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Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.

The MDGs also provide a framework for the entire international community to work together towards a common end – making sure that human development reaches everyone, everywhere. If these goals are achieved, world poverty will be cut by half, tens of millions of lives will be saved, and billions more people will have the opportunity to benefit from the global economy.

The eight MDGs break down into 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.

• 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

History

• 2010 MDG Review Summit
• 2005 Millennium +5 Summit
• 2000 Millennium Summit
• United Nations Millennium Declaration
• Road Map Towards the Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration

Accelerating the MDG progress

A decade after the Millennium Declaration, we can point to undeniable progress on some MDGs in many countries. There have been noticeable reductions in poverty globally, significant improvements in enrolment and gender parity in schools, reductions in child and maternal mortality and increasing HIV treatments. Steps have been taken towards ensuring environmental sustainability and developing countries are incorporating the MDGs into their development strategies.

While the share of poor people is declining, the absolute number of the poor in South Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa is increasing. Rapid reductions in poverty are not necessarily addressing gender equality and environmental sustainability. Lack of progress in reducing HIV is curtailing improvements in both maternal and child mortality. The expansion of health and education services is not being matched by quality.

MDG progress is also threatened by the combination of high food prices and the impact of the international financial and economic crisis. Sustained poverty and hunger reduction is at risk because of vulnerability to climate change, particularly in the area of agricultural production. Weak institutional capacity in conflict and post-conflict countries also slows MDG progress, and rapid urbanisation is putting pressure on social services.

The 2010 MDG Review Summit was an opportunity to recognise the vital role of the UN in supporting governments to achieve the MDGs. Focusing on the pragmatic steps that can be taken in the next five years, UNDP has developed an MDG Acceleration Framework drawing on the past decade's evidence base.

The framework provides a systematic way for countries to develop their own action plan based on existing processes to pursue their MDG priorities. It also helps governments to focus on disparities and inequalities, two of the major causes of uneven progress, by particularly responding to the needs of the vulnerable.

This framework lies at the heart of UNDP's strategy that puts the entire organisation and its existing resources behind the UN effort to accelerate MDG progress.