The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)
 
This lesson deals with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDGs are derived from earlier development targets. The MDG’s originated from the United Nations Millennium Declaration, was the main outcome of the Millennium Summit. The Declaration asserted that every individual has dignity; therefore, the right to freedom, equality, a basic standard of living. MDG’s emphasized the role of developed countries in aiding developing countries, as outlined in Goal Eight, which sets objectives and targets for developed countries to achieve a “global partnership for development”
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Objectives

After going through this lesson, you should be able to:

describe the millennium development goals-(MDGs)
Focus on three major areas for improvement.

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7.1 Introduction
It is not the United Nations that has to achieve millennium development goals; they have to be achieved by every country, by the joint efforts of government and people. The millennium declaration promises people from the dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, make the right to development a success and reality for everyone. Each goal is easy to understand and implement. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) are the world’s biggest promise – a global agreement through collaborative action.

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Any happening in one country undoubtedly affects those who live in other countries. We need to have a safe and secure world unless we react all against poverty, injustice and inequality. We can eradicate poverty, since we have the resources, and know how. Let us make best of opportunity. One World One Hope: to achieve our global commitments and vision of the Millennium Development Goals targets by 2015.
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7.3 THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS-(MDG’s)
The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) are the most broadly supported, comprehensive and specific development goals the world has ever agreed upon. These eight time-bound goals provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. They include goals and targets on income, poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality, environmental degradation and the Global Partnership for Development.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Targets
Target 1a: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day

1.1 Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day
1.2 Poverty gap ratio
1.3 Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 1b: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people

1.4 Growth rate of GDP per person employed
1.5 Employment-to-population ratio
1.6 Proportion of employed people living below $1 (PPP) per day
1.7 Proportion of own-account and contributing family workers in total employment

Target 1c: Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

1.8 Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age
1.9 Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption.

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Targets
Target 2a: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education
2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary education
2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men

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

3.1 Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Targets
Target 4a: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

4.1 Under-five mortality rate
4.2 Infant mortality rate
4.3 Proportion of 1 year-old children immunized against measles

Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Indicators
Target 5a: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

5.1 Maternal mortality ratio
5.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5b: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

5.3 Contraceptive prevalence rate
5.4 Adolescent birth rate
5.5 Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
5.6 Unmet need for family planning

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Targets
Target 6a: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

6.1 HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 years
6.2 Condom use at last high-risk sex
6.3 Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
6.4 Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years

Target 6b: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

6.5 Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs

6.6 Incidence and death rates associated with malaria
6.7 Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bed-nets
6.8 Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
6.9 Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
6.10 Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed treatment short course

Target 6c: Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Targets
Target 7a: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources.
Target 7b: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss.
Target 7a and 7b Indicators:

7.1 Proportional area covered by forest
7.2 Co2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
7.3 Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
7.4 Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
7.5 Proportion of total water resources used
7.6 Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
7.7 Proportion of species threatened with extinction

Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
Goal 8: A global partnership for developments
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 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 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.
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Summing Up:
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), endorsed by governments at the United Nations in September 2000, aimed to improve human well-being by reducing poverty, hunger, child and maternal mortality, ensuring education for all, controlling and managing diseases, tackling gender disparity, ensuring sustainable development and pursuing global partnerships. This would help to bring underdeveloped and developing nations on the next level of progress.