Oxford Reference books mislead on UN commitments

Results from searching Oxford Reference website, April-July 2017

Errors and misleading material in:

Oxford Reference website: Millennium Development Goals Overview

International Studies Encyclopedia Wiley-Blackwell 2017

Dictionary of Business and Management in India 2017

Oxford Dictionary of Economics, Fifth edition. Oxford 2017

HIV and AIDS, Very Short Introduction. 2nd edition. Oxford 2016

Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability 2016

Dictionary of Epidemiology (6th ed.) Oxford 2016

Berkshire Encyclopedia of China 2016

Oxford Companion to International Relations 2014

Oxford Dictionary of Human Geography 2013

Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women 2013

New Oxford Companion to Economics in India   (3rd ed.) 2012

Dictionary of African Biography. Oxford 2011

Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace 2010

Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law   (3rd ed.) 2009

Encyclopedia of Human Rights. Oxford 2009

Oxford Companion to Global Change 2009

Oxford Companion to Australian Politics 2008

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World 2008

Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History 2008

Encyclopedia of Social Work (20th ed.) 2008

Dictionary of Public Health. Oxford 2007

Oxford Reference website

Overview

Millennium Development Goals

"A set of eight goals adopted at the UN Millennium Summit [!] in September 2000 to alleviate conditions for more than a billion people in the world who were living in extreme poverty."

"Several of these goals have implications for public health, and four have explicit health targets: …4. Reduce child mortality and achieve a two-thirds reduction in mortality in those younger than 5 years, by 2015; 5. Improve maternal health and reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio, by 2015; …See http://www.developmentgoals.org for a full account and discussion of the millennium development goals."

http://www.oxfordreference .com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100158284? rskey=Gu3Gyz&result=1

MB comment: It is almost true that the Millennium Summit adopted the eight undated goals themselves. However, the material is liable to mislead about what leaders pledged in 2000.

The Summit pledges were generally wider and more ambitious than the "MDG" targets proposed in 2001 by the Secretary-General.

The latter are of uncertain basis in UN resolutions of the early 2000s.

First, as the philosopher Thomas Pogge has pointed out for many years, several of the "MDG" targets have an easier baseline of 1990 which is not in the Millennium Summit pledges.

The Oxford Reference page does not mention 1990. But it makes clear (below) that "goals" refers to targets for 2015, not just the undated goals themselves. It directs readers to a web site, now defunct, which clearly related to the 1990-based targets. It therefore seems liable to mislead.

Second, the "set" of Summit pledges designed to affect those in extreme poverty goes beyond the "MDGs". The pledges are not limited to those in paragraph 19 of the Millennium Declaration.

Third, both the Millennium pledges and the "MDGs" relate to far more people than those in extreme poverty.

The International Studies Encyclopedia    

Edited by Robert A. Denemark and Renée Marlin-Bennett

The International Studies Encyclopedia, published in association with the International Studies Association (ISA), is the most comprehensive reference work of its kind for the fields of international studies and international relations. It brings together specially commissioned, peer reviewed essays, written and edited by an international team of the world's best scholars and teachers.

Wiley-BlackwellPublished online: 2017Current Online Version: 2017

Measuring Global Poverty    Shatakshee DhongdeThe International Studies EncyclopediaCurrent Version: 2017

"Millennium Development Goals…These goals are stated in the United Nations’   Millennium Declaration   [!] which was adopted in 2000 by 189 nations. The first of the eight goals is to halve between   1990  [!] and 2015 the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day."

Women and Development    Valentine M. MoghadamThe International Studies EncyclopediaCurrent Version: 2017

"...Millennium Development   Goals ( MDG ) – eight objectives with specified targets regarding development and poverty alleviation agreed upon by the international community in   2000 ..."

What is Development?    Gustavo EstevaThe International Studies EncyclopediaCurrent Version: 2017

"In September 2000 the United Nations Millennium Declaration was produced, fostering a “global partnership” to reduce extreme poverty and defining eight Millennium Development   Goals ( MDGs ) [!] – which range from halving extreme poverty to...all by the target date of 2015 – which form a blueprint agreed..."

Food Insecurity   Christopher B. Barrett and Erin C. LentzThe International Studies EncyclopediaCurrent Version:  2017

".. the first Millennium Development Goal – to halve [?] the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 – agreed by 189 countries in the UN’s 2000   Millennium Declaration ." [!]

MB: Two mistakes. The authors confuse the MDGs with the pledge, and the target with the MDG on eradication.

