MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015, that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.

The world has made significant progress in achieving many of the Goals. Between 1990 and 2002 average overall incomes increased by approximately 21 percent. The number of people in extreme poverty declined by an estimated 130 million 1. Child mortality rates fell from 103 deaths per 1,000 live births a year to 88. Life expectancy rose from 63 years to nearly 65 years. An additional 8 percent of the developing world's people received access to water. And an additional 15 percent acquired access to improved sanitation services.

But progress has been far from uniform across the world-or across the Goals. There are huge disparities across and within countries. Within countries, poverty is greatest for rural areas, though urban poverty is also extensive, growing, and underreported by traditional indicators.

Asia is the region with the fastest progress, but even there hundreds of millions of people remains in extreme poverty, and even fast-growing countries fail to achieve some of the non-income Goals. Other regions have mixed records.

The goal of the United Nation's MDG plan is to have the flexibility to take into consideration factors at a regional level and concentrate efforts where they are needed most.

Both ambitious and practical, the MDGs can only be attained by the cooperative efforts of local initiatives, NGOs and government institutions working together to share expertise and resources.

About millenium development goals (mdg's): basics

What are millenium development goals?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges. The MDG's are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations-and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

The eight MDG's break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education.

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women.

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.

Goal 5: Improve maternal health.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability.

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

Why the need to development mdg's?

A pledge for action on the part of the international community, the Millennium Declaration has provided new perspectives and set down the foundations for a broad, comprehensive and more ...