The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

were developed out of the eight chapters of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September
2000. The eight goals and 21 targets include
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
o Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a
day.
o Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young
people.
o Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education
o Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full
course of primary schooling.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
o Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all
levels by 2015.
4. Reduce child mortality
o Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
5. Improve maternal health
o Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
o Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
o Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
o Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it.
o Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
o Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes;
reverse loss of environmental resources.
o Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss.
o Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and
basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply).

o By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slumdwellers.
8. Develop a global partnership for development
o Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and nondiscriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty
reductionnationally and internationally.
o Address the special needs of the least developed countries. This includes tariff and quota free
access for their exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for heavily indebted poor
countries; and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development
assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.
o Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States.
o Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and
international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
o In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in
developing countries.
o In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies,
especially information and communications.

Progress so far for the MDGs

GOAL 1:ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY & HUNGER
Target 1.A:
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25/ day

The target of reducing extreme poverty rates by half was met five years ahead of the 2015 deadline.

The global poverty rate at $1.25 a day fell in 2010 to less than half the 1990 rate. However, projections
indicate that in 2015 almost one billion people will still be living on less than $1.25 per day.

Target 1.B:
Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and
young people

Globally, 456 million workers lived below the $1.25 a day poverty line in 2011a reduction of 233
million since 2000, heavily influenced by progress in East Asia.

Vulnerable employment insecure, poorly paid jobsaccounted for an estimated 58 per cent of all
employment in developing regions in 2011, down from 67 per cent in 1991, with women and youth
more likely to hold such positions.

More than 80 per cent of working women in sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and Southern Asia held
vulnerable jobs in 2011.

Target 1.C:
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

About 850 million people, or nearly 15 percent of the global population, are estimated to be
undernourished.

Despite some progress, nearly one in five children under age five in the developing world is
underweight.

Children in rural areas are nearly twice as likely to be underweight as those in urban areas.

More than 42 million people have been uprooted by conflict or persecution

GOAL 2:ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

Target 2.A:
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a
full course of primary schooling

Enrolment in primary education in developing regions reached 90 per cent in 2010, up from 82 per
cent in 1999, which means more kids than ever are attending primary school.

In 2010, 61 million children of primary school age were out of school. More than half of them (33
million) were in sub-Saharan Africa and a further one fifth (13 million) in Southern Asia.

Even as countries with the toughest challenges have made large strides, progress on primary school
enrolment has slowed since 2004, dimming hopes for achieving universal primary education by 2015.

With more children completing primary education, the demand for secondary education is growing. In
2010, there were 71 million young adolescents (typically aged 12-15 years) out of school around the
world.

Gender gaps in youth literacy rates are also narrowing. Globally, there were 95 literate young women
for every 100 young men in 2010, compared with 90 women in 1990.

GOAL 3:
PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN
Target 3.A:
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in
all levels of education no later than 2015

The world has achieved parity in primary education between girls and boys, but for girls in some
regions, education remains elusive.

The ratio between the enrolment rate of girls and that of boys grew from 91 in 1999 to 97 in 2010 for
all developing regions. The gender parity index value of 97 falls within the plus-or-minus 3-point
margin of 100 per cent, the accepted measure for parity.

Gender inequality persists and women continue to face discrimination in access to education, work and
economic assets, and participation in government.

Globally, womens share in paid jobs outside of the agricultural sector increased only slightly from 35
per cent in 1990 to 40 per cent in 2010.

Violence against women continues to undermine efforts to reach all goals.

Poverty is a major barrier to secondary education, especially among older girls.

Women are largely relegated to more vulnerable forms of employment.

Globally, women occupy only 25 per cent of senior management positions and, in 2008/2009, were on
average paid 23 per cent less than men.

Business ownership is concentrated in mens hands throughout the developing world.

GOAL 4:REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY

Target 4.A:
Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Despite population growth, the number of deaths in children under five worldwide declined from 12.4
mill in 1990 to 6.9 mill in 2011, which translates into about 14,000 fewer children dying each day.

Despite determined progress, an increasing proportion of child deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa.

As the rate of under-five deaths overall declines, the proportion that occurs during the first month after
birth is increasing.

Mortality is more likely to strike children in rural areas.

Children born into poverty are almost twice as likely to die before the age of five as those from
wealthier families.

Children of educated motherseven mothers with only primary schoolingare more likely to survive
than children of mothers with no education.

GOAL 5:IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH

Target 5.A:
Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

Maternal mortality has nearly halved since 1990. An estimated 287,000 maternal deaths occurred in
2010 worldwide, a decline of 47 per cent from 1990, but levels are far removed from the 2015 target.

The maternal mortality ratio in developing regions is still 15x higher than in the developed regions.

The rural-urban gap in skilled care during childbirth has narrowed.

Target 5.B:
Achieve universal access to reproductive health

More women are receiving antenatal care.

More pregnant women are receiving care with the recommended frequency, but gaps still exist in
regions most in need.

Fewer teens are having children in most developing regions, but progress has slowed.

The large increase in contraceptive use in the 1990s was not matched in the 2000s.

The unmet need for family planning remains persistently high in regions with low levels of
contraceptive use.

Official Development Assistance for reproductive health care and family planning remains low.

GOAL 6:
COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES
Target 6.A:
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

New HIV infections continue to decline in the hardest-hit regions.

More people than ever are living with HIV due to fewer AIDS-related deaths and the continued large
number of new infections.

Comprehensive knowledge of HIV transmission remains low among young people, along with
condom use.

Target 6.B:
Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

Access to treatment for people living with HIV increased in all regions.

At the end of 2011, 8 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV or AIDS in
developing regions. This total constitutes an increase of over 1.4 million people from December 2009,
and the largest one-year increase ever.

Target 6.C:
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

The global estimated incidence of malaria has decreased by 17 per cent since 2000, and malariaspecific mortality rates by 25 per cent.

Countries with improved access to malaria control interventions saw child mortality rates fall by about
20 per cent.

Thanks to increased funding, more children are sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets in subSaharan Africa.

The anti-tuberculosis drive is closing in on a 50 per cent cut in the 1990 death rate and more TB
patients are being successfully treated.