Foreign Aid    David AraseThe International Studies Encyclopedia

"The new aid agenda was carried forward by the UN General Assembly in 2000 when it issued the Millennium Declaration. This instituted a results oriented plan for development aid encapsulated in the Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ), which had previously been endorsed by the DAC and the World Bank. The plan conceives of development as..."

MB: Misleading. The Millennium plan of 2000 was wider.

Wider still is the agenda agreed in summits and conferences repeatedly reaffirmed by member states, including in 2013 and 2015.

The goals "previously…endorsed by the DAC [the Development Assistance Committee of national representatives of the rich countries' club, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] and the World Bank" generally had baselines of 1990, like the so-called "Millennium" Development Goals.

The Millennium Declaration has a baseline of 2000, not 1990.

Environmental Sustainability/Sufficiency    Jack MannoThe International Studies EncyclopediaCurrent Version: 2017

"www.un.org/millenniumgoals/environ.shtml . This website promotes and supports Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 through the United Nations   Millennium Declaration."

The Development Paradigm and Its Critics   James H. MittelmanThe International Studies EncyclopediaCurrent Version: 2017

"A centerpiece of the dominant paradigm is the United Nations Millennium Declaration. After the leaders of 189 countries endorsed it in 2000 , international summits hammered out the Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs )."

MB: Civil servants, not summits, basically "hammered out" the MDG structure.

It is key to understanding the situation that the summits reaffirmed the more ambitious, wider commitments from the Millennium Declaration and other conferences and summits.

There were modifications to the MDG structure after the Johannesburg summit, which agreed a target on sanitation, and the 2005 World Summit.

The Johannesburg summit specified a 2000 baseline for the mortality targets.

Development/Poverty Issues and Foreign Policy Analysis Steven W. Hook and Franklin Barr LeboThe International Studies Encyclopedia Current Version: 2017

"The UN-sponsored Millennium Summit in New York City identified the end of extreme poverty as both a moral imperative and a prerequisite to global security."

MB: Liable to mislead. Did the UN not do that from its inception?

"Nearly every government attended the summit in September 2000 and approved eight Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ), with accompanying measures of..."

International Organization and Human Development   David C. EllisThe International Studies Encyclopedia Current Version: 2017

"The ultimate UN institutional validation of the human development framework was realized in 2000 with member states’ adoption of the Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs )"

Security Council Resolution 1325   Charlotte Graves PattonThe International Studies Encyclopedia Current Version: 2017

"...the year 2000 saw a special session of the GA focused on five years after the FWCW (Beijing + 5); the GA adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which added momentum to the adoption of SC Res 1325."

MB: In which resolution do these authors claim the General Assembly adopted the MDGs?

Oxford Dictionary of Economics, Fifth editionJohn Black, Nigar Hashimzade and Gareth MylesPrint Publication Date: 2017

"Millennium Development Goals

Eight goals adopted by world leaders in 2000 [!] with the intention that they will be achieved by 2015."

http://oxfordindex.oup.com /view/10.1093/acref/9780198759430.013.4139? rskey=UcvGk6&result=5

MB: The above has two errors in one sentence.

It is not the case that all of the undated "Millennium Development Goals" themselves, such as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, were to be achieved by 2015.

The "MDG" targets for 2015, which the authors presumably meant by the word "goals" even though they mentioned the number eight, were not "adopted by world leaders in 2000".

The reference to 2015 makes an error more explicit than in some other material.

I do not know which resolution the authors would like to rely on if they want to claim that

world leaders adopted the "MDGs" in some other year. But it is not very important, since the reaffirmation by member states in subsequent years of more ambitious pledges makes the "MDGs" to a significant degree redundant.

I am not sure why the authors are interested in "MDGs" of dubious status in UN resolutions of the early 2000s, rather than a) the actual Millennium commitments, and/or b) the other summit and conference outcomes which made up the UN agenda for the 21st century and 2015 in particular.

A Dictionary of Business and Management in India Current Version: 2017

Millennium Development Goals  

"The eight international development goals established by the Millennium Summit of the United Nations held in 2000"

http://www.oxfordreference .com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191829000.001.0001/acref- 9780191829000-e-0107?rskey=Gu3Gyz&result=2

Misleading.

The Millennium Declaration adopted at the Summit established more goals relevant to international development than in the MDG structure proposed in 2001. This is easily visible in the Secretary-General's "Road Map" of 6 September 2001 giving his version of what the Millennium Declaration goals were. "The eight" therefore misleads.

Targets which were similar in the MDG structure were in some cases more ambitious in the actual pledges.

The Summit pledges did not have the easier baseline of 1990. Due to the common usage of "Millennium Development Goals" to refer to time-limited targets, the material is liable to give the wrong impression that the "MDG" targets for 2015 were what leaders pledged to achieve.

