In September 2000 all Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, agreeing to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. Just six years after these goals were made, however, progress has been slow, and more than one billion people still live on less than one dollar a day. “We are in a position to end extreme poverty within our generation,” said Jeffery Sachs, head of the United Nations Millennium Project. “Not just cutting poverty in half—if we want to eliminate extreme poverty, we can do that by 2025.”

 Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day.
• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

The Problem

• 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day.
• Every day, 800 million people go to bed hungry.
• Every day, 28,000 children die from poverty related causes.

Our Progress So Far

• We can reduce the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day: In South and East Asia the number of persons living on less than one dollar a day has decreased, but in sub-Saharan Africa, the number is rising.
• We must act now to reverse hunger: The proportion of severely underweight children is falling, most developing countries are not on track to achieve this target.

  Achieve Universal Primary Education

• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

The Problem

• 115 million children are not in school: 56% of them are girls and 94% of them live in developing countries.
• 133 million young people cannot read or write.
• Only 37 of 155 developing countries provide primary education for all.

Our Progress So Far

• Universal primary education is taken for granted in the U.S. Neither Sub-Saharan Africa nor South Asia are on track to achieve the goal of 100% primary education, but in both regions some countries have shown that it can be done. East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are close to achieving universal primary education.
• Africa needs our help. Africa in particular has a completion rate of primary school education of only 55%.

  Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

The Problem

• Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are female.
• The employment rate for women is 30% of that for men.
• Women only hold 15% of seats in national parliaments.

Our Progress So Far

• Educated women are a key ingredient of development: The target of achieving parity between girls and boys in primary and secondary education by 2005 is being met in most regions, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa and South and Western Asia (which could catch up by 2010). The enrollment of girls has increased faster than that of boys in all regions, and the ratio of girls to boys in primary school rose impressively from 1990 to 2000 in countries such as Bangladesh, Gambia, Mauritania, Nepal and the Sudan.
• We must help remove barriers to work: The employment rate of women has changed little since 1990, and it is far below the rate for men in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Political participation is for everyone, not just men: Women continue to be vastly underrepresented in national parliaments in most regions. Only in the Nordic countries do women hold 40 per cent of the seats; in 14 countries they hold 30 per cent or more of the seats; in Northern Africa, Southern and Western Asia and Oceania, they hold less than 10 per cent.

  Reduce Child Mortality

• Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five.

The Problem

• In developing countries, one child in 10 dies before his or her fifth birthday, compared with 1 in 143 in high-income countries.
• Over 11 million children under the age of five die each year. For approximately 70% of those, the cause is a disease or a combination of diseases and malnutrition that would be preventable in a high-income country, such as acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, measles and malaria.

Our Progress So Far

• There are signs of hope: Progress has been made, global child mortality rates have decreased.
• We can do more: Only Latin America and the Caribbean are likely to meet the goal of reducing the under five mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015.
• Africa struggles under the burdens of war and disease: Progress has been particularly slow in Sub-Saharan Africa, where civil disturbances and the HIV/AIDS epidemic have caused infant and child death to rise in several countries.

  Improve Maternal Health

Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio.

The Problem

• Some 14,000 women and girls die each day from causes related to childbirth; 99% in the developing world.
• More than 50 million women suffer from poor reproductive health and serious pregnancy-related illness and disability.
• Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for girls ages 15-19 in developing countries.

Our Progress So Far

• More health care professionals need to be trained and employed: Recent data on the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel, a critical factor in reducing maternal deaths, indicate significant improvements in northern Africa and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia. The lowest rates of births attended by health care personnel are found in South-Central Asia: only 35 attendants per 100 deliveries.

  Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

The Problem

• More than 8,000 people die every day from AIDS-related conditions.
• An estimated 13,000 people became newly infected with HIV every day.
• Approximately 15 million children around the world have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
• Among young people (age 15-24) in sub-Saharan Africa, there are 36 young women living with HIV for every 10 HIV-infected males.
• There were almost a million new cases of HIV/AIDS in South and East Asia, where more than 7 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS.
• Approximately 40% of the world's population, mostly those living in the world's poorest countries, is at risk of contracting malaria.
• Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least one million deaths annually.
• An estimated two million deaths from tuberculosis occur annually.
• Someone in the world is newly infected with tuberculosis bacilli every second.

Our Progress So Far

• We have the tools: There are proven approaches to stopping these diseases. Methods of controlling and preventing both TB and malaria have been developed and proven effective in many countries around the world.
• We have positive experiences: Uganda and Thailand have shown the world that by offering people hope and advice, the HIV virus can be stopped in its tracks, and we can defeat it.
• We have the drugs: Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), which are now available for as little as $140 per person per year, give people incentive to get tested and learn their status. However, ARVs have not been developed to suit the needs of most children.
• WE NEED THE POLITICAL WILL TO FIGHT DISEASE WORLDWIDE: Comprehensive prevention could avert 29 million of the 45 million new HIV/AIDS infections projected by 2010.

  Ensure Environmental Sustainability

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs, reverse the losses of environmental resources.
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
• Achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.

The Problem

• Over 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities and 1.2 billion lack access to clean water.
• Some two million children die every year --6,000 a day-- from preventable infections spread by dirty water or improper sanitation facilities.

Our Progress So Far

• Clean water is attainable: Urban access to improved drinking water is nearly universal, except in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, where it has declined. Significant improvements have been made in rural access in all regions.
• Water is necessary for life: Only a few countries have achieved improvement at a sufficient rate to meet the goals. While there has been significant progress towards meeting the sanitation goal, 2.6 billion people worldwide did not have access to improved sanitation in 2000.

 Create a Global Partnership for Development

• Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Including a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction - both nationally and internationally.
• Address the special needs of the least developed countries. This includes: tariff- and quota-free access for least-developed countries' exports; enhanced program of debt relief for HIPCs and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction.
• Address the special needs of landlocked countries and small island developing States.
• Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
• In cooperation with developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.
• In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.
• In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies.

The Problem

• The cows in Europe receive $2 a day in subsidies, more than the income of half the world’s population.
• Developed countries pledged to give 0.7% of their national income in aid, yet only 5 countries are living up to their commitment. The U.S. gives less than 0.2%!
• The elimination of trade barriers could alone lift 300 million people out of poverty by 2015.

Our Progress So Far

• Debt relief has made a difference: The Jubilee 2000 movement raised awareness of the worldwide debt crisis and influenced international organizations and governments to forgive the high debt accrued by developing countries.
• Debt relief makes reaching the other goals possible: Thanks to debt cancellation, Tanzania was able to abolish school fees and enroll more than one million additional children in primary school.
• More progress can be made to give countries the tools of development: Poor countries face high tariffs and other barriers to rich country markets. 900 million people live in rural areas and rely on agricultural activities for their livelihood. However, U.S. and other developed countries’ farm subsidies keep world prices artificially low, undermining the earnings potential for farmers in poor countries.
• Political gain, rather than service to the poor, has been the theme of aid: Considerable aid has been given to countries with moderate income or poor governance. Sometimes aid merely benefits the donors' exporters rather than contributing to poverty reduction. We can demand that our government look toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals in every country, not just a select few.