1. What are the Millennium Development Goals?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals with measurable targets and clear
deadlines for improving the lives of the world's poorest people. To meet these goals and
eradicate poverty, leaders of 189 countries signed the historic millennium declaration at the
United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. At that time, eight goals that range from providing
universal primary education to avoiding child and maternal mortality were set with a target
achievement date of 2015.

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

The global mobilization behind the Millennium Development Goals has produced the most
successful anti-poverty movement in history, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The MDG target of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty was
achieved in 2010, well ahead of the 2015 deadline.

2. Achieve universal primary education

Considerable progress has been made in expanding primary education enrolment since 1990,
particularly since the adoption of the MDGs in 2000. The global number of out-of-school
children has fallen considerably since 1990, although the pace of improvement has been
insufficient to achieve universal primary enrolment by 2015. Currently, 57 million children of
primary school age are estimated to be out of school, down from 100 million in 2000.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Much progress has been made towards women’s and girls’ equality in education, employment
and political representation, but many gaps remain.
Since 1995, when the Beijing Platform for Action on women’s empowerment was adopted, the
global average proportion of women in parliament has nearly doubled, growing from 11 per
cent in 1995 to 22 percent in January 2015.

4. Reduce child mortality

Substantial progress in reducing child mortality has been made, but more children can be
saved from death due to preventable causes.
Focusing on newborns and reducing socioeconomic disparities are critical to further accelerate
progress in child survival.

5. Improve maternal health

Maternal survival has significantly improved since the adoption of the MDGs.
Southern Asia and Eastern Asia have made the greatest progress in reducing maternal
mortality. Despite this progress, every day hundreds of women die during pregnancy or from
childbirth-related complications.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

The number of people newly infected with HIV continues to decline in many regions of the
world. Access to antiretroviral therapy has increased at a remarkable pace, averting millions of
deaths. Unfortunately knowledge of HIV and HIV prevention remains low among young people.
Similarly, increased global attention to the devastating effects of malaria has produced
significant results, and the burden of tuberculosis has declined, thanks to effective prevention,
diagnosis and treatment.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Deforestation has slowed, but global greenhouse gas emissions continue their upward trend. In
recent years, the net loss of forest area has slowed, due to both a slight decrease in
deforestation and an increase in afforestation. Deforestation, forest degradation and poor forest
management release carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. A continual
rise in greenhouse gas emissions is projected to further warm the planet and cause long-lasting
changes in the climate system, threatening severe and irreversible consequences for people
and ecosystems.

8. Develop a global partnership for development

Official development assistance to least developed countries increased significantly over the
MDG period. Official development assistance has plateaued in recent years, after increasing
significantly in the first decade of the new millennium. Imports from developing countries,
especially from least developed countries, increasingly receive preferential treatment from
developed countries. Greater funding and innovation are crucial to the implementation of the
post-2015 development agenda.

The MDG-F contributed directly and indirectly to the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals, with the main driver behind its work being the eradication of extreme
poverty. The Fund adopted an inclusive and comprehensive approach to the MDGs, embracing
the discourse on climate change as it relates to poverty while incorporating other program
areas that are recognized as prerequisites and/or mechanisms for MDG achievement. Our
approach was guided by the Millennium Declaration and its emphasis on development as a
right, with targeted attention directed towards traditionally marginalized groups such as ethnic
minorities, indigenous groups and women.

The MDGs have mobilized government and business leaders to donate tens of billions of dollars
to life-saving tools, such as antiretroviral drugs and modern mosquito nets. The goals have
promoted cooperation among public, private, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
providing a common language and bringing together disparate actors. In his 2008 address to
the UN General Assembly, the philanthropist Bill Gates called the goals “the best idea for
focusing the world on fighting global poverty that I have ever seen.”

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 adopted 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.

2. Why did they create the Millennium Development Goals?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were developed as a roadmap for the
implementation of the Millennium Declaration. Based on the values and principles agreed upon
by Member States in the 2010 Millennium Summit, the MDGs have served as a global
framework for collective action to reduce poverty and improve the lives of poor people. Across
eight clear goals, the MDGs include 21 time bound targets to measure progress in poverty
reduction and hunger as well as improvements in health, education, living conditions,
environmental sustainability and gender equality.

Significant progress has been made across all goals and millions of lives have been improved
due to concerted global, regional, national and local efforts. Yet, much more is needed in many
areas. Continued progress towards the MDGs in the remaining time is essential in order to
provide a solid foundation for the post-2015 development agenda. The UN Department of
Economic and Social Affairs is actively involved in measuring progress towards the MDGs and
assists in monitoring and accountability.

More info, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals were 8 goals that all 189 UN
Member States have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. The United Nations Millennium
Declaration, signed in September 2000, committed world leaders to combat poverty, hunger,
disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. The MDGs
were derived from this Declaration, and had specific targets and indicators. The MDGs have
been superseded by the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 integrated and indivisible
goals that build on the achievements of the MDGs but are broader, deeper and far more
ambitious in scope.

3. Why development goals are important?

The MDGs focused on ending extreme poverty, hunger, and preventable disease, and were the
most important global development goals in the United Nations’ history. The SDGs will continue
the fight against extreme poverty, but will add the challenges of ensuring more equitable
development and environmental sustainability, especially the key goal of curbing the dangers
of human-induced climate change.

