Millennium Development Goals

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The Millennium Development Goals are a UN initiative.

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.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were
established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of
the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states at the time (there
are 193 currently), and at least 23 international organizations, committed to help achieve the
following Millennium Development Goals by 2015:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower women
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability[1]
8. To develop a global partnership for development[2]
Each goal has specific targets, and dates for achieving those targets. To accelerate progress,
the G8 finance ministers agreed in June 2005 to provide enough funds to the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to cancel $40 to
$55 billion in debt owed by members of the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) to allow them to
redirect resources to programs for improving health and education and for alleviating poverty.
Critics of the MDGs complained of a lack of analysis and justification behind the chosen objectives,
and the difficulty or lack of measurements for some goals and uneven progress, among others.
Although developed countries' aid for achieving the MDGs rose during the challenge period, more

than half went for debt relief and much of the remainder going towards natural disaster relief and
military aid, rather than further development.
As of 2013, progress towards the goals was uneven. Some countries achieved many goals, while
others were not on track to realize any. A UN conference in September 2010 reviewed progress to
date and concluded with the adoption of a global plan to achieve the eight goals by their target date.
New commitments targeted women's and children's health, and new initiatives in the worldwide
battle against poverty, hunger and disease.
Among the non-governmental organizations assisting were the United Nations Millennium
Campaign, the Millennium Promise Alliance, Inc., the Global Poverty Project, the Micah Challenge,
The Youth in Action EU Programme, "Cartoons in Action" video project and the 8 Visions of Hope
global art project.

Background[edit]

Millennium Summit[edit]
Preparations for the 2000 Millennium Summit launched with the report of the Secretary-General
entitled, "We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century". Additional
input was prepared by the Millennium Forum, which brought together representatives of over 1,000
non-governmental and civil society organizations from more than 100 countries. The Forum met in
May to conclude a two-year consultation process covering issues such as poverty
eradication, environmental protection, human rights and protection of the vulnerable.
MDGs derive from earlier development targets, where world leaders adopted the United Nations
Millennium Declaration. The approval of the Millennium Declaration was the main outcome of the
Millennium Summit.
The MDGs originated from the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The Declaration asserted that
every individual has dignity; and hence, the right to freedom, equality, a basic standard of living that
includes freedom from hunger and violence and encourages tolerance and solidarity. The MDGs set
concrete targets and indicators for poverty reduction in order to achieve the rights set forth in the
Declaration.[3]

Precursors[edit]
The Brahimi Report provided the basis of the goals in the area of peace and security.[citation needed]
The Millennium Summit Declaration was, however, only part of the origins of the MDGs. More ideas
came from Adam Figueroa,[citation needed] Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A series of UN-led
conferences in the 1990s focused on issues such as children, nutrition, human rights and women.

The OECD criticized major donors for reducing their levels of Official Development
Assistance (ODA). UN Secretary General Kofi Annansigned a report titled, We the Peoples: The
Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century. The OECD had formed its International Development
Goals (IDGs). The two efforts were combined for the World Bank's 2001 meeting to form the MDGs. [4]

Human capital, infrastructure and human rights [edit]

The MDG emphasized three areas: human capital, infrastructure and human rights (social,
economic and political), with the intent of increasing living standards.[5] Human capital objectives
include nutrition, healthcare (including child mortality, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,
and reproductive health) and education. Infrastructure objectives include access to safe drinking
water, energy and modern information/communication technology; increased farm outputs using
sustainable practices; transportation; and environment. Human rights objectives include empowering
women, reducing violence, increasing political voice, ensuring equal access to public services and
increasing security of property rights. The goals were intended to increase an individuals human
capabilities and "advance the means to a productive life". The MDGs emphasize that each nation's
policies should be tailored to that country's needs; therefore most policy suggestions are general.

Partnership[edit]
MDGs emphasize the role of developed countries in aiding developing countries, as outlined in Goal
Eight, which sets objectives and targets for developed countries to achieve a "global partnership for
development" by supporting fair trade, debt relief, increasing aid, access to affordable essential
medicines and encouraging technology transfer. Thus developing nations ostensibly became
partners with developed nations in the struggle to reduce world poverty.

Goals[edit]

A poster at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, New York, USA, showing the Millennium
Development Goals.

The MDGs were developed out of several commitments set forth in the Millennium Declaration,
signed in September 2000. There are eight goals with 21 targets,[6] and a series of
measurable health indicators and economic indicators for each target.[7][8]

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger [edit]

Target 1A: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living on less than
$1.25 a day[9]

Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]

Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 1B: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People

GDP Growth per Employed Person

Employment Rate

Proportion of employed population below $1.25 per day (PPP values)

Proportion of family-based workers in employed population

Target 1C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger

Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age

Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption [10]

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education[edit]

Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls
and boys

Enrolment in primary education

Completion of primary education[11]

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women [edit]

Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably
by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education

Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector

Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament[12]

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates[edit]

Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Under-five mortality rate

Infant (under 1) mortality rate

Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles[13]

Goal 5: Improve maternal health[edit]

Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal
mortality ratio

Maternal mortality ratio

Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

Contraceptive prevalence rate

Adolescent birth rate

Antenatal care coverage

Unmet need for family planning[14]

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases [edit]

Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

HIV prevalence among population aged 1524 years

Condom use at last high-risk sex

Proportion of population aged 1524 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of

HIV/AIDS
Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those

who need it

Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral

drugs

Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and
other major diseases

Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria

Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets

Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate antimalarial drugs
Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly Observed
Treatment Short Course)[15]

2013 educational improvement

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability[edit]

Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies
and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources

Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the
rate of loss

Proportion of land area covered by forest

CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)

Consumption of ozone-depleting substances

Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits

Proportion of total water resources used

Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected

Proportion of species threatened with extinction

Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access
to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water
supply)

Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban

and rural
Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation
Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least

100 million slum-dwellers

Proportion of urban population living in slums[16]

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development [edit]

Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory

trading and financial system

Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction

both nationally and internationally

Target 8B: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

Includes: tariff and quota free access for LDC exports; enhanced programme of debt
relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA (Official
Development Assistance) for countries committed to poverty reduction
Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small

island developing States

Through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island
Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General
Assembly
Target 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries

through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long
term

Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed
countries (LDCs), Africa, landlocked developing countries and small island developing
States.

Official development assistance (ODA):

Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors GNI

Proportion of total sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social
services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)

Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied

ODA received in landlocked countries as proportion of their GNIs

ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their GNIs

Market access:

Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms)
from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duty

Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and

textiles and clothing from developing countries

Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as percentage of their GDP

Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity

Debt sustainability:

Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision points and
number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)

Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative, US$

Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services

Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to

affordable, essential drugs in developing countries

Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable

basis

Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new
technologies, especially information and communications

Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population

Personal computers in use per 100 population

Internet users per 100 Population[17]