The MDGs | Poverty, Trade and Debt Goals
Introduction
What are the Goals about? What is Development? Why the Millennium? Why are the Goals so important for the world’s poorest people? How much progress has been made so far? Will they be achieved by 2015?
To answer these questions here are some short definitions:
The United Nations is an organisation set up in 1945, as the Second World War came to a close. All the countries in the world are members. It has a General Assembly, similar to a parliament and holds world summits and meetings. Its General Secretary is Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea.
The aims of the United Nations are:
- To keep peace throughout the world.
- To develop friendly relations between countries.
- To work together to help poor people live better lives.
- To remove poverty, disease and illiteracy in the world.
- To stop environmental destruction.
- And to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms.
The United Nations is often criticized as being ineffective, but it is an association of independent states. It is only effective if its members agree and co-operate, and its secretariat organises and carries out decisions efficiently.”
There are eight Millennium Development Goals and 18 targets. Each Goal has one or more targets to be achieved by 2015. To read more about the Goals and their targets, click on the icons.
Millennium
In the year 2000 all 191 member countries of the United Nations met and agreed a set of 8 Development Goals to be achieved in all the countries in the world by 2015.
Development
There are different definitions of Development but the United Nations definition is that of Human Development. This is about allowing people to develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accordance with their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is about expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value. Poverty, hunger, lack of education and ill health severely limit people’s choices in poor countries. While development needs the economic growth of a country this is only a means to enlarging people’s life choices.
Why are the Millennium Development Goals so different?
There are four reasons.
First, the Millennium Development Goals are people-centred, and can be measured.
Second, they are based on a global partnership, stressing the responsibilities of developing countries for getting their own house in order, and of developed countries for supporting those efforts.
Third, they have unprecedented political support, embraced at the highest levels by developed and developing countries, civil society and major development institutions alike.
Fourth, they are achievable.public organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the structures of a state.
