The document summarizes the eight Millennium Development Goals agreed upon by UN member states in 2000 to be achieved by 2015. It provides details on each goal, including targets and some achievements. The eight goals are: 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; and 8) develop a global partnership for development.

1. Millennium Development
Goals
Md Mostaque Ahmed
PGT
Department of Community Medicine
Guahati Medical College & Hospital,
Guwahati-32

2. • The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the eight
goals set by the 189 UN member states in September 2000 and agreed to
be achieved by the year 2015.
• The Millennium Declaration was signed at the September global summit
held at the UN headquarters in New York and the 149 international
leaders in attendance committed to combating disease, hunger, poverty,
illiteracy, discrimination against women and environmental degradation.
• The MDGs were derived from this Declaration, and specific indicators and
targets were attached to them.

3. • Millennium Development has 8 goals.
• The implementation of these eight chapters of the Millennium Declaration
was agreed to begin in 1st January 2001, and the UN agreed to be holding
such summits every five years to assess its progress towards achieving the
MDGs. The first follow-up to the Millennium Summit was held in 2005 at
the 2005 World Summit.
• Since 2001, the UN has given a lot of priority to the implementation of
these MDGs, and though most of the targets had not been achieved by
2015, a substantial positive progress has been recorded over the 15 years.
• At the start of the new millennium, global leaders gathered at the United
Nations to work on an expansive vision to fight poverty in its multiple
dimensions. That vision was translated into eight Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) that have been a milestone in national and universal
development priorities for the past 15 years.

4. • As the end of the MDG period approaches, the global community has
reason to celebrate. Thanks to resolute global, regional, national, and
local efforts, the MDGs have not only saved the lives of millions, but also
improved the conditions for many more.
• Nearly all of the eight MDGs have been achieved before the final 2015
deadline, or were very near to hitting the targets, though progress has
been uneven within and across regions and countries. As such, further
efforts and an even stronger global partnership for development is
necessary to accelerate progress in the post-2015 era.
Post-2015 sustainable development goals
The Global Goals build on the eight MDGs anti-poverty targets to ensure
that no one is left behind. Here is a look at what has been achieved and
what the Global Goals will strive to achieve.

5. The following are the eight Millennium Development Goals:
1. to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. to achieve global primary education;
3. to empower women and promote gender equality;
4. to reduce child mortality;
5. to promote maternal health;
6. to fight malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases;
7. to promote environmental sustainability; and
8. to develop a universal partnership for development.

7. GOAL 1: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY
AND HUNGER
Millennium Development Goal 1 has three
targets:
1.To halve the proportion of people whose
daily income is less than $1.25
2.To achieve full and productive
employment, as well as decent work for
all, including young people and women
3.To halve the proportion of individuals
suffering from hunger in the period
between 1990 and 2015.

8. Pioneering efforts have led to profound achievements including:
1. A considerable reduction in extreme poverty over the last 25 years. In
1990, nearly 50 percent of the population in developing nations lived on
less than $1.25 a day. As of 2015, that proportion has dropped to 14
percent.
2. The number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide has reduced
by more than 50 percent. In 1990, 1.9 billion people were said to be living
in extreme poverty, compared to 836 million in 2015. Most progress was
seen in the new millennium.
3. The number of living on more than $4 a day – those in the working
middle class – has nearly tripled between 1991 and 2015. In 1991, this
group made only 18 percent of the population, and rose to 50 percent in
2015.
4. The proportion of undernourished people in the developing world has
dropped by almost 50 percent since 1990; from 23.3 percent in 1990 – ’92
to 12.9 percent in 2014 – ’16.

9. PROGRAMS LAUNCHED IN RURAL
AREAS
A number of antipoverty
programs have been launched to
decrease the incidence of poverty
in India
1. The National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (NREGA)
2. Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar
Yojana (SGSY) or Golden Jubilee
Rural Self Employment Scheme
3. Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) or
Indira Housing Scheme.
CURRENT EFFORTS
PROGRAMS LAUNCHED IN URBAN
AREAS
1. Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal
Mission
2. Integrated Housing and India. Slum
Development Program
3. Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana
(SJSRY).

10. -Since the inception of NREGA in 2005, while 2.67 crore households demanded
employment, 2.57 crore households were provided with employment.
-Over 40 lakh houses have been constructed under the IAY while 27 lakh of Self Help
Groups (SHGs) have be formed under SGSY.
CURRENT NUTRITION PROGRAMS
Some programs to provide nutrition started by
the government include-
-Integrated Child Development Scheme or ICDS (1975)
-National Mid-Day Meal Scheme
In addition food security programs for the poor include
-National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
-Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)
-The Grain Bank Scheme.

11. MDG 2: Achieve universal primary
education
There is only one target for
millennium development goal 2:
Target:
To ensure that children universally
– including both boys and girls –
will be able to complete a full
course of primary education by
2015.

