What Are Millennium Development Goals ?

Understanding Millennium development goals

The Millennium Development Goals or the MDGs are a set of goals set by the United Nations in the Millennium summit in the September of 2000. These goals focus on eradicating major and basic problems which bug humanity and aim to make the world a better place. Read on to learn more about the MDGs and how did they affect humanity. In this episode of the International Desk, What are the Millennium Development Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals consists of eight main goals which are to be completed by the year of 2015.They mainly focus on the challenges faced by the world in global development.They have been approved by 189 countries and signed by 147 countries.They have also been identified and signed by 23 different global organizations. 

The Millennium Development Goals are actually a part of a document called the Millennium Declaration.These goals acted as a great platform as they brought all countries to a consensus and helped them to stay on the same page and work for the betterment of the world.The United Nations Development Program or the UNDP said that the Millennium Development Goals  not individual problems instead were global problems which every country is facing.

The goals to be accomplished by 2015 were:

Goal 1 - Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Goal 2 - Achieve universal primary education.

Goal 3 - Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4 - Reduce child morality

Goal 5 - Improve maternal health

Goal 6 - Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7 - Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 8 - Develop a global partnership for development

PROGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE

The achievement of these goals has been uneven throughout the world.All the countries have not achieved them at the same rate.The progress rate is also uneven.Developed countries have already completed these goals.The regions in which special efforts are required are the sub-Saharan African regions. 

Goal 1 : ERADICATING EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER 

This goal as the name suggests aims to eradicate poverty and hunger from the world.Objectives of this goal are to reduce the number of people starving and eradicating the word poverty from this world. 

Goal 2 : ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

This goal ensures that every child on this planet completes primary schooling.Since the Millennium Development Goals have come into force, we have seen a substantial amount of enrollments into primary schools.Overwhelming improvement has been seen in the African continent and as well as in countries like India. 

Goal 3 : PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

This goal aims to eliminate gender disparities and women education.It also urges nations to give seats in their respective parliaments for women.It has seen incredible success in Rwanda as in 2008 their lower parliament consisted of 56% of women. 

Goal 4 : REDUCING CHILD MORTALITY

This goal aims to reduce the death rate of children in the world.Since the implementation of this goal Africa has seen substantial amount of reduction in the mortality rates of children. 

Goal 5 : IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH

The intention of this goal is to improve maternal health in developing nations.Though it aims to reduce material mortality rates, it has not been as successful as anticipated in the middle East and African nations. 

Goal 6 : COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER VITAL DISEASES

With the intention to fight these deadly diseases, this goal has seen a lot of success.There is a 30% decline in the numbers of AIDS patients from 1996 to 2008.Since the implementation of this goal, numbers of AIDS patients has reduced from 3.5 million to 2.7 million world wide. 

Goal 7 : ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

This goal focuses on global development and industrialization.That being said, it also focuses on sustainable development which means that developing without causing damage to the environment.Example : using renewable sources of energy and waste management programs and so on and so forth.

Goal 8 : DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT

This goal promotes a healthy international community which supports each other in development and help it grow financially and socially.This is a very practical goal which urges countries to stay on the same page and help humanity grow in a healthy and peaceful way.

So, these were the 8 millennium development goals set by the United Nations.These are all achieved in the year 2015 and a new set of 17 goals was planned in the September of 2015.This suggests that the United Nations is taking more steps to ensure achieved and healthy development o d the world.

Article Written by ishanjasuja

17 time MUNer and enthusiastic on international politics and international relations.


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