UN member states committed themselves to achieving eight goals before the year 2015 in order to improve the fate of one billion people with too little for survival. These goals are now considered to be the international framework for development cooperation.
The eight Millennium Development Goals are:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. - Achieve universal primary education
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary education. - Promote gender equality and empower women
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education in all levels of education no later than 2015. - Reduce child mortality
Reduce by two-thirds, by 2015, the under-five mortality rate. - Improve maternal health
Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio. - Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of these diseases. - Ensure environmental sustainability
Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, and have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers. Soils, forests and coastal waters should be managed in a sustainable manner, and the principles of sustainable development integrated into country policies and programmes. - Develop a global partnership for development
Develop, by 2015, an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system. Debt burdens should be eased for poor countries and state aid budgets increased.