RESULTS and the MDGs: How Our Work and Your Voice Make a Difference
In 2000, all countries of the United Nations came together to design and implement an exciting new road map to end poverty — the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
These eight goals seek to address the most pressing problems facing the world’s poor — hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, sanitation, and water — while promoting gender equity, education, economic inclusion, and environmental sustainability.
While significant progress has been made in achieving the MDGs, particularly in Asia and South America, progress is far from uniform. Sub-Saharan Africa is the epicenter of the crisis with continuing food insecurity, a rise in extreme poverty, extremely high child and maternal mortality rates, increased HIV and tuberculosis infections, large numbers of people living in slums, and an increasing number of children left orphans in the wake of the AIDS and tuberculosis pandemics.
As you read through the eight goals listed below it will become apparent that the goals are interconnected and the success or failure of any one will determine if the other goals are achieved. For example, providing clean drinking water, Goal #7, will reduce the number of child deaths, Goal #4. Providing access to education, especially to girls, Goal #2, will increase a woman’s earning capacity, Goal #1, increase her maternal health, Goal #5, increase her children’s health, Goal #4, and decrease her chances of becoming HIV positive, Goal #6.
In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 the United States and the world will have to dramatically increase their investments in global development. Your voice is needed now more than ever to ensure we keep our promise and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The Goals
- Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
- Achieve Universal Primary Education
- Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
- Reduce Child Mortality
- Improve Maternal Health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases
- Ensure Environmental Sustainability
- Create a Global Partnership for Development
Take Action
RESULTS: Our core global poverty campaigns — economic justice, health, education for all — are critical components to achieving the MDGs. Learn more about our campaigns today!
Stand Up: Join the Millennium Campaign and Stand Up and Speak Out October 16–18, 2009 to remind world leaders of the promise to the world’s poor.
Resources
UN Millennium Campaign MDG Reports
RESULTS: Summary of the UNUN Millennium Campaign MDG Report 2008 (coming soon)
MDG curriculum (U.N. Millennium Campaign)
2007 MDG Outreach Packet (Word)
The 2000 UN Millennium Declaration (PDF)
InterAction: The U.S. Contribution to Reducing Global Poverty: An Assessment of the U.S. and the Millennium Development Goals (PDF)
RESULTS Outreach Packet: Progress on Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
Multimedia
GOOD Magazine YouTube video on the MDGS
Partners and Initiatives
The UN Millennium Campaign, a UN initiative to inform and mobilize citizens about the MDGs, has a great website that provides background on the MDGs, updates on how activists in the global North and South are creating the political will to achieve the MDGs, and information on how to take action.
ONE is a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization backed by more than 2 million people who are committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African policy makers and activists.
Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs, and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, we provide help and opportunity far beyond the communities in which we live.
