and Technology Library 2018-04-01
Series:Etikk i Praksis: Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics
Online Access:https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/etikk_i_praksis/article/view/2348
Description
Summary:The Millennium Development Goals were effective from 2000 to 2015. Statistics show that most of the goals were met, and particularly success in the goal of reducing extreme poverty (MDG1) gained wide recognition. Despite the strong ethical language related to poverty reduction, there has been little analysis of the ethical significance of the MDG achievements. Since statistical and ethical definitions and representations of poverty never completely overlap, conclusions concerning ethical progress are not directly available from the statistics. This article shows how this ethical significance can be analysed and what kinds of controversies and uncertainties relate to the issue. As part of this analysis, utilitarian issues, population ethics, and the social aspect of poverty are discussed. Keywords: poverty, Millennium Development Goals, statistics, ethics, poverty line
ISSN:1890-3991
1890-4009