Why do goals matter? No one has ever put the case for goal-based success better than John F.
Kennedy did 50 years ago. In one of the greatest speeches of the modern US presidency,
delivered in June 1963, Kennedy said: “By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem
more manageable and less remote, we can help all people to see it, to draw hope from it and to
move irresistibly towards it.”

Setting goals is important for many reasons. First, they are essential for social mobilization. The
world needs to be oriented in one direction to fight poverty or to help achieve sustainable
development, but it is very hard in our noisy, disparate, divided, crowded, congested,
distracted, and often overwhelmed world to mount a consistent effort to achieve any of our
common purposes. Adopting global goals helps individuals, organizations, and governments
worldwide to agree on the direction – essentially, to focus on what really matters for our future.

A second function of goals is to create peer pressure. With the adoption of the MDGs, political
leaders were publicly and privately questioned on the steps they were taking to end extreme
poverty.
A third way that goals matter is to spur epistemic communities – networks of expertise,
knowledge, and practice – into action around sustainable-development challenges. When bold
goals are set, those communities of knowledge and practice come together to recommend
practical pathways to achieve results.

Finally, goals mobilize stakeholder networks. Community leaders, politicians, government

ministries, the scientific community, leading nongovernmental organizations, religious groups,
international organizations, donor organizations, and foundations are all motivated to come
together for a common purpose. That kind of multi-stakeholder process is essential for tackling
the complex challenges of sustainable development and the fight against poverty, hunger, and
disease.

4. What impact have the Millennium Development Goals had, and what
should follow them after they expire?

These are the impacts that the Millennium Development Goals had.
MDG 1: The number of people living on less than $1.25 a day has been reduced from 1.9
billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015, although the target of halving the proportion of people
suffering from hunger was narrowly missed.
MDG 2: Primary school enrolment figures have shown an impressive rise, but the goal of
achieving universal primary education has just been missed, with the net enrolment rate
increasing from 83% in 2000 to 91% this year.
MDG 3: About two-thirds of developing countries have achieved gender parity in primary
education.
MDG 4: The child mortality rate has reduced by more than half over the past 25 years – falling
from 90 to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births – but it has failed to meet the MDG target of a drop
of two-thirds.
MDG 5: The global maternal mortality ratio has fallen by nearly half – short of the two-thirds
reduction the MDGs aimed for.
MDG 6: The target of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015 has not
been met, although the number of new HIV infections fell by around 40% between 2000 and
2013.
MDG 7: Some 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water since 1990, so
the target of halving the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water was
achieved in 2010 – five years ahead of schedule. However, 663 million people across the world
still do not have access to improved drinking water.
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MDG 8: Between 2000 and 2014, overseas development assistance from rich nations to
developing countries increased by 66% in real terms, and in 2013 reached the record figure of
$134.8.

As MDGs expired, new global goals are established.

New Goals for a New Era

Over 15 years ago the Member States of the United Nations convened to establish the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Eight goals were created in an attempt to
eradicate poverty, promote gender equality, achieve universal primary education, and so on.
Progress has been made on every single one of the goals; for example, the number of
individuals living in poverty (less than $1.25 a day) was cut in half between 1990 and 2015.
Also, enrollment in primary education within the developing world is over 90% with the global
youth literacy rate increasing to 91%. However, not all of the goals were met and the MDGs
are set to expire by the end of 2015.

Therefore, over 193 world leaders have decided to convene in the UN agree upon a new set of
17 Global Goals to be adopted by the international community and completed by 2030. These
new goals look to accomplish three primary objectives: the eradication of poverty, fighting
inequality and injustice, and fixing climate change. These goals have been referred to as the
Sustainable Development Goals and they have received a lot of attention. Check out this
video posted on the globalgoals.org website:

5. Why the Global Goals are a golden opportunity to all of us?

Global Goals are Golden Opportunities. Why?

a. NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

First, the mind-set. Our survey of more than 5,500 public and private sector leaders
around the world shows a readiness for action and an appreciation of the challenges we
face. Business leaders – 83 percent of our respondents being private business leaders –
are especially concerned about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to well-
being, good health and jobs – in short, the creation of decent lives.
SDGs has the biggest impact for good business as well for a sustainable society.
However, neither these nor any of the 17 SDGs can be tackled by the public sector
alone. Luckily, public and private sector leaders see business opportunities in all of
them – and they are ready to seize them.

b. HEALTHY FOUNDATION
The public sector rates the SDG number 3 concerning health and well-being, highest on
both dimensions: good for business and good for society. Our survey respondents
particularly see healthy people as a determining factor for keeping public health
expenditures down and ensuring long-term societal sustainability.
Health as an economic and social foundation for society is challenging. Governments
everywhere are struggling to manage the rapidly increasing costs of health care,
projected to rise 5.2 percent a year between 2014 and 2018 at a global level. This
increase is partly driven by the health needs of aging populations, growing populations,
and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases. In low and medium HDI countries
diseases once thought to be challenges for affluent countries alone, such as
cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases
(NCDs), have emerged as the leading cause of death and disability.

c. NEW PARTNERSHIPS FOR CHANGE

Our survey shows that business leaders see opportunities across all the 17 SDGs and
are tuned to advocating for systemic change almost to the same extent as civil society.
With this in mind, we predict – and welcome – that businesses will reach out to citizens
and organizations to co-create solutions rooted in good and sustainable societies.
The opportunities in the report for getting youth back to work and for improving public
health are examples of collaboration between citizens and business to the benefit of all.