Millennium Development Goals

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The Millennium Development Goals are a UN initiative.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially
established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United
Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states and at least 23 international
organizations have agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. The goals are:
1. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,
2. Achieving universal primary education,
3. Promoting gender equality and empowering women,
4. Reducing child mortality rates,
5. Improving maternal health,
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,
7. Ensuring environmental sustainability, and
8. Developing a global partnership for development.
[1]

Each of the goals has specific stated targets and dates for achieving those targets. To accelerate progress,
the G8 Finance Ministers agreed in June 2005 to provide enough funds to the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to cancel an additional $40 to $55 billion in
debt owed by members of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries(HIPC) to allow impoverished countries to
re-channel the resources saved from the forgiven debt to social programs for improving health and education
and for alleviating poverty.
Debate has surrounded adoption of the MDGs, focusing on lack of analysis and justification behind the chosen
objectives, the difficulty or lack of measurements for some of the goals, and uneven progress towards reaching
the goals, among other criticisms. Although developed countries' aid for achieving the MDGs has been rising
over recent years, more than half the aid is towards debt relief owed by poor countries, with much of the
remaining aid money going towards natural disaster relief and military aid which do not further development.
Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals,
while others are not on track to realize any. A UN conference in September 2010 reviewed progress to date
and concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015
target date. There were also new commitments on women's and children's health, and new initiatives in the
worldwide battle against poverty, hunger, and disease.
Government organizations assist in achieving those goals, among them are the United Nations Millennium
Campaign, the Millennium Promise Alliance, Inc., the Global Poverty Project, the Micah Challenge, The Youth
in Action EU Programme, "Cartoons in Action" video project, and the 8 Visions of Hope global art project.
Background The aim of the MDGs is to encourage development by improving social and economic conditions
in the world's poorest countries. They derive from earlier international development targets and were officially
established following the Millennium Summit in 2000, where all world leaders in attendance adopted the United
Nations Millennium Declaration The Millennium Summit was PEEd with the report of the Secretary-General
entitled We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century Additional input was
prepared by the Millennium Forum, which brought together representatives of over 1,000 non-governmental
and civil society organizations from more than 100 countries. The Forum met in May 2000 to conclude a two-
year consultation process covering issues such as poverty eradication, environmental protection, human rights
and protection of the vulnerable. The approval of the MDGs was possibly the main outcome of the Millennium
Summit. In the area of peace and security, the adoption of the Brahimi Report was seen as properly equipping
the organization to carry out the mandates given by the Security Council.
[citation needed]
The MDGs originated from
the Millennium Declaration produced by the United Nations. The Declaration asserts that every individual has
the right to dignity, freedom, equality, a basic standard of living that includes freedom from hunger and
violence, and encourages tolerance and solidarity.The MDGs were made to operationalize these ideas by
setting targets and indicators for poverty reduction in order to achieve the rights set forth in the Declaration on a
set fifteen-year timeline.An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and
Agency' The Millennium Summit Declaration was, however, only part of the origins of the MDGs. It came about
from not just the UN but also the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World
Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. The setting came about through a series of UN-led conferences in
the 1990s focusing on issues such as children, nutrition, human rights, women and others. The OECD criticized
major donors for reducing their levels of Official Development Assistance (ODA). With the onset of the UN's
50th anniversary, then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan saw the need to address the range of development
issues. This led to his report titled, We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century which
led to the Millennium Declaration. By this time, the OECD had already formed its International Development
Goals (IDGs) and it was combined with the UN's efforts in the World Bank's 2001 meeting to form the
MDGs."The Political Economy of the MDGs: Retrospect and Prospect for the World's Biggest Promise", The
MDG focus on three major areas: of valorising human capital, improving infrastructure, and increasing social,
economic and political rights, with the majority of the focus going towards increasing basic standards of
living."The Millennium Development Goals Report:The objectives chosen within the human capital focus
include improving nutrition, healthcare (including reducing levels of child
mortality,HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and increasing reproductive health), and education. For the
infrastructure focus, the objectives include improving infrastructure through increasing access to safe drinking
water, energy and modern information/communication technology; amplifying farm outputs through sustainable
practices; improving transportation infrastructure; and preserving the environment. Lastly, for the social,
economic and political rights focus, the objectives include empowering women, reducing violence, increasing
political voice, ensuring equal access to public services, and increasing security of property rights. The goals
chosen were intended to increase an individuals human capabilities and "advance the means to a productive
life".The MDGs emphasize that individual policies needed to achieve these goals should be tailored to
individual countrys needs; therefore most policy suggestions are general.
The MDGs also emphasize the role of developed countries in aiding developing countries, as outlined in Goal
Eight. Goal Eight sets objectives and targets for developed countries to achieve a "global partnership for
development" by supporting fair trade, debt relief for developing nations, increasing aid and access to
affordable essential medicines, and encouraging technology transfer. Thus developing nations are not seen as
left to achieve the MDGs on their own, but as a partner in the developing-developed compact to reduce world
poverty.
Contents
[hide]
1 Goals
o 1.1 Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
o 1.2 Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
o 1.3 Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
o 1.4 Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates
o 1.5 Goal 5: Improve maternal health
o 1.6 Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
o 1.7 Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
o 1.8 Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
2 Debate surrounding the MDGs
3 Progress
4 Review Summit 2010
5 Challenges
o 5.1 Controversy over funding of 0.7% of GNI
5.1.1 Support for the 0.7% target
5.1.2 Challenges to the 0.7% target
6 Improvements
7 Post 2015 development agenda
8 Related organizations
o 8.1 Related projects
8.1.1 Accessing Development Education
8.1.2 TeachMDGs
8.1.3 UN Goals
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
Goals[edit]


