Number 1, February 2008 briefing paper The Millennium Development Goals: Bread for the World Institute Reason for Hope, Call to Action www.bread.org Undernourished People and the Millennium Development Goal Target 1990-92 1995-97 2001-03 2015: MDG Target Date 40 Abstract 35 The Millennium Development 30 Goals (MDGs) represent an unprec- 25 edented effort on the part of the world 20 community to better the lives of hun- gry and poor people across the globe. 15 Taken together, the MDGs serve as Percentage of Population Percentage 10 a comprehensive vision of human 5 development—one marked by dignity, 0 equality and opportunity for all. Developing Asia/ Latin America/ Near East and Sub-Saharan The goals commit all countries in World Pacific Caribbean North Africa Africa a partnership to eradicate hunger and Source: , 2006, FAO. The State of Food Security in the World poverty, ensure that all children have access to a primary school education, provides Key Points policyreduce analysis child onmortality, hunger andimprove strategies ma- toternal end it. health, The Institute promote educates gender equal its ad- - • The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent the consensus of vocacyity, combat network, HIV/AIDS, opinion leaders,malaria policyand the global community on the basic conditions needed to improve the lives makerstuberculosis, and the and public ensure about environmen hunger -in and prospects of the world’s poorest people. thetal United sustainability. States and The abroad. MDGs also re- quire developed countries to provide • The MDGs set specific targets and measure progress along the way toward reaching those targets. additional development assistance, grant debt relief to low-income coun- by Eric Muñoz • The MDGs require developing and developed countries to form a global tries and reform global trade rules to partnership to reduce hunger and poverty around the world. promote sustainable development. • Developing countries are increasingly taking the lead in determining their By including measurable targets, own development agendas. the MDGs provide benchmarks to use • Developed countries need to follow through on their commitments—to in assessing progress and determin- increase development assistance to help achieve the MDGs and to ensure ing whether adjustments are needed that their domestic policies support rather than undermine development in national and international strate- efforts. gies. The goals provide a framework for coordinating development efforts, • Citizens around the world are speaking up and holding their governments and they build on decades of success accountable so that the political will to achieve the MDGs remains strong. in development programming around the world. Eric Muñoz is a policy analyst for Bread for the World Institute. n a world of abundance, 854 million people suffer from hunger.1 Almost one billion people live on less than $1 UN Millennium Development Goals for 2015 2 I a day. This year more than 9.7 million children will die Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger before their fifth birthday, and complications during pregnan- cy or birth will lead to the death of more than half a million women.3 Hundreds of thousands of children do not attend school, 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, and 33 million people live with HIV/ Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education AIDS, most without access to essential lifesaving drugs.4 These are numbers that could lead anyone to despair—and yet, all over the world, there is convincing evidence that the fight against hunger, poverty and disease can be won. Dra- Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women matic reductions in extreme poverty have occurred in India and China. Countries as different as Ghana and Brazil have cut hunger thanks to aggressive government campaigns. In- ternational commitments to fund health interventions have Goal 4: Reduce child mortality helped nations such as Haiti and Uganda to achieve impres- sive gains in fighting infectious diseases, especially HIV. There is good reason to be optimistic that much broader Goal 5: Improve maternal health progress is within reach. In 2000, all U.N. member nations agreed to the Millennium Declaration. From this agreement emerged the set of eight interrelated goals that have come to Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The goals commit all countries to eradicate hunger and pov- erty, ensure that all children have access to a primary school education, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people promote gender equality, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and whoseGoal 7: incomeEnsure isenvironmental less than one sustainability dollar a day tuberculosis, and ensure environmental sustainability. The Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people MDGs call on developed countries to provide additional who suffer from hunger development assistance, grant debt relief to low-income countries and reform global trade rules. The goals provide a vision of the future—one marked by dignity, equality and Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling opportunity for all. In 2000, nations declared that they were dedicated to “making the right to development a reality for everyone and GoalTarget 8: 4:Develop Eliminate a global gender partnership disparity infor primary development and secondary to freeing the entire human race from want.”5 In 2005, the education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015 United Nations Millennium Project prepared a set of recom- mendations on how the global community can work together to achieve the MDGs and laid out a plan of action. More Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the un- than 250 experts from around the world contributed to the der-five mortality rate formulation of the recommendations and action plan, in- cluding members of civil society, policy makers, researchers, Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the scientists and representatives of development agencies. maternal mortality ratio But action to follow through on the lofty rhetoric has been slow. We are just past the halfway point between 2000, when Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread the MDGs were adopted, and 2015, the target date for their of HIV/AIDS achievement. Now is the time to recapture the spirit of 2000 Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence and make real the promise of a better world for all. of malaria and other major diseases Why the MDGs Matter Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into The MDGs represent unprecedented support for the country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environ- world’s hungry and poor people. By including measurable mental resources Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sus- 2 Briefing Paper, February 2008 tainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation Target 11: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers Target 12: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non- discriminatory trading and financial system Target 13: Address the special needs of the least developed countries Target 14: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States (through the Pro- gram of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly) Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of devel- oping 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 targets, the MDGs provide benchmarks to assess progress tries have begun to collect and publish national-level data. and determine what adjustments are needed in national and All of this information has added to our understanding of international strategies to achieve sustainable development. the progress made and the work that remains to be done. The goals provide a framework for coordinating development The publicity generated by the information has galvanized efforts. Most importantly, by combining goals across differ- support among citizens to hold governments accountable for ent areas, such as hunger, poverty, education, health, gender their commitments to development. equality, environmental sustainability and trade, the MDGs In his 2001 report on the MDGs, then-U.N. Secretary demonstrate an interconnected vision of development. General Kofi Annan wrote, “States need to demonstrate the political will needed to carry out commitments already given and to implement strategies already worked out.”6 Political Connecting Rights and Development will does not occur in a vacuum. In fact, it most often de- pends on the strong support of individuals and groups urg- ing governments to take action. By setting goals