"Eradicating extreme poverty continues to be one of the main challenges of our time,
and is a major concern of the international community. Ending this scourge will
require the combined efforts of all, governments, civil society organizations and
the private sector, in the context of a stronger and more effective global partnership
for development. The Millennium Development Goals set timebound targets, by which
progress in reducing income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter and
exclusion — while promoting gender equality, health, education and environmental
sustainability — can be measured. They also embody basic human rights — the rights
of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter and security. The Goals
are ambitious but feasible and, together with the comprehensive United Nations development
agenda, set the course for the world’s efforts to alleviate extreme poverty by 2015.
"
United Nations Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon
In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and
summits, world leaders came together at United Nations Headquarters in New York
to adopt the
United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new
global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound
targets - with a deadline of 2015 - that have become known as 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. They have galvanized unprecedented
efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.
The following United Nations agencies and organizations are committed to the achievement
of the Millennium Development Goals;