Millennium Development Goals
What Are the Millennium Development Goals?
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions.
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1; Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger; Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.
As a key first step towards global development, this goal aims at empowering individuals, groups, and entire nations.
Currently, close to 1 billion people live on less than one dollar a day – what we call extreme poverty.
Although the proportion of people living in poverty has decreased somewhat since 1990, much of this progress can be attributed to rapid economic growth in Eastern and Southern Asia.
Not surprisingly, the global economic crisis has slowed progress toward achieving this goal.
Sources:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html
http://www.undp.org/mdg/goal1.shtml