A poster at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, New York,USA, showing the Millennium Development Goals.
The MDGs were developed out of the eight chapters of the Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000.
There are eight goals with 21 targets,
[2]
and a series of measurable health indicators and economic
indicators for each target.
[3][4]

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger[edit]
Target 1A: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day
[5]

Proportion of population below $1.25 per day (PPP values)
Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]
Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
Target 1B: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People
GDP Growth per Employed Person
Employment Rate
Proportion of employed population below $1.25 per day (PPP values)
Proportion of family-based workers in employed population
Target 1C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
[6]

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education[edit]
Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
Enrollment in primary education
Completion of primary education
[7]

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women[edit]
Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and
at all levels by 2015
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
[8]

For girls in some regions, education remains elusive
[9]

Poverty is a major barrier to education, especially among older girls
[9]

In every developing region except the CIS, men outnumber women in paid employment
[9]

Women are largely relegated to more vulnerable forms of employment
[9]

Women are over-represented in informal employment, with its lack of benefits and security
[9]

Top-level jobs still go to men to an overwhelming degree
[9]

Women are slowly rising to political power, but mainly when boosted by quotas and other special
measures
[9]

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates[edit]
Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Under-five mortality rate
Infant (under 1) mortality rate
Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles
[10]

Goal 5: Improve maternal health[edit]
Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Maternal mortality ratio
Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
Contraceptive prevalence rate
Adolescent birth rate
Antenatal care coverage
Unmet need for family planning
[11]

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases[edit]
Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
HIV prevalence among population aged 1524 years
Condom use at last high-risk sex
Proportion of population aged 1524 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs
Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major
diseases
Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short
Course)
[12]

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability[edit]
Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs;
reverse loss of environmental resources
Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
Proportion of land area covered by forest
CO
2
emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
Proportion of total water resources used
Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
Proportion of species threatened with extinction
Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe
drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply)
Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation
Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million
slum-dwellers
Proportion of urban population living in slums
[13]

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development[edit]
Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and
financial system
Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction both nationally
and internationally
Target 8B: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
Includes: tariff and quota free access for LDC exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for HIPC
and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA (Official Development Assistance)
for countries committed to poverty reduction
Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island
developing States
Through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing
States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly
Target 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national
and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term
Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed countries
(LDCs), Africa, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.
Official development assistance (ODA):
Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors GNI
Proportion of total sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic
education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
ODA received in landlocked countries as proportion of their GNIs
ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their GNIs
Market access:
Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing
countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duty
Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing
from developing countries
Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as percentage of their GDP
Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity
Debt sustainability:
Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision points and number that have
reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative, US$
Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services
Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential
drugs in developing countries
Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis
Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies,
especially information and communications
Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population
Personal computers in use per 100 population
Internet users per 100 Population
[14]

