United Nations Millennium Development Goals

1. United Nations Millennium Development Goals

2. What are they? • The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are eight international goals that all 193 United Nations member countries and at least 23 international organizations at the Millennium Summit in 1980 agreed to achieve by 2015.

3. Goals • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. • Achieve universal primary education. • Promote gender equality and empower women. • Reduce child mortality rates.

4. Goals, cont. • Improve maternal health. • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. • Ensure environmental sustainability. • Develop a global partnership for development.

5. Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. • Target 1A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day. • Target 1B: Achieve decent employment for women, men, and young people. • Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

6. Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education. • Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls, and boys.

7. Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women. • Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

8. Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates. • Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.

9. Goal 5: Improve maternal health. • Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio. • Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.

10. Target 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. • Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS • Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it. • Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

11. Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability. • Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environment resources. • Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss. • 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). • Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers.

12. Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development. • Target 8A: Develop an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. • Target 8B: Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). • Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing states.

13. Development, cont. • 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. • Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries. • Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.

14. Debate surrounding the MDGs • Drawbacks of the MDGs include: • Lack of analytical power • Lack of indicators for equality • Lack of a focus on local participation and empowerment • Lack of an emphasis on sustainability

15. Progress • Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. • Countries that are achieving their goals include: • China – Reduced poverty from 452 million to 278 million, a reduction of 174 million or 39%. • India – Progress also made, but less successful than China, due to the increasing population. • Sub-Saharan Africa has yet to make significant changes. • In the same time as China, Sub-Saharan Africa reduced their poverty by only 1%. • Rice production could not catch up to the rapid population growth. • This increased rice imports at great costs. • However, many African farmers can now produce enough rice to feed their families.

16. Progress, cont. • As 2015 approaches, increasing global uncertainties such as the 2008 economic crisis and climate change have led to the realization that additional measures must be taken.

17. Reactions • Development scholars argue that an increased focus on women’s empowerment and gender equality will accelerate the achievement of all MDGs. • South Asian countries with high gender discrimination have the highest rates of low birth weight babies (limited chances of survival) in the world.

18. Reactions, cont. • Empowering women by creating economic opportunities for women decreases women’s participation in the sex market. • This decreases the spread of AIDS and other diseases.

19. Conclusions • Donor and developing countries should focus on “priority areas:” • Increasing girl’s schooling • Promoting sexual and reproductive health rights • Reducing gender inequalities in employment • Combating violence against women