Millennium Development Goals
The
Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all 191
United Nations member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year
2015.
The
United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000, commits the states to:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
:*Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one U.S. dollar a day.:*Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.:*Increase the amount of food for those who suffer from hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education
:* Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of
primary schooling.:* Increased enrollment must be accompanied by efforts to ensure that all children remain in school and receive a high-quality education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
:* Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.
4. Reduce child mortality
:* Reduce the
mortality rate among children under five by two thirds.
5. Improve maternal health
:* Reduce by three quarters the
maternal mortality ratio.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
:* Halt and begin to reverse the spread of
HIV/
AIDS.:* Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of
malaria and other major diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
:* Integrate the principles of
sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources.:* Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.:* Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.
8. Develop a global partnership for development
:* Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and
poverty reductionâ€"nationally and internationally.:* Address the least developed countries' special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.:* Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States.:* Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.:* In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.:* In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in
developing countries.:* In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologiesâ€"especially information and communications technologies.
The Borgen Project estimates that $40-$60 billion a year is needed to achieve all eight Millennium Goals by 2015. Comparatively the United States spends $420 billion a year on defense.
The
United Nations Millennium Campaign supports citizens' efforts to hold governments accountable for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Visit
Millennium Campaign Fund.orgJohn R. Bolton began his term as the
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations by laying out a list of wanted amendments to details of the
2005 World Summit held in New York City in September 2005. These included stopping the UN use of the term "Millennium Development Goals".
Source:
The Borgen Project*
International Finance Facility*
2005 World Summit*
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria*
Economic development*
Development assistance*
"Are We Making Poverty History?" - OneWorld.net's Perspectives Magazine, August/September 2005*
Millennium Campaign: Voices Against Poverty*
Millennium Development Goals Indicators: MDG Dashboard (downloadable database)*
www.un.org/millenniumgoals*
UN Secretary General's 2005 Millennium Goals Report*
www.developmentgoals.org*
www.first8.org*
UN Millennium Project (2002-2005)*
The Millennium Initiative*
Worldbank About the Goals*
Development Gateway Special Report: Aid Harmonization:What Will It Take to Meet the MDGs?*
Development Gateway Capacity Development for MDGs Topic Page*
The Borgen Project*
Mining and visualizing poverty data*
International Food Policy Research Institute, Annual Report Essay:Agriculture, food security, nutrition and the Millennium Development Goals*
No more Broken Promises? - A plain language guide to the MDGs*
MDGs issues for students and young people at Generation Why from Oxfam*
Environment and Poverty Times - MDGs and Environment edition*
Governance Focus issues in governance worldwide, in English & Español
*
The UN's Millennium Development Goals - Aspirations and Obligations a somewhat skeptical view from economist.com
*
Rock Ed Philippines - No more excuses, Philippines! Socio-Civic Education Through Philippine Rock Culture
*
IPS Inter Press Service Independent news on the MDGs
