THE IMPACT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION ON THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL IN NIGERIA

1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) originated from the Millennium Declaration product by the United Nations. The Declaration asserts that every individual has the right to dignity, freedom, equality, a basis standard of living that includes freedom from hunger and violence and encourages tolerance and solidarity. The MDGS were made to operationalize these ideas by setting targets and indicators for poverty reduction in order to achieve the right set forth in the declaration on a set fifteen-year timeline. The aim of the MDGS is to encourage development by improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries. The MDGS call for a global partnership to address the most critical issues of our time (Mfam, 2009). The Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) are eight international development goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nation in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 193 United Nations members and at least 23 International Organizations have agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. The goals are includes evaluating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality rates, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other disease, ensuring environmental suitability and developing a global partnership for development.

Aremu (2008) observes that, the UN declaration stormed the world with a sort of refreshing atmosphere of hope when world leaders adopted the MDGS which besides embracing most of the objectives, included poverty dimension connected to hunger, water diseases, HIV/AIDS, orphans and urban poverty among others. Each of the goals has specific stated target and dates for achieving those targets. To accelerate progress, the G8 finance ministers agreed in June 2005 to provide enough funds to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (ADB) to cancel an additional $40 to $55 billion in debt owned by members of heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) to allow impoverished countries to re-channel the resources saved from the forgiven debt to social programs for improving health and education and for alleviation poverty.