The Millennium Development Goals

UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): by the year 2015, all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to meet the following goals:

 

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day

Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

 

2. Achieve universal primary education

Ensure that all boys and girls complete primary schooling 

 

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015 

 

4. Reduce child mortality 

Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five 

 

5. Improve maternal health 

Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio 

 

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other diseases

 

7. Ensure environmental sustainability 

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

Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water

Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

 

8. Develop a global partnership for development 

Develop further open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. 

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

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