Halve Global Poverty by 2015
When the United Nations met to mark the Millennium in 2000 that was the goal they set...
During the Millennium Summit held in New York in September 2000, all 189 UN Member States adopted the Millennium Declaration, which contained a group of goals and targets that have since become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals, working together, aim to halve poverty by 2015.
The Millennium Declaration
The MDGs are derived from the broader "Millennium Declaration" that was signed in 2000 by all UN member states. Please take a moment to scan the Millennium Declaration. It reaffirms values including equality, mutual respect, and shared responsibility for the condition of all peoples. It relates the MDGs to an even a broader context, including peace and human rights. Go to the Millennium Declaration.
The Millennium Development Goals
The MDGs set out eight goals that are necessary to achieve the vision of halving global poverty. They break the process into smaller steps, and show how the vision can be achieved. They have become the basic "Development Agenda" for all organisations working in the area of international poverty. They provide a framework to measure the actions of governments and of organisations, and to hold all of us accountable. They provide measurable, time-bound targets addressing poverty and hunger,education, maternal and child health, the prevalence of diseases including HIV and AIDS, gender equality, the environment, debt, trade and aid. They don't cover all the complexities of poverty, and they will not solve all the problems of poverty. Even when all the goals are achieved, there will still be people living in poverty - but the aim is to halve that number!
Learn why the MDGs are a useful framework for tackling global poverty. Download an article by Richard Clarke of Tearfund UK
The Goals are
 |
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
- Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day
- Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
|
 |
2. Achieve universal primary education
- Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
|
 |
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
- Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
- Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
- Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
|
 |
4. Reduce child mortality
- Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five
- Focus on the Infant mortality rate
- Increase proportion of 1 year-old children immunised against measles
|
 |
5. Improve maternal health
- Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
- Increase proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
- Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
- Reduced adolescent birth rate
- Improved access to reproductive health and family planning
|
 |
6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases
- Have halted by 2015 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 by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria, tuberculosis and other major diseases
|
 |
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes
- reverse loss of environmental resources
- Reduce biodiversity loss, protecting the proportion of land area covered by forest, protection of species threatened with extinction, and reduction of harmful emissions
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
- Increased proportion of population using improved sanitation facilities
- Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020
|
 |
8. Build global partnerships 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 least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; 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 developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term
- In cooperation with the developing countries, 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.
|
Learn More About the MDGs
Pray Through the MDGs
You can download a guide to praying through the MDGs here
|
