Millenium Development Goals

The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) were officially established at the Millenium Summit in 2000. 189 United Nations have agreed to try to achieve these goals by 2015. There are 8 goals and 21 targets:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Extreme poverty is a state in which people cannot meet basic needs for survival. The World Bank characterizes extreme poverty as living on US $1 or less per day. It is estimated that 1.1 billion people currently live under these conditions. It is most common in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America.

• Halve the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day (from 1990-2015)
• Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people. Decent work refers to opportunities for women and men to obtain work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), Decent Work involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportuniyu and treatment for all women and men.
• Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (from 1990-2015)

The number of people in developing countries living on less than US $1 a day fell to 980 million in 2004; down from 1.25 billion in 1990. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell from nearly 19 percent over this period.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=0&indicator=0&cd

2. Achieve universal primary education

• Ensure that children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

682 million children worldwide are enrolled in primary school. But there are still around 77 million children who are missing out on a primary education.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=1&indicator=0&cd

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

In 2006, 13 women were heads of state or government compared to 9 in 2000 and 12 in 1995. A record number of women took up top positions in 2006 – in Chile, Jamaica, Liberia, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=2&indicator=0&cd

4. Reduce child mortality. Child mortality refers to the death of infants and children under the age of five. About 26,000 children die every day, mainly from prevetable causes. In 2006, 9.7 million children under five died. About half of child deaths occur in Africa. UNICEF estimates that one million child deaths could be prevented annually at a cost of US $1 billion/year (about $US 1000 for each child).

• Reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate (from 1990-2015).

Under-five mortality rates dropped from 185 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 166 per 1,000 in 2006.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=3&indicator=0&cd.

5. Improve materal health

• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio (from 1990-2015). Maternal mortality is the death of a woman during or shortly after a pregnancy. In 2000, the United Nations estimated global matermal mortality at 529,000, of which less than 1% occurred in the developed world.
• Achieve universal access to reproductive health. Reproductive health implies that people are able to have a responsible, satisfying, and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when, and how to do so. Men and women have the right to be informed of and to have acces to safe, effective, acceptable, and affordable methos of fertility regulation of their choce, and the right of access to appropriate health care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant.

Since 1990, every region has made progress in ensuring that women receive antenatal care at least once during their pregnancy. Even in sub-Saharan Africa, where the least progress has occurred, more than two thirds of women receive antenatal care at least one time during pregnancy.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=4&indicator=0&cd.

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

• Have halted and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
• Have halted and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

As of December 2006, an estimated 2 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy in developing regions. This represents 28 percent of the estimated 7.1 million people in need.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=4&indicator=0&cd.

7. Ensure environmental stustainability.

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and porgrammes; reverse loss of environmental resources.
• Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
• Halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
• By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers.

The proportion of protected areas globally has steadily increased, and a total of about 20 million square kilometres of land and sea were under protection by 2006.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=6&indicator=0&cd.

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 reduction—nationally and internationally.
• Address the special needs of the least developed countries. This includes tariff and quota free access for their exports; enhanced program of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; and 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 the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
• In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for 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 technologies, especially information and communications

The world's poorest countries pay over $100 million every day to the rich world.

This goal has not yet been achieved. A world map with the current statistics can be found at http://www.mdgmonitor.org/map.cfm?goal=7&indicator=0&cd.

Countdown to 2015: 6 years 227 days