International Development Goals
from OECDs strategy "Shaping the 21st Century" (1996) to the UN Millennium Development Goals (2000/2
(for more information - in Norwegian, links in english - see Temasider om tusenårsmålene or FNs tusenårsmål - en historie om fusk og svik)
The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) build on a set of goals first developed by the rich countries in the OECD strategy "Shaping the 21st Century" adopted in 1996. These were later the basis for a document - A Better World for All - presented in june 2000 by the OECD, the World Bank, the IMF and the UN - claiming that the document was building on the global United Nations conferences and summits of the 1990s. This was fiercly rejected by civil society, gathered in Geneva on the occation of the World Summit for Social Development +5 Conference (UNGASS), who promptly renamed the document "Bretton Woods for All" and called on the UN to withdraw its support (see NGOs call on the UN to withdraw endorsement of "A Better World for All" document). "A Better World for All" also prompted the the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Konrad Raiser, to send a personal letter to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressing the concern of NGO delegates that UN support for the document "amounted to a propaganda exercise for international finance institutions whose policies are widely held to be at the root of many of the most grave social problems facing the poor all over the world and especially those in the poor nations" (see Letter from WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser to UN secretary general Kofi Annan). However, the main features of the document prevailed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted by the UN Millennium Assembly. Based on this declaration the UNDP, in co-operation with the World Bank and the OECD, developed a set of goals and indicators that has later been known as the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Below are the texts of the various documents.
Shaping the 21st Century, pdf) (1996)
1: a reduction by one-half in the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.
2: universal primary education in all countries by 2015;
3: demonstrated progress toward gender equality and the empowerment of women by eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005;
4: a reduction by two-thirds in the mortality rates for infants and children under age 5 and a reduction by three-fourths in maternal mortality, all by 2015;
6: access through the primary health-care system to reproductive health services for all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later than the year 2015.
7: the current implementation of national strategies for sustainable development in all countries by 2005, so as to ensure that current trends in the loss of environmental resources are effectively reversed at both global and national levels by 2015.
8: We commit ourselves to do the utmost to help:
- first, by a willingness to make mutual commitments with our development partners, supported by adequate resources;
- second, by improving the co-ordination of assistance in support of locally-owned development strategies; and
- third, by a determined effort to achieve coherence between aid policies and other policies which impact on developing countries.
A Better World for All (2000)
1: Reduce the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by half between 1990 and 2015
2: Enrol all children in primary school by 2015
3: Make progress towards gender equality and empowering women by eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005
4: Reduce infant and child mortality rates by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015
5: Reduce maternal mortality ratios by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015
6: Provide access for all who need reproductive health services by 2015
7: Implement national strategies for sustainable development by 2005 so as to reverse the loss of environmental resources by 2015
United Nations Millennium Development Goals - MDGs
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day
- Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
MDG 2:Achieve universal primary education
Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020
MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
- Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally
- Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction
- Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States
- Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term
- In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth
- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies—especially information and communications technologies.