Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a set of eight international development targets established by the United Nations in 2000, aimed at addressing pressing global issues by 2015. These goals focused on crucial areas such as eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating diseases like HIV/AIDS, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The MDGs galvanized concerted efforts from governments, civil society, and international organizations, leading to significant advancements, including a substantial reduction in extreme poverty and improvements in educational enrollment rates.
However, not all targets were fully met; for instance, while child mortality rates dropped and access to clean drinking water improved, the goal of halting the spread of HIV/AIDS was not achieved. Following the expiration of the MDGs in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced, expanding the focus to encompass environmental concerns and social equity, with a broader framework applicable to all countries until 2030. The MDGs are often hailed as a landmark anti-poverty initiative, significantly influencing global development policies and laying the groundwork for ongoing sustainability efforts.
On this Page
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. All 189 United Nations (UN) member states at the time along with more than twenty-three international organizations committed to help achieve these goals by the year 2015. After the MDGs expired in 2015, the UN created a new set of development goals.
According to the UN website, "The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) range from halving extreme poverty rates and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education and all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions developed a strategy which they took upon themselves to achieve by the end of 2015."
The MDGs resulted in the most successful antipoverty movement in history due mostly to the concerted efforts of governments, civil societies, and other partners who, by combining their efforts, were able to build a new sustainable development agenda.
After 2015, many governmental and nongovernmental agencies continuously followed up on the program’s impact. Most MDG reports found that the fifteen-year effort to realize the eight goals set out in the Millennium Declaration in 2000 had been largely successful worldwide, though some areas of development experienced uneven progress.
The data and analysis described in one report showed that comprehensive strategies, targeted interventions, satisfactory resources, and political strength can lift millions of people out of poverty, empower women and girls, improve health conditions and well-being, and deliver vast new opportunities for better lives.
Background
The eight Millennium Development Goals set out at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000 were clearly listed, and they covered the following issues: 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; and to ensure environmental sustainability.
The UN called the MDGs "the most successful anti-poverty movement in history." Much progress was made on most of the goals. According to the World Health Organization, which was involved in all the MDG’s efforts, despite certain limitations, the following achievements were met:
The number of people living on less than $1.25 per day dropped from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015, although the target of halving the proportion of people experiencing hunger was missed. The number of people in the working middle class—living on more than $4 per day—nearly tripled during this same period.
Primary school enrollment figures rose impressively, with the number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide dropping by almost half to an estimated 57 million in 2015, down from 100 million in 2000. Net enrollment increased from 83 percent in 2000 to 91 percent in 2015, and about two-thirds of developing countries achieved gender parity in primary education.
The fourth MDG goal was to reduce the mortality rate of children under five years old. From 1990 to 2015, maternal mortality fell by 45 percent—down from ninety to forty-three deaths per one thousand live births.
Over 6.2 million malaria deaths were averted between 2000 and 2015. However, the target of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015 was not met despite the drop in the number of new HIV infections, which was close to 40 percent between 2000 and 2013. By June 2014, 13.6 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally, a tremendous increase from just 800,000 people in 2003.
Thirty-seven million lives were saved due to tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment interventions between 2000 and 2013, and an estimated 2.1 billion people gained access to improved sanitation.
MDG goals six and seven targeted fresh drinking water for people across the globe. The result of the MDG efforts was that close to 2.6 billion people gained access to improved drinking water from 1990 to 2015, so the target of halving the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water was achieved in 2010—five years ahead of schedule. Despite this, there were still 663 million people across the world who did not have access to improved drinking water in the mid-2010s. MDG’s sanitation target was also met.
Official assistance from developed countries increased 66 percent in real terms from 2000 to 2014, reaching $135.2 billion. Global Internet penetration went up from 6 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2015.
Impact
The 2000 Millennium Development Goals expired in September 2015. A new set of goals was needed to meet a rapidly changing world. At a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York September 25 to 27, 2015, world leaders replaced the fifteen-year-old MDGs with a series of new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that differed slightly from the old goals and focused more on the environment.
The SDGs were adopted following a two-year process of global consultations and intergovernmental negotiations; they combined the three aspects of sustainable development: economic, environmental, and social. The new set of goals consisted of 17 goals and 169 targets to be assumed and maintained by all countries until 2030.
The process that resulted in the SDGs was much more transparent and open than the MDG process, and there was more consensus on the framework that was ultimately created. In addition, the SDGs apply to all countries, rich and poor alike. Helping the SDG effort are Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that are fully committed to increasing their financing and working to ensure greater enlistment of domestic resources and expanded funding from the private sector.
On October 1, 2015, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim turned to all governments interested in boosting "shared prosperity," and reducing inequality to maintain a strong focus on improving the lives of the bottom 40 percent of populations in developing countries. Kim pointed to three ingredients needed for the World Bank to be successful. It must "Grow, Invest, and Insure. Grow the economy, invest in people, and insure them so they don’t risk falling back."
Nearly half the developing world lived in extreme poverty at the turn of the century. Due to the eight Millennium Development Goals set forth in 2000 at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, a start was made to reduce world poverty. As 2015 ended, the world looked to the new SDGs to continue the work toward a healthier and more sustainable world.
Bibliography
Galatsidas, Achilleas, and Finbar Sheehy. "What Have the Millennium Development Goals Achieved?" The Guardian, 6 July 2015, www.theguardian.com/global-development/datablog/2015/jul/06/what-millennium-development-goals-achieved-mdgs. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.
Iyer, Kavitha. "Simply Put: From MDGs, the World Moves on to a Sustainable Journey of Development." The Indian Express. 25 Sept. 2015, indianexpress.com/article/explained/simply-put-from-mdgs-the-world-moves-on-to-a-sustainable-journey-of-development. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.
"International Financial Institutions Back New Global Development Agenda with Stepped-Up Support." International Monetary Fund, 25 Sept. 2015, www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2015/09/14/01/49/pr15438. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.
"Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)." World Health Organization, 19 Feb. 2018, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/millennium-development-goals-(mdgs). Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.
"The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015." UN Development Project, 9 July 2015, www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015‗MDG‗Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.
"Sustainable Development Goals: 17 Goals to Transform Our World." United Nations, Aug. 2023, www.un.org/en/exhibits/page/sdgs-17-goals-transform-world. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
"UN Releases 2015 Millennium Development Goals Report." Voice of America, 9 July 2015, www.voanews.com/a/un-releases-millennium-development-goals-report/2855287.html. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.