"the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations in 2000"

Alan WhitesideDevelopment, numbers, and politicsin HIV and AIDS, Very Short IntroductionSecond editionNovember 2016http://oxfordindex.oup.com /view/10.1093/actrade/9780198727491.003.0006? rskey=UcvGk6&result=13

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)  

A Dictionary of Epidemiology (6 ed.)

Current Version: 2016

"Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millenium Declaration, [!] which was adopted during the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 to be achieved by 2015, the eight MDGs break down into 18 quantifiable targets measured by 48 indicators."

"Drawn from" misleads.

Again, the MDG targets for 2015 were generally diluted from the Millennium Declaration pledges rather than being "drawn from" it.

The pledges have been constantly reaffirmed in resolutions of the UN General Assembly since 2000, along with other more ambitious summit and conference outcome targets and pledges.

It appears that Oxford Reference have concentrated on the wrong aims, since the UN agenda included the conference and summit outcomes as a whole, not just the "MDGs".

Not all those agreed objectives and commitments expired in 2015.

Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability

Print Publication Date: 2010Print ISBN-13: 9780190622664Published online: 2016

Millennium Development Goals (Measurements, Indicators, and Research Methods for Sustainability)  

Rebeca GRYNSPAN and Luis F. LOPEZ-CALVA

"189 countries adopted the Millennium Declaration. Through that declaration they committed themselves to alleviate extreme poverty and to tackle several deprivations, setting eight [?] broad, quantifiable objectives"

Clearly understates the Declaration's "quantifiable" pledges.

May mislead that particular objectives could be reliably measured.

World Bank   Marisa B. VAN SAANENBerkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability Current Version: 2016

"Development progress is measured by a wide range of benchmarks, including the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ), adopted in 2000 [!] by the international community as a common framework for action and a way to track progress on fundamental development goals."

Wrong baseline.

Berkshire Encyclopedia of ChinaCurrent Version: 2016Print Publication Date: 2009

United Nations–China Relations    June Grasso

"On 8 September 2000 , the U.N. overwhelmingly approved the Millennium Declaration, whose objective is to promote peace, security and disarmament."

MB: Not complete enough to be accurate. An account of the "objective" of the Millennium Declaration should include some of these: human rights, Security Council reform, governance.

"It also pledged to reduce by half the number [!] of people with incomes of less than one dollar a day by 2015"

Should be "proportion".

The Oxford Companion to International RelationsOxford ReferenceCurrent Version: 2014

United Nations    Craig N. MurphyThe Oxford Companion to International RelationsOxford ReferenceCurrent Version: 2014

"In 2000, he held the Millennium Summit that he hoped would lead to significant structural reform, including a relatively open civil society assembly. That agreement did not emerge, but the summit did adopt a set of global antipoverty targets, the   Millennium Development   Goals " [!]

World Bank    Katherine MarshallThe Oxford Companion to International RelationsCurrent Version: 2014

"... the very notions of development have changed radically, from a somewhat abstract ideal (freedom from want ) to a demanding and central international goal."

MB: Human rights declarations are more, not less, demanding than "halving extreme poverty in fifteen years".

"From the early 1960s, but especially with the year   2000   formulation of a Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development   Goals , the idea that a decent life was the right of all world citizens, and that an international community shared a responsibility for making it possible took form."

MB: In fact the goals were retreats from such already-formed ideas. Those ideas took form at least as long ago as the 1940s, as the international agreements show.

Interestingly, a theme of the new SDGs adopted after this book's publication is that they are claimed to have a new focus on "leaving no-one behind"!

Perhaps, like some other academics, the author has accepted what governments claim, or the words of people repeating those claims, without question – as she seems to have done in relation to the "2000 formulation" of the "MDGs".

Population Policy    Barbara B. Crane and John MayThe Oxford Companion to International RelationsCurrent Version: 2014

"In September   2000   , at a United Nations conference in New York, world leaders adopted the   Millennium Development   Goals ..."

Millennium Development Goals    David HulmeThe Oxford Companion to International RelationsCurrent Version: 2014

"...the IDGs in DAC"

MB: The author is referring to the 1990-baseline International Development Goals of the

Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the richer countries' club. These goals were formulated in 1996, and less ambitious than the pledges in the 1996 World Food Summit declaration or the Millennium Declaration.

"and the broader goals of the Millennium Declaration in the UN."

MB: The author omits the crucial point that the Millennium Summit baseline was more demanding.

David Hulme: "There were two options for resolving this issue. ... The second was to merge the two. This also posed potential problems. Annan could not be seen to be modifying the Millennium Declaration..." [!]

MB: The author omits the crucial point that Annan did modify the Declaration pledges.

David Hulme: "Building on [?] the United Nation's Millennium Declaration of 2000, a set of UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was agreed in 2001 "

MB: The above is misleading, if people take it to mean that nations agreed the MDG targets in 2001.

In reality member states in 2001 responded to Kofi Annan's 58-page "Road Map" containing the MDG structure and much else, on 14 December 2001.

In that resolution, 56/95, they did not mention the "MDGs" or the annex containing them but instead called for publicity for the Declaration.

Secondly, the claim that the MDGs were "building on the Millennium Declaration" is liable to mislead.

The MDGs were in fact to a significant extent, though not in all areas, "cutting down".]

David Hulme: "(see Table 1 for a list and other details). These eight goals defined development as poverty reduction on a path toward global poverty eradication."

MB: Was it not rather the Millennium Declaration, and the resolutions, summits and conferences since the 1940s, which "defined development as poverty reduction on a path toward global poverty eradication" ?

David Hulme: "The MDGs may be regarded as an unprecedented international political achievement—underpinned by the unanimous approval of all 189 UN member states..."

MB: That is misleading in context, since the article gives no indication of a date for the claimed unanimous approval apart from 2001.

The United States generally claimed until at least 2006 that it had not agreed what is generally understood by the term "MDGs". The article seems to me to be most naturally read as saying 189 member states agreed the MDG structure in 2001, which idea has no basis in UN resolutions.

The MDGs as an agreement clearly did have a "precedent" in the form of the Millennium Declaration.

Functionalism    Craig N. MurphyThe Oxford Companion to International RelationsCurrent Version:  2014

"Millennium Development   Goals , the global antipoverty goals for 2015 agreed upon by the world's leaders in   2000   ."

Food Politics    James A. PaulThe Oxford Companion to International RelationsCurrent Version: 2014

"In 2000   , when the UN set its   Millennium Development   Goals ..."

Economic Commission for Africa   Guy MartinThe Oxford Companion to International Relations Current Version: 2014

"the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG, 2000)"

Oxford Dictionary of Human GeographyCurrent Version: 2013

"sustainable development    

…Ensuring environmental sustainability was one of the Millennium Development Goals ( 2000 )"

"development  

…Participation is the latest watchword. The Millennium Development   Goals , adopted by the United Nations in   2000  prioritize basic needs such as health and water."

MB: The words diminish participation.

................................

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and WomenCurrent Version: 2013

International Laws and Treaties on Women's Status    Roja FazaeliThe Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and WomenCurrent Version: 2013

"The year 2000 was marked by the global summit held at the United Nations in New York, which launched the Millennium campaign for the realization of the Millennium Development   Goals (MDGs). [!]

Among the goals, the third and fifth goals are directly related to women's rights by promoting gender equality and empowerment of women…"

MB: Understating pledges disempowers women.

"…and improving maternal health. Another crucial international law document produced in 2000 was ..."

The New Oxford Companion to Economics in India   (3 ed.) Current Version: 2012

"Millennium Development Goals    …At the United Nations Millennium Summit held in New York in September 2000, the UN Secretary-General agreed to report annually to the General Assembly on the progress made towards achieving the millennium development   goals (MDGs). [!]

Endorsed so far by 192 states of the world, MDGs are an ambitious agenda for reducing poverty, ending deprivations, and assuring citizens of their human rights ". [!]

MB: On the error in the first paragraph above, paragraph 31 of the Millennium Declaration reads:"We request the General Assembly to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of this Declaration, and ask the Secretary-General to issue periodic reports for consideration by the General Assembly and as a basis for further action."One of the co-chairpersons stated: www.un.org/press/en/2000/20000908.ga9758.doc.html "I ... call upon [the new President of the General Assembly, Harri Holkeri] to ensure the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and pay particular attention to paragraph 31."The explicit references to human rights are in the Declaration, not in "development" goals.

Halving hunger in fifteen years clearly does not "assure citizens of their human rights" in terms of agreed human rights, and so the author's claim that the agenda is for "assuring citizens of their human rights is clearly, according to agreed human rights standards including the rights to life and food, untrue.

Dictionary of African BiographyOxford Reference Current Version: 2011Print Publication Date: 2012

"Annan , Kofi Atta   (1938)   

…"…that human rights are a Western “imposition” or “plot” was “demeaning of the yearning for human dignity that resides in every African heart.”

In   2000   , Annan … called on heads of state to …agree to a blueprint of time-bound targets that became known as the   Millennium Development   Goals , [!] which were soon incorporated into global economic and social development discourse. When world leaders returned to New York to review progress..."