Debate surrounding the MDGs[edit]
Drawbacks of the MDGs include the lack of analytical power and justification behind the chosen
objectives.
[15]
The MDGs leave out important ideals, such as the lack of strong objectives and indicators for
equality, which is considered by many scholars to be a major flaw of the MDGs due to the disparities of
progress towards poverty reduction between groups within nations.
[16][15]
The MDGs also lack a focus on local
participation and empowerment (excluding womens empowerment) [Deneulin & Shahani 2009]. The MDGs
also lack an emphasis on sustainability, making their future after 2015 questionable.
[15]
Thus, while the MDGs
are a tool for tracking progress toward basic poverty reduction and provide a very basic policy road map to
achieving these goals, they do not capture all elements needed to achieve the ideals set out in the Millennium
Declaration.
[16]

Researchers also point out some important gaps in the MDGs. For example, agriculture was not specifically
mentioned in the MDGs even though a major portion of world's poor are rural farmers. Again, MDG 2 focuses
on primary education and emphasizes on enrollment and completion. In some countries, it has led to increase
in primary education enrollment at the expense of learning achievement level. In some cases, it has also
negatively affected secondary and post secondary education, which have important implication on economic
growth.
[17]

Another criticism of the MDGs is the difficulty or lack of measurements for some of the goals. Amir Attaran, an
Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health, and Global Development Policy at
University of Ottawa, argues that goals related to maternal mortality, malaria, and tuberculosis are in practice
impossible to measure and that current UN estimates do not have scientific validity or are
missing.
[18]
Household surveys are often used by the UN organisations to estimate data for the health
MDGs.
[18]
These surveys have been argued to be poor measurements of the data they are trying to collect, and
many different organisations have redundant surveys, which waste limited resources.
[18]
Furthermore, countries
with the highest levels of maternal mortality, malaria, and tuberculosis often have the least amount of reliable
data collection.
[18]
Attaran argues that without accurate measures of past and current data for the health related
MDGs, it is impossible to determine if progress has been made toward the goals, leaving the MDGs as little
more than a rhetorical call to arms.
[18]

Proponents for the MDGs argue that while some goals are difficult to measure, that there is still validity in
setting goals as they provide a political and operational framework to achieving the goals.
[19]
They also assert
that non-health related MDGs are often well measured, and it is wrong to assume that all MDGs are doomed to
fail due to lack of data.
[19]
It is further argued that for difficult to measure goals, best practices have be identified
and their implication is measurable as well as their positive effects on progress. With an increase in the quantity
and quality of healthcare systems in developing countries, more data will be collected, as well as more
progress made.
[19]
Lastly the MDGs bring attention to measurements of well being beyond income, and this
attention alone helps bring funding to achieving these goals.
[15]

The MDGs are also argued to help the human development by providing a measurement of human
development that is not based solely on income, prioritizing interventions, establishing obtainable objectives
with operationalized measurements of progress (though the data needed to measure progress is difficult to
obtain), and increasing the developed worlds involvement in worldwide poverty reduction.
[15][20]
The
measurement of human development in the MDGs goes beyond income, and even just basic health and
education, to include gender and reproductive rights, environmental sustainability, and spread of
technology.
[15]
Prioritizing interventions helps developing countries with limited resources make decisions about
where to allocate their resources through which public policies.
[15]
The MDGs also strengthen the commitment
of developed countries to helping developing countries, and encourage the flow of aid and information
sharing.
[15]
The joint responsibility of developing and developed nations for achieving the MDGs increases the
likelihood of their success, which is reinforced by their 189-country support (the MDGs are the most broadly
supported poverty reduction targets ever set by the world).
[21]

Progress[edit]
Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries, such as Brazil, have achieved many
of the goals,
[22]
while others, such as Benin, are not on track to realize any.
[23]
The major countries that have
been achieving their goals include China (whose poverty population has reduced from 452 million to 278
million) and India due to clear internal and external factors of population and economic
development.
[24]
The World Bank estimated that MDG 1A (halving the proportion of people living on less than
$1 a day) was achieved in 2008 mainly due to the results from these two countries and East Asia.
[25]

