In September 2000 during the United Nations Millennium Summit, heads of State and governments all over the world solemnly declared “We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.” They recalled the “right of people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair” and the entitlement of all individuals, in particular vulnerable people “to freedom from fear and freedom from want, with an equal opportunity to enjoy all their rights and fully develop their human potential”. The Summit convened 189 countries representatives in order to address the spread of poverty as well as to develop tools and means to thwart the plague in a worldwide cooperation.
During the Summit the world leaders adopted the United Millennium Declaration, which calls for a common engagement and outlines a consensus on how to proceed. This vision took the shape of eight Millennium Development Goals and eighteen time-bound & measurable targets. They are providing countries around the world a hard and specific framework for human development, by addressing in a single package peace-building/conflict prevention, environment, gender equality, human rights and good governance/democracy.
| MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS) AND TARGETS |
| GOAL 1: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER |
| Target 1 |
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day |
| Target 2 |
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger |
| Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education |
| Target 3 |
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling |
| GOAL 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN |
| Target 4 |
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015 |
| GOAL 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY |
| Target 5 |
Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate |
| GOAL 5: IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH |
| Target 6 |
Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio |
| GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES |
| Target 7 |
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS |
| Target 8 |
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases |
| GOAL 7: ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY |
| Target 9 |
Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources |
| Target 10 |
Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation |
| Target 11 |
By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers |
| GOAL 8: DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT |
| Target 12 |
Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial systemIncludes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction – both nationally and internationally |
| Target 13 |
Address the special needs of the least developed countries Includes: tariff and quota free access for the least developed countries' exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction |
| Target 14 |
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 15 |
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 16 |
In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth |
| Target 17 |
In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries |
| Target 18 |
In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications |
