Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight vital and achievable time-bound commitments agreed by 191 heads of state at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000.

Urgent action is needed in 2005 if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. As, based on current progress, most of the goals (including universal primary education) will be missed.

The 2005 World Summit at the UN in September will be the largest gathering of world leaders in history and the Millennium Development Goals and civil society is lobbying to make sure these are at the top of the agenda for achieving global development, peace and security.

Goal 8 has a special importance as it addresses the aid and debt relief that poor countries need to implement the other 7 goals. However, rich countries continue to
undermine potential global partnerships by failing to provide funding and by excluding developing countries from participating in key decisions.

For more information, see the Global Call to Action against Poverty.

What's happening in South Africa?

To find out more about South Africa's progress towards realising the MDGs, read the South African government report was released in August 2005.

Sangoco has also issued a report on behalf of civil society. The report says that the MDGs don't go far enough and calls on government to honour its existing commitments to reduce poverty as outlined in the Freedom Charter, Reconstruction and Development Programme and the Constitution.

The Environmental Monitoring Group has also developed a guide to help civil society organisations use the MDGs to mobilise resources and hold government accountable at local, regional and national level.

Links

Visit the following websites for more information on the MDGs:

http://www.undg.org/

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/

http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/

Database of Millennium Goals, Targets and Indicators

This website provides a detailed framework of 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators that were adopted by experts from the United Nations Secretariat and International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank to measure progress towards the Millennium Development goals. Each indicator is linked to the millennium data series as well as to background series related to the target in question. www.unmilleniumproject.org/goals/goals03.htm