How To Change the World by 2015: The Millennium Development Goals
At the turn of the new millennium, 147 nations agreed they had the resources and the political will to eradicate the extreme poverty, hunger and disease that kills millions of people each year in the poorest parts of the world.
The Earth Institute’s audio slide shows examine the complex dimensions of extreme poverty, and why the Millennium Development Goals are our mandate to achieving a better world in our lifetime.
If you have trouble viewing the slideshows, you might have to download Flash, a common plug-in.
Introduction to the Millennium Development Goals
Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, special advisor to Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, and director of The Earth Institute, introduces the MDGs.
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target 1. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
Target 2. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target 3. Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 4. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Target 5. Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Target 6. Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Target 7. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
Target 8. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Target 9. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources
Target 10. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
Target 11. Have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Target 12. Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, nondiscriminatory trading and financial system (includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction?both nationally and internationally)
Target 13. Address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries (includes tariff- and quota-free access for Least Developed Countries? exports, enhanced program of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries [HIPCs] and cancellation of official bilateral debt, and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction)
Target 14. Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing states (through the Program of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and 22nd General Assembly provisions)
Target 15. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term
Target 16. In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
Target 17. In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
Target 18. In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies
How to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals
Through the work of the UN Millennium Project Task Forces, the Millennium Villages and other initiatives, The Earth Institute at Columbia University is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
VIew the Millennium Project Summary Report
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More Information on the MDGs
UN Millennium Project Web Site
The Millennium Villages Project
The United Nations Development Programme
The U.N. Millennium Project: Practical Action Plan to Combat Poverty
About The Earth Institute
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
is the world's leading academic center for the integrated study
of Earth, its environment and society. The Earth Institute builds
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health sciences — and stresses cross-disciplinary approaches
to complex problems. Through research, training and global partnerships,
it mobilizes science and technology to advance sustainable development,
while placing special emphasis on the needs of the world's poor.
For more information, visit www.earth.columbia.edu.