The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed upon at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. More heads of states (189 nations) and governments came together than ever before, a benchmark in itself. They pledged to work together & to make a better world for all by 2015. Unanimously signing & adopting a package, aimed at eradicating social injustices & inequalities; extreme poverty, getting all kids to school, including girls; gender equality, fighting maternal mortality and child mortality, reversing the AIDS pandemic & ensuring sustainable development in an environmental sense. These committing nations agreed upon a new global partnership to ensure these goals were met and set out a series of time bound targets, with a deadline to be met by 2015. The MDGs are the most ambitious and most broadly supported development goals ever to be established.

The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight goals, which pledge to liberate men, women and children from the dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty and make the right to development a reality for everyone. Listed below are the eight goals:

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

The eight MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators. The MDGs are more than just goals, ‘they are seen to provide an overarching framework for the development efforts, and benchmarks against which to judge success’ (Health and the millennium development goals By World Health Organization). They set out a clear & precise agenda as to what is required to help realise the goals. Each goal has been designed so that it is easy to understand, easy to implement and easy to measure in order to help improve the lives of the impoverished people of the world. ‘The fact that MDGs are concrete, time bound and deliberately designed to be measurable (which lends to a sense of accountability) makes the MDGs feel more tangible… people everywhere can immediately relate to them; they speak to the immediate concerns and basic needs of everyone globally.’ Measurability is seen as an integral characteristic of the MDGs, it is through this that the United Nations is able to assess how close it is to achieving one of the most ambitious agreement accords in its history. Furthermore, this also leads to governments being held accountable for any irregularities that may arise or for failure to implement successfully the eight MDGs within their nation states. The MDGs ‘reflect an unprecedented commitment by the world’s leaders to tackle the most basic forms of injustice and inequality in our world; poverty, illiteracy and ill health.’ (Health and the millennium development goals By World Health Organization).

The importance of the MDGs cannot be overstated. Firstly, as set out in the Millennium Summit the aim of the MDGs is to liberate the billion plus people who currently live in extreme poverty. A common proverb the world over is the rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer. However, with the MDGs it seems that the stigmatisation on the richer nations is slowly being rendered obsolete. Secondly, reducing the number of people in poverty matters for security and stability. ‘Research shows, for example, that a negative shock on income growth increases the probability of a civil war substantially (United Nations Millennium Development Project 2005)’ (Financial sector development and the Millennium Development Goals By Stijn Claessens, Erik Feijen). A prime example is that of the ever worsening situation in Sudan’s Darfur region, where the scarcity of sanitised water has seen some of the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st Century, with more than 200,000 Darfuris dead and 2 million having fled their homes. Thirdly, economic wealth for the poor creates new worldwide growth opportunities, by opening new consumer markets and commercial activity; ‘the 4 to 5 billion underserved people are estimated to represent economic opportunity of $13 trillion (Financial sector development and the Millennium Development Goals By Claessens. S, Feijen. E). Arguably the biggest stumbling block for poorer nations being unable to attain the seventh MDG of ensuring environmental sustainability, is entirely down to the developed nations insistency on tariffs, quotas & subsidies. All of which have made it extremely difficult for developing nations to earn a living on their produce.

The message the MDGs are trying embed in our minds is, that the issues being faced around the world are not the sole responsibility of the heads of states of the developing nations or developed nations, but it is a collective responsibility that the people of this world must share and be held accountable for. The biggest problem is that heads of state and ministers often go to meetings, sign something incredible, and then they take the plane back from the UN to return to business as usual. It takes all of us to achieve these goals, this is excruciatingly important because we have to make our governments accountable for the promises they have made. Government after government and