Millennium Development: At A Glance

The Millennium Development Goals are eight broad yet inspired benchmarks, which will guide us, as concerned international citizens, down the path toward a world of peace and prosperity. Now, in the 21st century, the future never looked so bright.

Well, not exactly.

In the year 2000 at the Millennium Summit in London, UN member states adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The goals conveyed in that declaration provide a framework for international development, targeting eight specific benchmarks. While the degree of that specificity has come under much scrutiny since 2000, the MDGs also mark an unprecedented level of international cooperation to eradicate poverty. Expressly, the UN plans for the world to, by the year 2015:

1.) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2.) Achieve universal primary education
3.) Promote gender equality and empower women
4.) Reduce child mortality
5.) Improve maternal health
6.) Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other diseases
7.) Ensure environmental sustainability
8.) Develop a global partnership for development

Critics of the MDGs argue that the vague language undermines the effectiveness of these goals. Think about what it would take to actually eradicate poverty within the next six years. Further, it is hard to quantify the goals create a clear-cut method for achieving them or for measuring progress. How exactly does one define “extreme” poverty?

However, the MDGs are more specific than the general statements above convey. Also, the adoption of the Millennium Declaration brings international development into a new, more central spotlight. The eight MDGs provide governments with a more tangible set of objectives. Some progress is certainly better than none.

Over the course of the next month, we’ll examine the eight MDGs in detail, and highlight initiatives designed to help achieve them. All over the world, international organizations and local volunteers are working from the ground up, creating development programs to make these goals a reality. Regardless of loopholes or gray areas in the document itself, their work and its value should not be marginalized.

At the end of September, once again UN member states will meet for the Millennium Summit in New York to evaluate progress toward achieving these ends. However, let’s not leave it all up to them. Over the course of the next month, let’s examine the details together, and decide just how workable all of this idealism is.

For more information about the Millennium Development Goals, please visit http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

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This post was written by Allison Tritt, a former high school English teacher, volunteer for Oxfam Japan and volunteer blogger with the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project. She blogs to foster global awareness and remind others that there is always a way to get involved. Please leave your comments or email Allison at ajtritt@gmail.com with your questions.