The Millennium Development Goals are the international community''s most broadly shared, comprehensive and focused framework for reducing poverty. Drawn from the Millennium Declaration, adopted and agreed to by all Governments in 2000, the MDGs represent the commitments of United Nations Member States to reduce extreme poverty and its many manifestations: hunger, disease, gender inequality, lack of education and access to basic infrastructure, and environmental degradation.
It is undeniable that the MDGs have, for more than a decade, underpinned the drive for adopting new approaches to tackling barriers to development. Moreover, the over-arching vision of the MDGs – achieving a 50% reduction in poverty worldwide by 2015 – has brought the international development community closer together.
Each goal had specific targets which the United Nations hoped they would meet by 2015. Some goals had more success than others.
The UN’s goal of halving global poverty was met with resounding success, as the number of people living on less than one dollar and 25 cents a day dropped from one point nine billion in 1990, to 836 million in 2015. An estimated 14 percent of the global population are living in extreme poverty today, down from nearly half in 1990.
The reduction in the proportion of undernourished people globally narrowly missed its target, coming within two percent of the 50 percent reduction goal. Though narrowly missing their target, given the exponential human population growth over the last three two decades, it is still a considerable success.
The goals suffered two more near misses in their attempts to increase educational opportunities for all, including establishing gender equality in schools. An estimated 10 percent of children are not receiving any formal education, and only about two -thirds of developing countries have achieved gender equality in the classroom.
Goals four and five of the Millennium Goals, which addressed child and maternal mortality, respectively, both failed to meet their targets. While both the mortality rate of children under five and maternal deaths were reduced by over half, both failed to reach the two-thirds reduction target.
Goal six, stop and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other diseases was similarly not met in the given 15-year time frame. Although the rate of new HIV/AIDS infections has fallen by around 40 percent, an estimated two point one million people are still being infected annually. The fight against malaria and other diseases prevalent in developing areas has seen more success however, with an estimated six point two million malaria deaths averted between 2000 and 2015.
The final two goals of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals tackled strengthening infrastructure, sustainable development, and international partnership. While both goals are still on-going endeavors, over the last decade, two point six billion people have gained access to improved drinking water and official development assistance to developing nations has risen by nearly seven percent.
Overall, the United Nations has experienced great success in their struggle to address the needs of the poor around the world, but they are the first to admit that more work is needed.
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