Millennium development goals or

 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all 191 UN member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000 commits world leaders to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. The MDGs are derived from this Declaration, and all have specific targets and indicators.

The Eight Millennium Development Goals are:

1.            To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;

2.            To achieve universal primary education;

3.            To promote gender equality and empower women;

4.            To reduce child mortality;

5.            To improve maternal health;

6.            To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;

7.            To ensure environmental sustainability; and

8.            To develop a global partnership for development.

 

The world has made significant progress in achieving many of the Goals. Between 1990 and 2002 average overall incomes increased by approximately 21 percent. The number of people in extreme poverty declined by an estimated 130 million 1. Child mortality rates fell from 103 deaths per 1,000 live births a year to 88. Life expectancy rose from 63 years to nearly 65 years. An additional 8 percent of the developing world's people received access to water. And an additional 15 percent acquired access to improved sanitation services

The MDGs are inter-dependent; all the MDG influence health, and health influences all the MDGs. For example, better health enables children to learn and adults to earn. Gender equality is essential to the achievement of better health. Reducing poverty, hunger and environmental degradation positively influences, but also depends on, better health.

As the MDGs era comes to a conclusion with the end of the year, 2016 ushers in the official launch of the bold and transformative2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders last September at the United Nations.

 

The new Agenda calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the next 15 years.

“The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world's leaders and the people,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.”