The Oxford International Encyclopedia of PeaceCurrent Version: 2010

United Nations    The Oxford International Encyclopedia of PeaceCurrent Version: 2010

"... the Millennium Declaration of the General Assembly in 2000 , which called for eight Millennium Development Goals"

Poverty and Conflict The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace Current Version: 2010

"According to the Millennium Development Goals ( MDG ) adopted by the United Nations in 2000"

The Oxford Companion to Global Change Current Version: 2009

Economic Levels  

"The United Nations Millennium Development Goals, adopted in September, 2000 [!] by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, [?] identifies targets to be achieved by the year 2015"

Incorrect and misleading.

Encyclopedia of Social Work (20 ed.)

Current Version: 2008

"The UN also advanced another lofty set of goals in 2005 , known as the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals ( MDG's )"

MB: That is two sets of goals, not one.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World HistoryCurrent Version: 2008

Southeast Asia    

"The Millennium Development Goals set out in the United Nations   Millennium Declaration  ( 2000 ) also include an agenda for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women globally."

MB: It disempowers women to tell them governments pledged less than they actually did on saving children's and mothers' lives.

UNESCO    

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World HistoryCurrent Version: 2008

"UNESCO also signed on to the U.N. Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000 [!] with a target date of 2015 . The third of the eight Millennium Development Goals is to end gender disparities through women's educational achievement and political participation."

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World

Current Version: 2008

"United Nations    

…Sub-Saharan Africa was a major focus of the UN's Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ). These were set by the General Assembly in   2000   to be achieved over the following fifteen years."

Health and Disease    Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern WorldCurrent Version: 2008

"...in 1978 the WHO proposed a program of “Health for All by the Year 2000  .” Twenty years later, as the millennium approached, the WHO promulgated its famous   Millennium Development   Goals . In addition to reducing gender inequality, illiteracy, and environmental degradation worldwide, the Millennium Development Goals set targets…"

http://www.oxfordreference .com/search? btog=chap&isQuickSearch=true&pageSize=100&q=%22millennium+declaration%22+1990+mortality&sort=relevance

Medicine and Public Health  Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World Current Version: 2008

"In 2000 , Middle Eastern and North African governments adopted the U.N. Millennium Development Goals"

Encyclopedia of Human RightsOxford University PressEditor in Chief: David P Forsythe

Winner of the 2010 Dartmouth Medal

$625.00

https://global.oup.com /academic/product/encyclopedia-of-human-rights-9780195334029? cc=us&lang=en&

Right to Food and Adequate Standard of Living    Encyclopedia of Human Rights Current Version: 2009

"...on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights released its landmark General Comment 12 on the Right to Adequate Food (Article 11), described in the following section.

All these efforts were given further impetus at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000  . The eight Millennium Development   Goals, supported by all 189 nations at the summit..."

More grounded in fact, though the second sentence omits the commitments beyond the Millennium Declaration:

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Encyclopedia of Human Rights Current Version: 2009

"...realization of human rights, development, and security form the principal interrelated objectives of the United Nations. The strengthening of the UN system, reflecting the need for a strong multilateral institution to more effectively meet the challenges set out in the UN Millennium Declaration, has been a constant theme on the UN's political agenda."

Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (3 ed.)

Current Version: 2009

"Millennium Development Goals  

Eight [?] development goals were set by U.N. General Assembly's Millennium Declaration (Res. 55/2 of 18 September 2000 )… These MDGs [!] comprise 21 quantifiable targets"

UNCCD    Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law   (3 ed.) Current Version: 2009

"UNCCD is charged with the implementation of the goals of the Convention, now reinforced by the Millennium Development   Goals relating to extreme poverty and hunger: General Assembly Res. 55/2 of 18 September   2000   ."

Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law   (3 ed.) Current Version: 2009

United Nations Development Programme  

"At the U.N. Millennium Summit in September 2000  , a number of Millennium Development   Goals were adopted"

MB: Not goals. Resolutions - what leaders said they "resolved" to do. Generally more ambitious than the "MDG" structure which the dictionary is liable to mislead was what leaders "adopted" in 2000.

Oxford Companion to Australian Politics

Current Version: 2008

World Bank  

"the bank now subscribes to the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2000"

A Dictionary of Public Health Edited by John M. Last2007

"Millennium Development Goals

A set of eight goals adopted at the UN Millennium Summit"

http://oxfordindex.oup.com /view/10.1093/acref/9780195160901.013.2871

Almost true in respect of the undated goals, but misleading in context.

Readers are likely, in some cases perhaps especially if they have seen other Oxford Reference material, to assume the authors are referring to the dated targets.

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