The Millennium Development Goals are an ambitious agenda for reducing poverty and improving lives, agreed on by world leaders at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. For each goal one or more targets have been set, most for 2015, using 1990 as a benchmark.

 

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target for 2015: Halve the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and those who suffer from hunger.

 

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More than one billion people still live on less than US$1.00 per day: sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and parts of Europe and Central Asia are falling short of the poverty eradication target.

For more information on Goal 1: CLICK HERE!

 

2. Achieve universal primary education

Target for 2015: Ensure that all boys and girls complete primary school.

 

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As many as 113 million children do not attend school, but the target is within reach. India, for example, should have 95 per cent of its children in school by 2005.

For more information on Goal 2: CLICK HERE!

 

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Target for 2005 and 2015: Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

 

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Two-thirds of illiterate people are women, and the rate of employment among women is two-thirds that of men. The proportion of seats held by women in parliaments is increasing, reaching about one-third in Argentina, Mozambique, and South Africa.

For more information on Goal 3: CLICK HERE!

 

4. Reduce child mortality

Target for 2015: Reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under five.

 

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Every year nearly 11 million young people children die before their fifth birthday, mainly from preventable illnesses, but that number is down from 15 million in 1980.

For more information on Goal 4: CLICK HERE!

 

5. Improve maternal health

Target for 2015: Reduce by three-quarters the ratio of women dying in childbirth.

 

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In the developing world, the risk of dying in childbirth is one in 48, but virtually all countries now have safe motherhood programs.

For more information on Goal 5: CLICK HERE!

 

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

Target for 2015: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

 

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Forty million people are living with HIV, including five million newly infected in 2003. Countries like Brazil, Senegal, Thailand, and Uganda have shown that the spread of HIV can be stemmed.

For more information on Goal 6: CLICK HERE!

 

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Targets:

+ Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

+ By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water.

+ By 2020, achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

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More than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water and more than two billion lack sanitation. During the 1990's, however, nearly one billion people gained access to safe water and the same number to sanitation.

For more information on Goal 7: CLICK HERE!

 

8. Develop a global partnership for development

Targets:

+ Develop further an open trading and financial system that includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction-- nationality and internationally.

+ Address the least developed countries' special needs, and the special needs of landlocked and small island developing states.

+ Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems.

+ Develop 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 technologies.

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Many developing countries spend more on debt service than on social services. New aid commitments made in the first half of 2002 could mean an additional US$12 billion per year by 2006.

For more information on Goal 8: CLICK HERE!