Millennium Development Goals
At the start of the millennium, world leaders pledged to work to eradicate global poverty, hunger and disease. Their efforts are being measured against strict targets.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight specific targets against which global efforts to reduce extreme poverty by 2015 can be measured.
The goals were drawn up from the targets laid out by in the Millennium Declaration, which was signed by 147 world leaders at the UN Development Summit in 2000.
Broken down into 21 specific targets, the MDGs set the course for global efforts to reduce serious poverty, hunger and disease, while at the same time promoting education, equality and environmental sustainability.
However, central to all the goals is the acknowledgement that development depends upon a respect for human rights, peace and security and democracy.
The individual MDGs and some of their key points are:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- To reduce the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day by half
- Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women
- To halve the proportion of people suffering from extreme hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
- To ensure that, by 2015, all boys and girls are able to benefit from a full primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
- To bring an end to gender inequality in all levels of education by 2015
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
- To reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under the age of five
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
- To reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
- To achieve universal access to reproductive health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- To have halted and started to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015
- To achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment for those who need it by 2010
- To have halted and started to reverse the incidence of malaria and other infectious diseases by 2015
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
- To deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt
- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
