Humanitarian Guidelines and Systems → Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

The MDGs are eight international development goals that have been agreed by 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations, and serve as a target to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015.

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger	Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day Achieve employment for women, men, and young people Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Achieve universal primary education	By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
Promote gender equality and empower women	Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
Reduce child mortality	Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Improve maternal health	Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases	Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse spread of HIV/AIDS Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability	Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss Halve, by 2015, 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
Develop a global partnership for development	Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries 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 co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries In co-operation with the private sector, share the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

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“The MDGs are too big to fail. We are ready to act, ready to deliver, and ready to make 2010 a year of results for people. ” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Renewed efforts are needed to achieve the MDGs:

In Africa many of the MDGs are off track
Despite rapid growth in South Asia and China, absolute poverty persists for hundreds of millions of people.

The ultimate goal, agreed by world leaders at the 1995 Social Summit, was the elimination of absolute poverty.
This goal was reaffirmed at the Millennium Summit in 2010 which pledged to make the “right to development a reality for everyone”.

Understanding the factors that make poverty persist is vital in achieving the MDGs, and going beyond them.

Source: Development Initiatives

This page was last updated on 21 June 2011