Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, all the member states of the United Nations pledged to achieve eight goals by 2015. They said, "we will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are now subjected.

The Eight MDGs are:

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day
• Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Goal 2: Ensure access to primary schooling for all children

• Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

• Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the number of children 5 years old or younger who die from preventable illnesses

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

• Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the number of women who die giving birth

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

• Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
• 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

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development (trade/aid/debt)

• Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system
• Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) [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 (Overseas Development Assistance) for countries committed to poverty reduction]
• Address the Special Needs of landlocked 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 22nd special session of the General Assembly)
• 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 developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
• In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries
• In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications