Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the most broadly supported, comprehensive
and specific development goals the world has ever agreed upon. These eight time-bound
goals provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its
many dimensions. They include goals and targets on income poverty, hunger, maternal
and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality, environmental
degradation and the Global Partnership for Development.
Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the MDGs
are both global and local, tailored by each country to suit specific development
needs. They 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.