MDGs #REVISITED through images with an eye on post-2015
Celebrated photojournalist Nick Danziger has spent most of his adult life dedicated to documenting the social and political issues that define our times – in best-selling books, award-winning documentaries and photography. In 2005, World Vision partnered with Nick to capture a series of images for the exhibition Eight that sought to bring focus on the recently launched Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Nick travelled to World Vision projects in eight countries (Armenia, Bolivia, Cambodia, Honduras, India, Niger, Uganda and Zambia) and told the story of each of the MDGs through moving images. The photos were exhibited in locations including London, Singapore and Delhi.
"It was a roller coaster journey to share a slice of the pain and the joy of people across the world I met during this project," says Nick. "I was humbled by their courage, their perseverance and determination to better their lives through personal industry and effort."
The images continued to haunt Nick, and in 2010 he revisited the same families to document their lives once more. The photographic series Revisited was used to create awareness around progress on the MDGs through exhibitions, talks and other forums.
Five years later, as we near the deadline of the MDGs and the launch of the post-2015 development agenda, Nick is once again revisiting the same individuals and families to document how their lives have changed.
"Now a decade on from my first visit, I am going back again, not just to measure the ability to overcome the odds for those that have survived – some have sadly died – but to listen and learn from them. To add their voices on what needs to be done for the post-2015 development agenda to reach the most vulnerable people on our planet."
This project comes at a critical time. Great gains have been made in the global effort to achieve the MDGs, but with the finish line fast approaching more must be done if we are to ‘finish the job’ and fully meet the targets.
At the same time, global decision makers are in the midst of a process to determine the ‘post-2015 development agenda’ that will replace the MDGs.
World Vision beleives the biggest lesson of the MDGs was that ending global poverty depends on reaching the most vulnerable children. That’s the finding of the report Stop at Nothing: Post-2015 Goals for Children.
The report explains that while the MDGs brought better health and living standards to hundreds of millions of people, design flaws meant over a billion people on the margins of society – particularly vulnerable children – were passed over, ignored by the targets and unable to benefit from the tide that lifted their neighbours.
World Vision believes the success of post-2015 targets must be measured by their ability to reach the poorest and most vulnerable children in the hardest places to live.
As Nick revisits the families and communities – documenting how their lives have changed – over the coming months, we will be sharing his progress. Follow @WorldVisionUN and #REVISITED for updates.