Millennium Development Goals

The Declaration committed nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty, and set out a series of eight time-bound targets – with a deadline of 2015 – that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs).

The final MDG Report found that the 15-year effort has produced the most successful anti-poverty movement in history:

• Since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined by more than half.
• The proportion of undernourished people in the developing regions has fallen by almost half.
• The primary school enrolment rate in the developing regions has reached 91 percent, and many more girls are now in school compared to 15 years ago.
• Remarkable gains have also been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
• The under-five mortality rate has declined by more than half, and maternal mortality is down 45 percent worldwide.
• The target of halving the proportion of people who lack access to improved sources of water was also met.

The concerted efforts of national governments, the international community, civil society and the private sector have helped expand hope and opportunity for people around the world.

Yet the job is unfinished for millions of people—we need to go the last mile on ending hunger, achieving full gender equality, improving health services and getting every child into school. Now we must shift the world onto a sustainable path.

The global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, will guide policy and funding for the next 15 years, beginning with a historic pledge on 25 September 2015, to end poverty. Everywhere. Permanently.