Acknowledging the U.N. Development Goals (MDG’s)

The U.N. Millennium Development Project was commissioned by the United Nations in 2000 to “reverse the grinding poverty, hunger, and disease affecting billions of people.” Each of their member states agreed to achieve the MDG’s by the end of 2015. These were the eight specific goals: (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; (2) achieve universal primary education; (3) promote gender equality and empower women; (4) reduce childhood mortality; (5) improve maternal health; (6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; (7) insure environmental sustainability, and (8) develop a global partnership for development.

The good news is that there was a huge amount of progress in many of the above goals. Some were fully met. For example, the proportion of people in extreme poverty was cut in half between 2000 and 2015 (meaning that 700 million fewer people were in that situation). There have been big gains in primary education, improved health, and other fields. Unfortunately, however, much of what had been hoped for was not accomplished as desired. Thus the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) were established to continue the MDG’s. For a detailed report of what happened through 2015, see www.un.org./millenniumgoals/