The eight Millennium Development Goals comprise an ambitious agenda to significantly improve the human condition by 2015. The Goals set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. For each Goal a set of Targets and Indicators have been defined and are used to track progress in meeting the Goals.
>> Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
>> Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
>> Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
>> Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
>> Goal 5: Improve maternal health
>> Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
>> Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
>> Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day
Indicator 1: Proportion of population below $1 per day (PPP values)
Indicator 2: Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]
Indicator 3: Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Indicator 4: Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
Indicator 5: Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption>> Back to top
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Indicator 6: Net enrolment ratio in primary education
Indicator 7: Proportion of pupils starting Grade One who reach Grade Five
Indicator 8: Literacy rate of 15-24 year olds>> Back to top
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015
Indicator 9: Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
Indicator 10: Ratio of literate females to males 15-24 years old
Indicator 11: Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
Indicator 12: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament>> Back to top
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Target 5 Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Indicator 13: Under-five mortality rate
Indicator 14: Infant mortality rate
Indicator 15: Proportion of 1-year-old children immunised against measles>> Back to top
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Indicator 16: Maternal mortality ratio
Indicator 17: Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel>> Back to top
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
Indicator 18: HIV prevalence among 15-24-year-old pregnant women
Indicator 19: Condom use rate of the contraceptive prevalence rate
Indicator 20: Number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS
Target 8 Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Indicator 21: Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
Indicator 22: Proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective malaria prevention and treatment measures
Indicator 23: Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Indicator 24: Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course)
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Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
Indicator 25: Proportion of land area covered by forest
Indicator 26: Ratio of area protected to maintain biological diversity to surface area
Indicator 27: Energy use (metric ton oil equivalent) per $1 GDP (PPP)
Indicator 28: Carbon dioxide emissions (per capita) and consumption of ozone-depleting CFCs (ODP tons)
Indicator 29: Proportion of population using solid fuels
Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
Indicator 30: Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
Target 11: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
Indicator 31: Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation
Indicator 32: Proportion of households with access to secure tenure (owned or rented)>> Back to top
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Target 12: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system (Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction – both nationally and internationally)
Target 13: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries [Includes: tariff and quota free access for LDC exports; enhanced programme of debt relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction]
Indicator 33: Net ODA, total and to LDCs, as percentage of OECD/DAC donors’ GNI
Indicator 34: Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
Indicator 35: Proportion of bilateral ODA of OECD/DAC donors that is untied
Target 14: Address the Special Needs of landlocked countries and small island developing States (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the 22nd special session of the General Assembly)
Indicator 36: ODA received in landlocked countries as proportion of their GNIs
Indicator 37: ODA received in small island developing States as proportion of their GNIs
Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term
Indicator 38: Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms) from developing countries and from LDCs, admitted free of duties
Indicator 39: Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and textiles and clothing from developing countries
Indicator 40: Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as percentage of their GDP
Indicator 41: Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity
Indicator 42: Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision points and number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
Indicator 43: Debt relief committed under HIPC initiative, US$
Indicator 44: Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services
Target 16: In co-operation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
Indicator 45: Unemployment rate of 15-to-24-year-olds, each sex and total
Target 17: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries
Indicator 46: Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis
Target 18: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications
Indicator 47: Telephone lines and cellular subscribers per 100 population
Indicator 48: Personal computers in use per 100 population and Internet users per 100 population>> Back to top
Online resources:
UN Millennium Development Goals homepage
Millennium Project
The Millennium Project's research focuses on identifying the operational priorities, organizational means of implementation, and financing structures necessary to achieve the MDGs.
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