MDGs: Frequently Asked Questions
The Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, are derived from many of the development goals agreed on at international conferences and world summits during the 1990s, including the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995). At the end of the decade, world leaders distilled the key goals and targets into the 'Millennium Declaration' (September 2000).
The set is known as the ‘Millennium Development Goals', which includes 8 goals, 18 targets and over 40 indicators.
The MDGs, to be achieved between 1990 and 2015, include:
- halving extreme poverty and hunger
- achieving universal primary education
- promoting gender equality
- reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds
- reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters
- reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB
- ensuring environmental sustainability
- developing a global partnership for development, with targets for aid, trade and debt relief
Source: UN Development Group
UNFPA's work in the fields of reproductive health and rights, women's empowerment and population issues is essential to the achievement of all of the MDGs. As noted by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “The Millennium Development Goals, particularly the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, cannot be achieved if questions of population and reproductive health are not squarely addressed. And that means stronger efforts to promote women's rights, and greater investment in education and health, including reproductive health and family planning.”
The chart below illustrates some of the specific ways in which UNFPA's work in sexual and reproductive health is so essential to the achievement the first seven Millennium Development Goals.
MDG |
Why Sexual and Reproductive Health is Key |
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Smaller families and wider birth intervals allow families to invest more in each child's nutrition and health, and can reduce poverty and hunger for all members of a household. At the national level, fertility reduction may enable accelerated social and economic development. Smaller families allow women to engage in more income-producing activities. |
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Families with fewer children, and children spaced further apart, can afford to invest more in each child's education. This has a special benefit for girls, whose education may have a lower priority for families than that of boys. Preventing early pregnancy can help keep adolescent girls in school who may otherwise be forced to leave. |
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Controlling whether and when to have children is a critical aspect of women's empowerment. Women who can plan the timing and number of their births also have greater opportunities for work, education, and social participation outside the home. |
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Prenatal care and the ability to avoid high-risk pregnancies (e.g. those to very young women and those spaced closely together) help prevent infant and child deaths. Children in large families are likely to have reduced health care, and unwanted children are more likely to die than wanted ones. They are also more likely to be deprived of nutrition and attention. |
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Preventing unplanned and high-risk pregnancies and providing care in pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period save women's lives. |
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Sexual and reproductive health care includes preventing and treating sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. In addition, reproductive health care can bring clients into the health care system, encouraging diagnosis and treatment of other diseases and conditions. |
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Providing sexual and reproductive health services, and avoiding unwanted births, may help stabilize rural areas, slow urban migration, enhance women's role as resource managers and balance natural resource use with the needs of the population. |
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Source: UNFPA
The MDGs were derived from agreements made at the major international conferences and world summits of the 1990s, including the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995).
These three development platforms converge in their affirmation of women's human rights and the recognition that solving the world's most pressing problems demands the full participation and empowerment of women. This point was reaffirmed by the expert report from the UN Millennium Project .
UNFPA's work very directly contributes to MDG 1 (Poverty), MDG 3 (Gender equality), MDG 4 (Child health), MDG 5 (Maternal health), and MDG 6 (Combatting HIV/AIDS and other diseases). But UNFPA's focus on reproductive health and population issues, and its emphasis on women and youth, is central toward the achievement of all of the MDGs.
Source: UNFPA
Yes, if a breakthrough is achieved in 2005, even in the poorest countries, the Goals can still be met by 2015. The UN Millennium Project's report outlines what needs to be done, where immediate action should be taken, and how much it would cost.
Many countries are reaping the benefits of globalization and are on track for achieving at least some of the Goals by the appointed deadline of 2015. Between 1981 and 2001, according to World Bank estimates, the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped from 1.5 billion to 1.1 billion.
Moreover, between 1990 and 2002, child mortality rates fell from 92 deaths per 1,000 live births a year to 73. Life expectancy rose from 62.5 years to nearly 64 years. An additional 10 percent of the developing world's people received access to water. And an additional 14 percent acquired access to improved sanitation services.
But progress on the Goals has been far from uniform. There are huge disparities among and within countries. Some countries are on track to meet most, if not all, of the MDGs and many will reach at least some of the MDGs. Sub-Saharan Africa is the epicenter of crisis, with a continuing rise in extreme poverty and stunningly high child and maternal mortality rates. Asia is the region with the fastest progress, but even there hundreds of millions of people remain in extreme poverty. Other regions have mixed records: in Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe there has been slow or no progress on some of the Goals and persistent inequalities undermining progress on others.
Source: UN Millennium Project
The UN Millennium Project's research shows that the cost of meeting the Goals is approximately half of one percent of the GNP of the industrialized nations—less, in fact, than the 0.7 percent that the wealthy nations have already promised to contribute to the world's poor. In 2003, total aid from rich to poor countries totaled $69 billion—or about 0.25 percent of their collective GNP.
The UN Millennium Project recommends a swift increase in aid to countries that urgently need international support to achieve the Goals and that can and will use this assistance effectively.
Source: UN Millennium Project |
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