In 2001,
recognizing the need to
assist impoverished nations
more aggressively, UN member
states adopted the targets.
The MDGs aim to spur development
by improving social and
economic conditions in the
world's poorest countries.
They derive from earlier
international development
targets, and were officially
established at the Millennium
Summit in 2000, where all
world leaders present adopted
the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, from which
the eight goals were particularly
promoted. The MDGs represent
a global partnership that
has grown from the commitments
and targets established
at the world summits of
the 1990s. Responding to
the world's main development
challenges and to the calls
of civil society, the MDGs
promote poverty reduction,
education, maternal health,
gender equality, and aim
at combating child mortality,
AIDS and other diseases.
Set for
the year 2015, the MDGs
are an agreed set of goals
that can be achieved if
all actors work together
and do their part. Poor
countries have pledged to
govern better, and invest
in their people through
health care and education.
Rich countries have pledged
to support them, through
aid, debt relief, and fairer
trade.
"Eradicating
extreme poverty continues
to be one of the main challenges
of our time, and is a major
concern of the international
community. Ending this scourge
will require the combined
efforts of all, governments,
civil society organizations
and the private sector,
in the context of a stronger
and more effective global
partnership for development.
The Millennium Development
Goals set timebound targets,
by which progress in reducing
income poverty, hunger,
disease, lack of adequate
shelter and exclusion —
while promoting gender equality,
health, education and environmental
sustainability — can
be measured. They also embody
basic human rights —
the rights of each person
on the planet to health,
education, shelter and security.
The Goals are ambitious
but feasible and, together
with the comprehensive United
Nations development agenda,
set the course for the world’s
efforts to alleviate extreme
poverty by 2015. " United Nations Secretary-General
BAN Ki-moon
The Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) are eight goals
to be achieved by 2015 that
respond to the world's main
development challenges.
The MDGs are drawn from
the actions and targets
contained in the Millennium
Declaration that was adopted
by 189 nations-and signed
by 147 heads of state and
governments during the UN
Millennium Summit in September
2000. The eight MDGs break
down into 21 quantifiable
targets that are measured
by 60 indicators.
Goal 1: Eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve
universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote
gender equality and empower
women
Goal 4: Reduce
child mortality
Goal 5: Improve
maternal health
Goal 6: Combat
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases
Goal 7: Ensure
environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop
a Global Partnership for
Development
The
MDGs:
1. synthesise,
in a single package, many
of the most important commitments
made separately at the international
conferences and summits
of the 1990s;
2. recognise
explicitly the interdependence
between growth, poverty
reduction and sustainable
development;
3. acknowledge
that development rests on
the foundations of democratic
governance, the rule of
law, respect for human rights
and peace and security;
4. are
based on time-bound and
measurable targets accompanied
by indicators for monitoring
progress; and
5. bring
together, in the eighth
Goal, the responsibilities
of developing countries
with those of developed
countries, founded on a
global partnership endorsed
at the International Conference
on Financing for Development
in Monterrey, Mexico in
March 2002, and again at
the Johannesburg World Summit
on Sustainable Development
in August 2002.
Progress
Progress towards reaching
the goals has been uneven.
Some countries have achieved
many of the goals,[3] while
others are not on track
to realize any.[4] The major
countries that have been
achieving their goals include
China (whose poverty population
has reduced from 452 million
to 278 million) and India
due to clear internal and
external factors of population
and economic development.
[5] However, areas needing
the most reduction, such
as the Sub-Saharan Africa
regions have yet to make
any drastic changes in improving
their quality of life. In
the same time as China,
the Sub-Saharan Africa reduced
their poverty about one
percent, and are at a major
risk of not meeting the
MDGs by 2015.
To accelerate
progress towards the MDGs,
the G-8 Finance Ministers
met in London in June 2005
(in preparation for the
G-8 Gleneagles Summit in
July) and reached an agreement
to provide enough funds
to the World Bank, the IMF,
and the African Development
Bank (ADB) to cancel an
additional $40-55 billion
in debt owed by HIPC nations.
This would allow impoverished
countries to re-channel
the resources saved from
the forgiven debt to social
programs for improving health
and education and for alleviating
poverty.
Backed
by G-8 funding, the World
Bank, the IMF, and the ADB
each endorsed the Gleaneagles
plan and implemented the
Multilateral Debt Relief
Initiative ("MDRI")
to effectuate the debt cancellations.
The MDRI supplements HIPC
by providing each country
that reaches the HIPC completion
point 100% forgiveness of
its multilateral debt. Countries
that previously reached
the decision point became
eligible for full debt forgiveness
once their lending agency
confirmed that the countries
had continued to maintain
the reforms implemented
during HIPC . Other countries
that subsequently reach
the completion point automatically
receive full forgiveness
of their multilateral debt
under MDRI.
While the
World Bank and ADB limit
MDRI to countries that complete
the HIPC program, the IMF's
MDRI eligibility criteria
are slightly more expansive
so as to comply with the
IMF's unique "uniform
treatment" requirement.
Instead of limiting eligibility
to HIPC countries, any country
with annual per capita income
of $380 or less qualifies
for MDRI debt cancellation.
The IMF adopted the $380
threshold because it closely
approximates the countries
eligible for HIPC.