However, areas needing the most reduction, such as the sub-Saharan Africa regions have yet to make any
drastic changes in improving their quality of life. During the same time frame as China, sub-Saharan Africa
reduced its poverty by a mere one percent and is at a major risk of not meeting the MDGs by 2015.
[24]
Even
though the poverty rates in sub-Saharan Africa decreased in a small percent, there are some successes
regarding millennium development goals in sub-Saharan Africa. In the case of MDG 1, sub-Saharan region
started to eradicate poverty by strengthening the industry of rice production. Originally, rice production was one
of the main problems since its production rate could not catch up the rapid population growth by mid-1990s.
This caused great amount of rice imports and great costs for the governments reaching nearly $1 billion
annually. In addition, farmers in Africa suffered from finding the suitable species of rice that can well-adapt in
their conditions with high-yield characteristic. Then, New Rice for Africa (NERCA) which is high-yielding and
well adapting to the African conditions was developed and contributed to the food security in sub-Saharan
regions including Congo Brazzaville, Cte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Kenya,
Mali, Nigeria, Togo, and Uganda. Now about 18 varieties of the hybrid species are available to rice farmers
and, for the first time, many farmers are able to produce enough rice to feed their families and to gain profit at
the market.
[26]
Sub-Saharan region also show improvement in the case of MDG 2. School fees that included
Parent-Teacher Association and community contributions, textbook fees, compulsory uniforms and other
charges were highly expensive in sub-Saharan Africa, taking up nearly a quarter of a poor familys income. This
was one of the barriers for enrollment and, thus, countries like Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda have eliminated school fees.
This resulted in the increase in student enrollment in several regions. For instance, in Ghana, public school
enrollment in the most deprived districts soared from 4.2 million to 5.4 million between 2004 and 2005. In
Kenya, enrollment of primary school children surged significantly with 1.2 million extra increase of children in
school in 2003 and by 2004, the number had climbed to 7.2 million.
[27]
Fundamental issues will determine
whether or not the MDGs are achieved, namely gender, the divide between the humanitarian and development
agendas and economic growth, according to researchers at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
[28][29][30]

Achieving the MDGs does not depend on economic growth alone and expensive solutions. In the case of
MDG 4, some developing countries like Bangladesh have shown that it is possible to reduce child mortality with
only modest growth with inexpensive but effective interventions, such as measles immunisation.
[31]
It has also
been found that total government expenditure would not, in most cases, be enough to meet the agreed
spending targets in a number of sectors highlighted by the MDGs.
[32]
Research on health systems and MDGs
suggests that a "one size fits all" model will not sufficiently respond to the individual healthcare profiles of
developing countries; however, the study does find a set of similar constraints in scaling up international health,
including the lack of absorptive capacity, weak health systems, human resource limitations, and high costs. The
study argues that the emphasis on quantitative coverage obscures the measures required for scaling up health
care. These measures include political, organizational, and functional dimensions of scaling up, and the need
to nurture local organizations.
[33]

According to some experts, MDG 7to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to
safe drinking water and basic sanitationis still far from being reached. Since national governments often
cannot provide the necessary infrastructure, civil society in some countries started to organise and work on
sanitation themselves, says the magazine D+C Development and Cooperation.
[34]
For instance, in Ghana there
is an umbrella organisation called CONIWAS (Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation), which today has
more than 70 member organisations focusing on providing access to water and sanitation.
Goal 8 of the MDGs is unique in the sense that it focuses on donor government commitments and
achievements, rather than successes in the developing world. The Commitment to Development Index,
published annually by the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C., is considered the best
numerical indicator for MDG 8.
[35]
It is a more comprehensive measure of donor progress than official
development assistance, as it takes into account policies on a number of indicators that affect developing
countries such as trade, migration, and investment.
To accelerate progress towards the MDGs, the G-8 Finance Ministers met in London in June 2005 (in
preparation for the G-8 Gleneagles Summit in July) and reached an agreement to provide enough funds to the
World Bank, the IMF, and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to cancel an additional $40 to $55 billion in
debt owed by members of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries(HIPC). This would allow impoverished
countries to re-channel the resources saved from the forgiven debt to social programs for improving health and
education.
[36]

