What are the Millennium Development Goals?

These are the United Nations Millennium Development Goals:

1. ERADICATE 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. REDUCE UNDER-FIVE MORTALITY BY TWO-THIRDS. 11 million young children die every year, but that number is down from 15 million in 1980.
5. 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 programmes and are poised for progress.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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 alone, though, will reach an additional $12 billion per year by 2006.

Learn more about the Millennium Development Goals on the UN website >

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