Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are 8 goals that UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. Update: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the MDGs in 2016.

The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000, commits world leaders to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. The MDGs are derived from this Declaration. Each MDG has targets set for 2015 and indicators to monitor progress from 1990 levels. Several of these relate directly to health.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

There are eight goals with 21 targets, and a series of measurable health indicators and economic indicators for each target. All 191 United Nations member states as at 2000, and at least 22 international organizations, committed to help achieve the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015:

To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
To achieve universal primary education
To promote gender equality and empower women
To reduce child mortality
To improve maternal health
To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
To ensure environmental sustainability
To develop a global partnership for development

The Millennium Development Goals are a UN initiative. Each goal had specific targets, and dates for achieving those targets. Since 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the MDGs.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1A: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day

Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]
Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 1B: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People

GDP Growth per Employed Person
Employment Rate
Proportion of employed population below $1.25 per day (PPP values)
Proportion of family-based workers in employed population

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

Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys

Enrollment in primary education
Completion of primary education

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates

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

Under-five mortality rate
Infant (under 1) mortality rate
Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles[13]

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

Maternal mortality ratio
Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

Contraceptive prevalence rate
Adolescent birth rate
Antenatal care coverage
Unmet need for family planning

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

Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

HIV prevalence among population aged 15–24 years
Condom use at last high-risk sex
Proportion of population aged 15–24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS

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

Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to anti-retroviral drugs

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

Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course)

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources
Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

Proportion of land area covered by forest
CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
Proportion of total water resources used
Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
Proportion of species threatened with extinction

Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation

Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers

Proportion of urban population living in slums

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction – both nationally and internationally

Target 8B: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

Includes: tariff and quota-free access for LDC exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA (Official Development Assistance) for countries committed to poverty reduction

Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Through the Programme 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 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed countries (LDCs), Africa, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.
Official development assistance (ODA):
- Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors’ GNI
- Proportion of total sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
- Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
- ODA received in landlocked countries as proportion of their GNIs
- ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their GNIs

Market access:
- Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duty
- Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
- Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as percentage of their GDP
  Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity

Debt sustainability:
- Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
- Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative, US$
- Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services

Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries

Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis

Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population
Personal computers in use per 100 population
Internet users per 100 Population

Progress report on the health-related MDGs

While some countries have made impressive gains in achieving health-related targets, others are falling behind. Often the countries making the least progress are those affected by high levels of HIV/AIDS, economic hardship or conflict. Read more on the progress through the blue link below -- MDGs progress report so for.

MDGs: Progress report so far »

Reference(s)
1). United Nations: Millennium Development Goals: We Can End Poverty. Accessed 07.07.15. Available here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
2). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: Millennium Development Goals. Accessed 08.07.15. Available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals