JUSTICE AND PEACE / Initiatives / Millenium Development Goals

Millenium Development Goals – Voices against poverty

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): What are they?

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development

These goals came from our world leaders, the heads of State and Government, when they gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 6 to 8 September 2000. At the dawn of a new millennium, they were compelled to reaffirm their faith in the UN Organization and its Charter as indispensable foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous and just world.

They recognize that they have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level. These leaders acknowledged their duty to all the world's people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs.

Our leaders of 189 countries declared certain fundamental values to be essential to international relations in the twenty-first century. These include:

• Freedom
• Equality
• Solidarity
• Tolerance
• Respect for nature
• Shared responsibility

Because they knew that business as usual was not enough, these global leaders did not settle for business as usual. Instead they committed themselves to ambitious targets with clearly defined deadlines. The MDGs and the promotion of human development share a common motivation and reflect a vital commitment to promoting human well being that entails dignity, freedom, and equality for all people.

These goals have transformed the face of global development cooperation. In country after country, it has been civil society spurring action. It was not at the United Nations that the Goals would be achieved, but in each country through efforts of the governments and the people.

Later this year, the governments of the world will come together again to ask themselves where they are in achieving these Goals. Some progress is evident and moving toward realization.

• Halve extreme poverty and hunger
  1.2 billion people still live on less than $1 a day. But 43 countries, with more than 60 per cent of the world’s people, have already met or are on track to meet the goal of cutting hunger in half by 2015.


• Achieve universal primary education
  113 million children do not attend school, but this goal is within reach; India, for example, should have 95 per cent of its children in school by 2005.


• Empower women and promote equality between women and men
  Two-thirds of the world’s illiterates are women, and 80 per cent of its refugees are women and children. Since the 1997 Micro Credit Summit, progress has been made in reaching and empowering poor women, nearly 19 million in 2000 alone.


• Reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds
  11 million young children die every year, but that number is down from 15 million in 1980.


• Reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters
  In the developing world, the risk of dying in childbirth is one in 48. But virtually all countries now have safe motherhood programs and are poised for progress.


• Reverse the spread of diseases, especially HIV/AIDS and malaria
  Killer diseases have erased a generation of development gains. Countries like Brazil, Senegal, Thailand and Uganda have shown that we can stop HIV in its tracks.


• Ensure environmental sustainability
  More than one billion people still lack access to safe drinking water; however, during the 1990s, nearly one billion people gained access to safe water and as many to sanitation.


• Create a global partnership for development, with targets for aid, trade and debt relief
  Too many developing countries are spending more on debt service than on social services. New aid commitments made in the first half of 2002 will reach an additional $12 billion per year by 2006.

To learn more about these goals, visit the UN's Millennium Development Goals website (MDGs).

Links for Additional Information

• BBC News – Planet Under Pressure
• The Millennium Campaign
• GreenFacts.org – Facts on Health and the Environment
• Millenium Ecosystem Assessment – Strengthening Capacity to Manage Ecosystems Sustainably for Human Well-Being

If you would like additional information about Millenium Development Goals or wish to organize a workshop or invite a speaker to address this topic, please contact Sister Ethel Howley at 410-377-2071 or ehowley@ssndba.org.