MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

In September 2000, the international community committed itself at the World Millennium Summit to an ambitious goal: cutting the number of people living in absolute poverty by half come 2015.  To meet the eight MDGs, world leaders have adopted a series of specific and detailed targets for life expectancy, education, housing, gender equality, openness of trade and environmental protection. 

There are four conditions that must be met in the process of achieving the MDGs:

1.       There must be respect for national sovereignty, that is, each country will decide its own needs.

2.       The MDGs all reinforce each other; all are priorities and should be worked on together.

3.       Action towards the specific goals does not exclude and may require action in other areas.  These include debt relief, trade regimes and investment arrangements as well as development assistance.

4.       Success requires commitment from all countries, and from the private as well as the public sector.

Goal 1:            Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1:      Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.

Target 2:       Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Goal 2:            Achieve universal primary education.

Target 3:      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

Target 4:     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

Target 5:      Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.

Goal 5:            Improve maternal health

Target 6:       Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.

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

Target 7:      Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Target 8:      Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Goal 7:            Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 9:      Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

Target 10:     Halve, by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Target 11:     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

Target 12:     Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system.

Target 13:     Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries.

Target 14:     Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island  developing states.

Target 15:     Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.

Target 16:     In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth.

Target 17:     In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries.

Target 18:     In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.