12. • The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN claims that nearly
57 million primary school age children are not able to attend school;
80 percent of whom live in rural areas. This has made the urban-rural
knowledge and education divide today’s main obstacle to achieving
global primary education by 2015.
• The fact that rural children are highly affected by hunger and
malnutrition has also seriously affected their learning ability. As such,
food security and primary education should be addressed at the same
time to give rural people the capacity to feed themselves and
overcome hunger, poverty, and illiteracy. Social protection brings
together all efforts for education and food security towards increased
effectiveness.

13. MDG 3: Promote gender equality and
empower women
There was only one target under millennium
development goal 3:
Target:
To eliminate gender disparity in primary and
secondary education by 2005, and in all
levels of education by 2015.
It is important to promote the total and
equitable participation of both men and
women in efforts aimed at improving poverty
reduction, food security, and sustainability of
rural development. Without gender equality
and the economic and social improvement
for rural women, food security cannot be
achieved.

14. Some of the achievements of MDG 3 include:
- An increase in the number of girls in school in 2015 compared to 2000. The
developing world as a whole has achieved the goal of eliminating gender
disparity in all levels of education, including primary, secondary, and tertiary.
- In Southern Asia, the number of girls enrolled in primary school was 74 for
every 100 boys in 1990. By 2015, there were 103 girls enrolled for every 100
boys.
- The proportion of women in vulnerable employment compared to total
female employment has reduced by 13 percent in the period between 1991
and 2015, compared to a 9 percent decrease for men.
- Significant gains in women’s parliamentary representation in nearly 90
percent of 174 countries for which data has been available in the past two
decades. At the very least, the average proportion of women in parliament
has increased by nearly 100 percent during the last 20 years, yet this still
translates to one woman for every five men.

15. MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
The Millennium Development Goal 4
has only one target:
Target:
To reduce the under-five mortality
rate by two-thirds in the period
between 1990 and 2015
Undernutrition is estimated to
contribute to more than 33 percent of
all deaths in children under five. So,
efforts to improve household food
security and nutrition have increased
the chances of children growing to
adulthood.

16. - In this regard, FAO programmes, in combination with efforts by the
Renewed Efforts against Child Hunger and Undernutrition (REACH)
and WHO, WFP, and UNICEF have helped communities and
households secure access to nutritionally adequate diets to minimize
child undernutrition. Efforts include the provision of training
materials, community-centered initiatives, training programmes for
local and national staff, nutrition education programmes, and
promotion of forums on community nutrition and household food
security.
- Improving complementary feeding for babies, or giving foods in
addition to breast milk, has led to significant reduction in the child
mortality caused by undernutrition.

17. MDG 5: Improve maternal health
Hunger and malnutrition were
observed to increase the incidence
and fatality rate of the conditions that
contribute to nearly 80 percent of
maternal deaths.
In this regard, millennium
development goal 5 has two targets:
Targets:
1. To reduce the maternal mortality
ratio by 75 percent
2. To achieve universal access to
reproductive health

18. • Improving maternal health is critical to saving the lives of hundreds of thousands
of women who die due to complication from pregnancy and childbirth each year.
Over 90 percent of these deaths could be prevented if women in developing
regions had access to sufficient diets, basic literacy and health services, and safe
water and sanitation facilities during pregnancy and childbirth.
Some of the achievements of MDG 5 include:
- A 45 percent reduction in the maternity mortality ratio worldwide since 1990,
though most of the reduction occurred since 2000
- A 64 percent reduction in maternal mortality ratio in Southern Asia between 1990
and 2013, and 49 percent in sub-Saharan Africa
- A 12 percent increase in the number of births assisted by skilled health personnel
globally in 2014 compared to 1990 – 59 percent to 71 percent.
- An increase in the proportion of pregnant women receiving four or more
antenatal visits in North Africa from 50 percent in 1990 to 89 percent in 2014.
- Increase in contraceptive prevalence among women 15 – 49 years old – whether
married or in some other union – from 55 to 64 percent between 1990 and 2015.

19. MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other
major diseases
HIV, malaria, and other diseases directly and
indirectly impact food and nutrition security,
rural development, and agricultural
productivity. At the same time, malnutrition
and food and nutrition insecurity can increase
vulnerability to disease.
In this regard, Millennium Development Goal 6
has three targets:
1. To halt by 2015 and have started to reverse
the spread of HIV/AIDS
2. To achieve global access to treatment for
HIV/AIDS for those who need it by 2010
3. To have ceased and started reversal of the
incidence of malaria and other major diseases
by 2015

20. Some of the achievements of MDG 6 include:
- 40 percent reduction in new HIV infections from 3.5 million cases in 2000 to 2.1
million cases in 2013
- A massive increase in the number of people living with HIV receiving anti-retroviral
therapy (ART) globally, from 800,000 in 2003 to 13.6 million in 2014. ART have
helped avoid over 7.6 million deaths from AIDS between 1995 and 2013.
- Averting over 6.2 million deaths associated with malaria between 2000 and 2015,
mostly of children under five years in sub-Saharan Africa. The universal malaria
incidence rate has also reduced by an estimated 37 percent, and the mortality rate
by 58 percent.
- The delivery of over 900 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets to malaria-
endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2014.
- Tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment interventions conducted
between 2000 and 2013 saved an estimated 37 million lives. The TB mortality rate
reduced by 45 percent between 1990 and 2013, while prevalence rate fell by 41
percent within the same time period.