Backed by G-8 funding, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the AfDB each endorsed the
Gleaneagles plan and implemented the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) to effectuate the debt
cancellations. The MDRI supplements HIPC by providing each country that reaches the HIPC completion point
100% forgiveness of its multilateral debt. Countries that previously reached the decision point became eligible
for full debt forgiveness once their lending agency confirmed that the countries had continued to maintain the
reforms implemented during HIPC status. Other countries that subsequently reach the completion point
automatically receive full forgiveness of their multilateral debt under MDRI.
[36]

While the World Bank and AfDB limit MDRI to countries that complete the HIPC program, the IMF's MDRI
eligibility criteria are slightly less restrictive so as to comply with the IMF's unique "uniform treatment"
requirement. Instead of limiting eligibility to HIPC countries, any country with annual per capita income of $380
or less qualifies for MDRI debt cancellation. The IMF adopted the $380 threshold because it closely
approximates the countries eligible for HIPC.
[37]

The International Health Partnership (IHP+) also aims to accelerate progress towards the MDGs by putting
international principles for effective aid and development cooperation into practice in the health sector. In
developing countries, money for health comes from both domestic and external sources, and governments
must work in coordination with a range of international development partners. As these partners increase in
number, variations in funding streams and bureaucratic demands also increase. As a result, development
efforts can become fragmented and resources can be wasted. By encouraging support for a single national
health strategy or plan, a single monitoring and evaluation framework, and a strong emphasis on mutual
accountability, IHP+ builds confidence between government, civil society, development partners, and other
stakeholders whose activities affect health.
[38]

As 2015 approaches, however, increasing global uncertainties such as the economic crisis and climate
change have led to an opportunity to rethink the MDG approach to development policy. According to the In
Focus policy brief from the Institute of Development Studies, the "After 2015" debate is about questioning the
value of an MDG-type, target-based approach to international development, about progress so far on poverty
reduction, about looking to an uncertain future and exploring what kind of system is needed after the MDG
deadline has passed.
[39][40]

Further developments in rethinking strategies and approaches to achieving the MDGs include research by
the Overseas Development Institute into the role of equity.
[41]
Researchers at the ODI argue progress can be
accelerated due to recent breakthroughs in the role equity plays in creating a virtuous circle where rising equity
ensures the poor participate in their country's development and creates reductions in poverty and financial
stability.
[41]
Yet equity should not be understood purely as economic, but also as political. Examples abound,
including Brazil's cash transfers,Uganda's eliminations of user fees and the subsequent huge increase in visits
from the very poorest or else Mauritius's dual-track approach to liberalisation (inclusive growth and inclusive
development) aiding it on its road into the World Trade Organization.
[41]
Researchers at the ODI thus propose
equity be measured in league tables in order to provide a clearer insight into how MDGs can be achieved more
quickly; the ODI is working with partners to put forward league tables at the 2010 MDG review meeting.
[41]

The effects of increasing drug use have been noted by the International Journal of Drug Policy as a deterrent to
the goal of the MDGs.
[42]

Other development scholars, such as Naila Kabeer, Caren Grown, and Noeleen Heyzer, argue that an
increased focus on womens empowerment and gender mainstreaming of MDG-related policies will accelerate
the progress of the MDGs. Kabeer argues that increasing womens empowerment and access to paid work will
help reduce child mortality.
[43]
To illustrate, in South Asiancountries, which have high levels of gender
discrimination, babies often suffer from low birth weight due to limited access to healthcare and malnutrition.
Since low-birth weight babies have limited chances of survival, improving womens health by increasing
their bargaining power in the family through paid work, will reduce child mortality. Another way empowering
women will help accelerate the MDGs is the inverse relationship between mothers schooling and child
mortality, as well as the positive correlation between increasing a mothers agency over unearned income and
health outcomes of her children, especially girls. Increasing a mothers education and workforce participation
increases these effects. Lastly empowering women by creating economic opportunities for women decreases
womens participation in the sex market which decreases the spread of AIDS, an MDG in itself (MDG 6A).
[43]

Grown asserts that the resources, technology and knowledge exist to decrease poverty through improving
gender equality, it is just the political will that is missing.
[44]
She argues that if donor countries and developing
countries together focused on seven "priority areas": increasing girls completion of secondary school,
guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health rights, improving infrastructure to ease womens and girls time
burdens, guaranteeing womens property rights, reducing gender inequalities in employment, increasing seats
held by women in government, and combating violence against women, great progress could be made towards
the MDGs.
[44]

