The Millennium Development Goals or MDGs are mentioned regularly by ONE (and many other campaigning organizations) — but how well-known are they? Could you list all eight? And do you how many are likely to have been met by their target date of 2015?
The MDGs are a set of poverty-busting targets agreed by 189 nations in the year 2000. They cover hunger and extreme poverty, education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, environmental sustainability, and a commitment to global cooperation for development.
We’re big proponents of holding countries to their promises, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight whoppers. Progress in the developing world is almost exclusively measured against the targets laid out in the MDGs, and with good reason — every single member of the United Nations (UN) committed to them. More than a decade after these commitments were made, how far have we come?
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 is the annual assessment said to be the most comprehensive measure of progress toward the MDGs. The report is compiled from the most up-to-date data by more than 25 UN and international agencies. This year’s report was launched last week by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who says there is reason to celebrate, as major successes have been made since the Millennium Development Goals were established in 2000. A closer look shows the noted but not dwelled-upon fact that progress has been uneven across countries and across sectors.
I seriously can’t believe Thanksgiving is only one week away. I’m usually pretty bad about taking time to reflect and be thankful, but that changed just 13 minutes ago.
13 minutes ago, I hit play on a stop-you-in-your tracks kind of video. It’s longtime ONE supporter Bob Geldof talking before a crowd of folks at the end of the UN Millennium Development Goal Summit in New York City early this September.
I know that doesn’t necessarily sound that exciting, but trust me on this one. It’s a must watch. It’s funny, powerful, hit-you-in-the-gut good. I’ve never seen anyone talk so powerfully about our journey in the fight against poverty — or leave me so inspired to want to do even more.
So, take a look for yourself. It’s a little long, but it’s guaranteed to give you goosebumps. And I’d love to hear what you think after you’ve taken a look. Leave a comment right below!
When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Michaél Martin, T.D., Ireland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, co-hosted the session “Partnering to Reduce Child Undernutrition” at the MDGs, world leaders and international organizations were asked to start putting more of an emphasis on the vital 1,000-day nutrition window that starts from the moment of conception to the 2nd birthday of each child.
As Nicholas Kristof said in his New York Times column last week, the cycle of poverty in the developing world can start as soon as a child is conceived:
As world leaders converge on New York for the UN General Assembly meeting this week, ONE cofounder Bono writes today in his column for the New York Times that one test of the meeting’s success will be whether leaders recommit to the Millennium Development Goals, “possibly the most visionary deal that most people have never heard of.”
Bono writes of the many successes achieved in part because of the goals – from millions of lives saved from preventable disease, to tens of millions more kids in school – and calls on leaders to do three specific things: 1.) fully fund the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the campaign to ensure no child is born with HIV by 2015, 2.) enact transparency legislation in Britain, the EU and across the G20 that echoes the recently passed US legislation requiring energy companies to report payments to government officials and 3.) better track world leaders pledges and progress against them, so we know what has been promised and whether it has been delivered.
In case you weren’t tuned in to the State Department’s “Conversations with America” series yesterday, you missed a great preview of next week’s gathering of world leaders in New York City to accelerate and drive the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It starred ONE’s own David Lane and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.
While listening to the discussion, several themes jumped out at me.
This blog post is part of our special coverage on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit. Keep an eye out for more posts like these throughout the week.
The U.N. Summit on the MDGs is a week from today — but don’t panic if you can’t immediately remember the difference between MDG 4 or 6 or 3 or 8. We’ve got you covered!
Here’s YouTube playlist of just a few of our favorite MDG videos through the years. Organizations like UNICEF, GOOD magazine and the U.N. Foundation have done an incredible job of interpreting the eight poverty-fighting goals. And while a few of the stats are now out of date (since the videos span over several years), the overall message is still exactly the same: it’s time to come together and help achieve the MDGs.
Got a video to add to our MDG playlist? Share it with us in the comments below.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
