In September of 2000, the largest ever gathering of world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. This document identified the top challenges confronting the world in the 21st Century.
The cornerstone of the Millennium Declaration is a global agenda of eight development goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs seek to halve the numbers of those suffering extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve universal primary education and gender equality; to reduce two thirds the mortality rate among children under five; to reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio; to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria; to guarantee environmental sustainability; and to promote a global partnership for development.
These 8 goals define our generation’s greatest challenges and lay out a roadmap to solving them.
Every day 28,000 children die from poverty related causes.
To reach Goal 1, governments must increase funding to education and health, increase agricultural productivity with new techniques, improve infrastructure (such as power and water supplies, transportation, roads, and schools), and promote human rights and sustainable developments.
115 million children are not in school – 56% of them are girls and 94% of them live in developing countries.
133 million young people cannot read or write.
Only 37 of 155 developing countries have achieved universal primary school completion.
To reach Goal 2, governments have to increase their support of primary education and ensure equal distribution of money to rich and poor areas. Governments need to create strategies to ensure children stay in school and complete a primary education. They need to eliminate school fees and uniforms, build schoolhouses closer to housing, and hire more female teachers.
Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are female.
The employment rate for women is 30% lower than the rate for men.
To reach Goal 3, attitudes about women’s role in society have to change. The world needs to implement and enforce laws that protect women’s rights and acknowledge the fact that gender inequality contributes to poverty. Women need to have the same opportunities as men to participate in the decision-making process in government and at home.
48 countries had mortality rates greater than 1 in 10 childbirths, compared to 1 in 43 in developed countries.
70% of deaths before age 5 are caused by disease, or a combination of disease and malnutrition.
To reach Goal 4, an increase in public spending on health is needed so that immunizations are available to all. Preventable diseases must be recognized and treated in the early stages and more health care providers need to be hired to service rural communities. Young women need improved access to family planning and sexual and reproductive health education.
More than 500,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth every year.
99% of maternal deaths from childbirth occur in the developing world.
Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for girls age 15 – 19 in developing countries.
To reach Goal 5, governments need to expand reproductive health care services. In developing countries, only about ½ of deliveries are attended by professional health staff. It is important to ensure that a doctor or midwife be present at every delivery. We must reduce by 75% the number of women who die in childbirth.
Malaria causes more than one million deaths each year.
Every minute 6 young people between the ages of 10 and 25 are infected with HIV/AIDS.
To reach Goal 6, governments must spend much more on basic health services for their people. Developed countries spend at least 5% of their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on public health care, but in developing countries it is often less than ½ if that.
2 million children die every year from infections spread by dirty water or the lack of toilets.
1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities.
To reach Goal 7, significant improvements in access to safe drinking water must continue to be made. Environmental sustainability needs to be integrated into education curriculum. We must make enormous strides in combating both water and air pollution. This goal aims to improve the way we take care of the environment so the natural resources people need to survive will be available to future generations.
Developed countries pledged to give 0.7% of their national income in aid, and only 5 countries are living up to the commitment. The United States is giving less than 0.2%.
It is estimated that were developed countries to break down trade barriers, this could help lift 300 million people out of poverty by 2015.
To reach Goal 8, developed countries need to open their markets to products made in developing countries, and greater debt cancellation for developing countries must be implemented. We must increase job opportunities for young people that are meaningful and contribute to the creation of sustainable communities.
