The Millennium Development Goals

Global Development Group is committed to helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  Most (if not all) of our approved aid & development projects are constructed with reference to helping achieve one or more of these eight crucial development goals. The goals provide a helpful summary of the crucial needs of development and also of the commitment required to make a significant difference in achieving them by 2015. The need is great but the human cost of doing nothing or little is much higher than the investment required to tackle these global problems. By standing and working together with those less fortunate we can all make a difference for all and not just for the few.

The eight MDGs were developed from the eight chapters of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed by 189 countries, including 147 Heads of State, in September 2000 at the largest-ever gathering of world leaders. These eight goals have 21 targets in total, with measurable indicators for the progress and achievement of each target by 2015.

These targets are ambitious and embody commitments by all signatory countries to reduce world wide poverty and hunger, and to tackle poor-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water, environmental degradation, and foster development effectiveness through cooperation.

Click on each MDG icon below to link to the MDG Monitor, a website setup to monitor progress and celebrate achievement towards the MDGs by 2015.

You may also like to investigate the following links for further information:
- Global Development Group's Development Issue Series - Introduction to the MDG's
- MDG Monitor
- OECD MDG info
- MDGs at Wikipedia
- World Bank official list of MDGs (pdf)
- UN Millennium Development Goals
- United Nations Millennium Declaration
- UN Stats Division - MDGs
- End Poverty 2015 Campaign

As a more popular and accessible introduction to the importance of achieving the MDGs, and the potential political and business resistance to the commitment required to achieve them, consider viewing the movie 'The Girl in the Café' (2005)*. 
 

The Millenium Development Goals are: 

NOTE: click on each of the icons below to be taken to the MDG Monitor page for that goal; the MDG Monitor site is committed to measuring & reporting on the progress of achieving each MDG criteria.

	Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day. Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
	Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
	Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
	Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
	Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio. Achieve universal access to reproductive health.
	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 and other major diseases.
	Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate loss. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
	Address the special needs of least developed countries, landlocked countries and small island developing states. Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Deal comprehensively with developing countries debt. In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries. In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.

*The Girl in the Cafe, Dir. David Yates. Perfs. Bill Nighy, Kelly Macdonald. BBC Wales, 2005. DVD available throughout Australia wherever BBC products are sold.