Millennium Development Goals

Synonyms:
MDGs
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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of time bound and quantified goals and targets developed to help track progress in eradicating poverty. 

In 2000, 189 countries committed themselves to the eradication of extreme poverty in all its forms by 2015.

In 2015 the Millennium Development Goals were superceded by the Sustainable Development Goals

The Millenium Development Goals were to:

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  2. Achieve universal primary education
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  4. Reduce child mortality
  5. Improve maternal health
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability
  8. Develop a global partnership for development

In addition to the 8 goals, 21 targets and 60 indicators were developed for measuring progress between 1990 and 2015.

As stated on the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) MDG monitoring site:

"The goals and targets are interrelated and should be seen as a whole. They represent a partnership between the developed countries and the developing countries "to create an environment - at the national and global levels alike - which is conducive to development and the elimination of poverty".

Examples

Three targets and nine indicators have been developed to measure progress in achieving the first goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

Target 1.A

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day

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

Target 1.B

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 1.C

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, 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

Resources

United Nations Development Program website (archived link)

(UNICEF) MDG monitoring site (archived link)

UNDP (2003), Indicators for Monitoring the Millennium Development Goals. Definitions,  Rationale, Concepts  and Sources, New York USA, United Nations. Retrieved from http://www.undp.or.id/mdg/documents/MDG%20Indicators-UNDG.pdf (archived)

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