Kabeer and Heyzer believe that the current MDGs targets do not place enough emphasis on tracking gender
inequalities in poverty reduction and employment as there are only gender goals relating to health, education,
and political representation.
[43][45]
To encourage womens empowerment and progress towards the MDGs,
increased emphasis should be placed on gender mainstreaming development policies and collecting data
based on gender.
Graphs from the Millennium Development Goals Report 2010

Proportion of people living on less than
$1.25 a day (1990, 2005)

Enrollment in primary education
(1999, 2008)

Under-five mortality rate (1990, 2008)

Numbers of people living with, newly
infected with and killed by HIV (1990-
2008)

Proportion of population using an
"improved water source" (1990, 2008)

External debt service payments as a
proportion of export revenues (2000,
2008)

Internet users per hundred people
(2003, 2008)

Review Summit 2010[edit]
A major conference was held at UN headquarters in New York on 2022 September 2010 to review progress to
date, with five years left to the 2015 deadline.
The conference concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by
their 2015 target date. There were also major new commitments on women's and children's health, and major
new initiatives in the worldwide battle against poverty, hunger and disease.
Challenges[edit]
Although developed countries' aid for the achievement of the MDGs have been rising over recent years, it has
shown that more than half is towards debt relief owed by poor countries. As well, remaining aid money goes
towards disaster relief and military aid which does not further the country into development. According to
the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs(2006), the 50 least developed countries only
receive about one third of all aid that flows from developed countries, raising the issue of aid not moving from
rich to poor depending on their development needs but rather from rich to their closest allies.
[42]

Many development experts question the MDGs model of transferring billions of dollars directly from the wealthy
nation governments to the often bureaucratic or corrupt governments in developing countries. This form of aid
has led to extensive cynicism by the general public in the wealthy nations and hurts support for expanding aid.
Controversy over funding of 0.7% of GNI[edit]
Over the past 35 years, the members of the UN have repeatedly made a "commit[ment] 0.7% of rich-
countries' gross national income (GNI) to Official Development Assistance".
[46]
The commitment was first made
in 1970 by the UN General Assembly.
The text of the commitment was:
Each economically advanced country will progressively increase its official development assistance to
the developing countries and will exert its best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.7 percent of its
gross national product at market prices by the middle of the decade.
[47]

However, there has been disagreement from the United States as well as other nations over the Monterrey
Consensus that urged "developed countries that have not done so to make concrete efforts towards the target
of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) as ODA to developing countries".
[48][49]

Support for the 0.7% target[edit]
The UN "believe[s] that donors should commit to reaching the long-standing target of 0.7 percent of GNI by
2015".
[47]
In 2005 the European Union reaffirmed its commitment to the 0.7% aid targets, noting that "four out of
the five countries, which exceed the UN target for ODA of 0.7%, of GNI are member states of the European
Union".
[50]

Many organizations are working to bring U.S. political attention to the Millennium Development Goals. In
2007, The Borgen Project worked with then Senator Barack Obama on the Global Poverty Act, a bill requiring
the White House to develop a strategy for achieving the goals. As of 2009, the bill has not passed, but Obama
has since been elected president.
[51][52]

Challenges to the 0.7% target[edit]
Many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations, including key members such
as the United States, are not progressing towards their promise of giving 0.7% of their GNP towards poverty
reduction by the target year of 2015. Some nations' contributions have been criticized as falling far short of
0.7%.
[53]

John Bolton argues that the United States never agreed in Monterrey to spending 0.7% of GDP on
development assistance. Indeed, Washington has consistently opposed setting specific foreign-aid targets
since the UN General Assembly first endorsed the 0.7% goal in 1970.
[54]

The Australian government has committed to providing 0.5% of GNI in International Development Assistance
by 2015-2016.
[55]