21. MDG7: Ensure environmental sustainability
It is critical that the natural resources base and
ecosystems are managed sustainably to ensure that
people’s food requirements and other social, economic,
and environmental needs are sufficiently met. Climate
change, conflicts over access to resources, and increased
water scarcity all pose a threat to not only
environmental sustainability but also food security.
As such, millennium development goal 7 has 4 targets:
Targets
1. To integrate the principles of sustainable development
into every nation’s policies and programmes, and also
reverse the depletion of environmental resources
2. To reduce biodiversity loss and achieve a substantial
reduction in the rate of loss by 2010
3. To halve the proportion of the universal population
without sustainable access to clean and safe drinking
water and basic sanitation by 2015.
4. To achieve substantial improvement in the lives of a
minimum of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.

22. An estimated 30 percent of total land area on the planet is forested. An
estimated 1.6 billion people depend on forests directly for their livelihoods,
plus they provide other benefits enjoyed by all, including clean air and water.
Forests also provide a habitat for millions of plants and animals, as well as
catchment for 75 percent of the world’s fresh water. They help in the
adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, though they are under
threat from deforestation.
Hunger and poverty tend to compel the disadvantaged to over-exploit
resources on which their livelihoods depend. Policies, institutions, and
strategies for protecting, conserving, and enhancing natural resources should
be strengthened to deliver an enabling environment, and be based on the
specific resource challenged faced in a given location.

23. Some of the achievements of MDG 7 include:
- The virtual elimination of ozone-depleting substances since 1990. Consequently, the
ozone layer is expected to recover by around the middle of the century
- Substantial increase in marine and terrestrial protected areas in many areas since
1990. In Caribbean and Latin America, coverage of terrestrial protected areas increased
from 8.8 percent in 1990 to 23.4 percent in 2014.
- The number of people using improved drinking water sources has increased from 76
percent in 1990 to 91 percent in 2015.
- 2.6 billion people have gained access to better drinking water since 1990. Of these, 1.9
billion have access to piped drinking water on premises, with 58 percent of the global
population enjoying this level of service in 2015.
- 147 nations in the world have fulfilled the drinking water target; 95 nations have
achieved the sanitation target; and 77 nations have met both.
- 2.1 billion people in the universe have gained access to improved sanitation. At the
same time, the proportion of people practicing open defecation has reduced by nearly
50 percent since 1990.
- A reduction in the proportion of urban population in developing nations living in slums
from 39.4 to 29.7 percent in the period between 2000 and 2014.

24. MDG 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Millennium development goal 8 has 6 targets that seek to
develop global A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT
partnership for development, namely:
• To further develop an open, predictable, rule-based, non-
discriminatory trading and economic system
• To address the special needs of the least developed countries
• To address the special needs of small island developing States
and landlocked developing countries
• To deal exhaustively with the debt problems of developing
nations
• To provide access to affordable essential drugs in the
developing world – in collaboration with pharmaceutical
companies
• To avail benefits of new technologies, especially information
and communications, in collaboration with the private sector

25. Some of the achievements of MDG 8 include:
- A 66 percent increase in official development assistance from developed nations
in real terms in the period 2000 to 2014, reaching $135.2 billion
- In 2014, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Luxembourg
continued to exceed the UN official development assistance target of 0.7 percent of
gross national income
- Imports from developing to developed countries admitted duty-free increased
from 65 percent in 2000 to 79 percent in 2014
- The proportion of external debt service to export revenue in the developing world
reduced from 12 to 3 percent between 2000 and 2013.
- 95 percent of the global population is covered by a mobile cellular signal as of
2015
- The number of mobile-cellular subscription has grown by nearly tenfold in the last
15 years, from 738 million to over 7 billion between 2000 and 2015
- Internet penetration has increased from about 6 percent of the global population
to 43 percent between 2000 and 2015. Consequently, 3.2 billion people are now
linked to an international network of content and applications.

26. Outline of the Millennium Development Goals notable challenges
- At the start of the century, all 189 United Nations Member States unanimously
agreed to forge a commitment via the Millennium Declaration to assist the poorest
to achieve better living standards by the year 2015.
- In most developing countries, the MDGs have formed a critical element of
government policy-decisions for performance benchmarking. Although Africa as a
whole has experienced remarkable change since the goals were set in 2000, sub-
Saharan Africa is claimed to be the region that has witnessed the least MDG
progress compared to other developing regions.
- Although considerable achievements have been made on many of the MDG
targets universally, progress has not been uniform across the developing regions
and nations, leaving substantial gaps. Millions of people are lagging behind,
especially the poor and disadvantaged due to their age, sex, ethnicity, disability,
and geographic location.