Improvements[edit]
To meet the challenge of overcoming global health inequalities and make foreign aid more effective in attaining
the Millennium Development Goals, more health services are suggested to be provided to the developing
countries. Since the living condition of the developing countries are not organized well and getting worse, many
health workers move from the poor countries to other places which offer a better living environment.
[56]
The
health workers that are willing to stay are often poorly trained. As a result, the risk of infection is often increased
in developing countries.Cuba, a small, low-income country, played a significant role in providing medical
services to developing nations; it has trained more than 14,500 medical students from 30 different countries at
itsLatin American School of Medicine in Havana since 1999. Moreover, Cuba had 36000 health physicians
worked in 72 countries, from Europe to Southeast Asia, 31 African countries, and 29 countries in the America.
Countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua depend on Cuban assistance to improve their living
conditions.
[57]
It is noted that the training of health care workers should be counted as a budget consideration of
developed countries.
Furthermore, in order to achieve the MDGs, it is important to make services more accessible to people living in
lower-income countries. Wealthy countries should cooperate with low- and middle-income countries by
operating programs both in the short and long run. Besides that, some researchers suggested that developed
countries should treat global health inequalities and humanitarian issue as a part of national strategy.
Post 2015 development agenda[edit]
At the September 2010 MDG Summit, UN Member States initiated steps towards advancing the Post-2015
Development Agenda and are now leading a process of open, inclusive consultations on the post-2015
agenda. Civil society organizations from all over the world have also begun to engage in the post-2015
process, while academia and other research institutions, including think tanks, are particularly active.
[58]

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction started a process of consultations as the
disaster risk reduction community heads toward the end date of the current blueprint for global disaster risk
reduction, the Hyogo Framework of Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to
Disasters.
[59]

On 31 July 2012, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed 26 civil society, private sector, and government
leaders from all regions to a high-level panel to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015.
[60]

Related organizations[edit]

This section
requires expansion.(December 2009)
The United Nations Millennium Campaign is a UNDP campaign unit to increase support to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals and seek a coalition of partners for action. The Millennium Campaign targets
intergovernmental, government, civil society organizations and media at both global and regional levels.
The Millennium Promise Alliance, Inc. (or simply the "Millennium Promise") is a U.S.-based non-profit
organization dedicated to achieving the Millennium Development Goals founded in 2005 by Special Advisor on
the MDGs to the UN Secretary General Jeffrey Sachs and Wall Street leader and philanthropist, Ray
Chambers.
[61]
Millennium Promise coordinates the Millennium Villages Project in partnership
with Columbia's Earth Institute and the UNDP; it aims to demonstrate the feasibility of achieving the MDGs
through an integrated, community-led approach to holistic development. The Millennium Villages Project
currently operates in 14 sites across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
[62]

The Global Poverty Project
[63]
is an international education and advocacy organisation using its multimedia
presentation 1.4 Billion Reasons to educate people about the Millennium Development Goals and our capacity
to end extreme poverty within a generation. They travel to workplaces, schools, universities, community groups
and churches around Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States to equip people with
the knowledge and resources they need to encourage the achievement of the MDGs.
The Micah Challenge is an international campaign that encourages Christians to support the Millennium
Development Goals. Their aim is to "encourage our leaders to halve global poverty by 2015".
[64]

The Youth in Action EU Programme "Cartoons in Action" project
[65]
created stop motion animation videos about
MDGs,
[66]
a video channel "8 gol x 8 Millennium Development Goals"
[67]
and 21 Videos about 21 MDGs Targets
using Arcade C64 videogames
[66][68]

8 Visions of Hope is a global art project that explores and shows how art, culture, artists & musicians as
positive change agents can help in the realization of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals.
The Development Education Unit of Future Worlds Center envisions, designs and implements development
education awareness campaigns, trainings, conferences and resources since 2005. Leads a number of
Europe-wide projects such as the Accessing Development Education and TeachMDGs.
Related projects[edit]
Accessing Development Education[edit]
Accessing Development Education
[69]
is a web portal developed by Future Worlds Center within an EU funded
project (ONG-ED/2007/136-419). It provides relevant information about developmentand global education and
helps educators share resources and materials that are most suitable for their work.
TeachMDGs[edit]
The Teach MDGs European project led by Future Worlds Center aims to increase awareness and public
support for the Millennium Development Goals by actively engaging teacher training institutes, teachers and
pupils in developing local oriented teaching resources promoting the MDGs with a particular focus on sub-
Saharan Africa and integrate these into the educational systems.
UN Goals[edit]
UN Goals is a global project dedicated to spreading knowledge of these millennium goals through many
different means through various internet and offline awareness campaigns.
See also