At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000 world leaders placed development at the heart of the global agenda by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 2015.

In support of these Goals, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Mark Malloch Brown, have launched the Millennium Project to recommend the best strategies for achieving the MDGs. Over a period of three years the Millennium Project will work to devise a recommended plan of implementation that will allow all developing countries to meet the MDGs and thereby substantially improve the human condition by 2015. While this is a bold ambition, it is both necessary and achievable.

The Millennium Project's research focuses on identifying the operational priorities, organizational means of implementation, and financing structures necessary to achieve the MDGs. Ten thematically-orientated Task Forces perform the bulk of the research. They are comprised of representatives from academia, the public and private sectors, civil society organizations, and UN agencies with the majority of participants coming from outside the UN system. The 15-20 members of each Task Force are all global leaders in their area, selected on the basis of their technical expertise and practical experience.

As an advisory body to the UN, the Millennium Project will report its findings directly to the UN Secretary-General and the Administrator of the UNDP and is structured as follows.

The Millennium Project is directed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, who serves as Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. Through his involvement, some of the Project's research is conducted at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, which Prof. Sachs directs.

The UN Experts Group oversees UN participation in the Project. This Group consists of senior representatives from UN agencies whose role is to ensure that the ten Task Forces of the Millennium Project have access to and make full use of the knowledge, experience and capacities of the UN system.

Through the UN country teams worldwide UNDP leads efforts to help countries integrate the Millennium Development Goals into their national development frameworks. Countries are tailoring the MDGs to national circumstances, building them into national development strategies and policies, and incorporating them in budgets and ministries' priorities. The goals are also integrated into assistance frameworks and programmes.

"We will spare no effort to free our men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected"
- United Nations Millenium Declaration, September 2000

Dozens of national MDG reports have been issued. The plan is for each country to have at least one report by the end of 2004. UNDP collaborates with other UN agencies, governments and regional commissions on regional MDGs reports. Regional reports released so far cover Africa, the Arab world, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean. A comprehensive review is planned for 2005.

The Millennium Development Goals call for reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day to half the 1990 level by 2015 - from 27.9 percent of all people in low and middle income economies to 14.0 percent. The Goals also call for halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger between 1990 and 2015.

If projected growth remains on track, global poverty rates will fall to 12.7 percent – less than half the 1990 level – and 363 million more people will avert extreme poverty. And while poverty would not be eradicated, that would bring us much closer to the day when we can say that all the world's people have at least the bare minimum to eat and clothe themselves. Progress in eradicating hunger, on the other hand, has been slow and the situation has been worsening in some regions.

Target 1 - Eradicate extreme Poverty

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day. Poverty level down since 1990, but progress is uneven: There were at least 118 million fewer people living in extreme poverty at the decade's end than at its beginning. And if projected growth remains on track, global poverty rates will fall to 12.5 percent – less than half the 1990 level – and 366 million more people will avert extreme poverty. But rapid progress in Asia and a return to pre-transition poverty levels in Europe and Central Asia will do nothing to alleviate the crushing burden of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 314 million people will continue to live on less than $1 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

Poverty level down since 1990, but progress is uneven: There were at least 118 million fewer people living in extreme poverty at the decade's end than at its beginning. And if projected growth remains on track, global poverty rates will fall to 12.5 percent – less than half the 1990 level – and 366 million more people will avert extreme poverty. But rapid progress in Asia and a return to pre-transition poverty levels in Europe and Central Asia will do nothing to alleviate the crushing burden of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 314 million people will continue to live on less than $1 a day.

Target 2 - End Malnutrition and Hunger

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

• Indicator 4 Prevalence of underweight children under five yrs. old
• Indicator 5 Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

Malnutrition plays a role in more than half of all child deaths. Malnutrition in children is caused by consuming too little food energy to meet the body's needs. Adding to the problem are diets that lack essential nutrients, illnesses that deplete those nutrients, and undernourished mothers who give birth to underweight children. Raising incomes and reducing poverty is part of the answer. But even poor countries need not suffer high rates of child malnutrition. They can make big improvements through such low-cost measures as nutrition education and micronutrient supplement and fortification. Other things that help include improving the status and education of women, increasing government commitment to health and nutrition, and developing an effective health infrastructure.

Education is development. It creates choices and opportunities for people, reduces the twin burdens of poverty and diseases, and gives a stronger voice in society. For nations it creates a dynamic workforce and well-informed citizens able to compete and cooperate globally – opening doors to economic and social prosperity.

The 1990 Conference on Education for All pledged to achieve universal primary education by 2000. But in 2000, 104 million school-age children were still not in school, 57 percent of them girls and 94 percent were in developing countries - mostly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Millennium Development Goals set a more realistic, but still difficult, deadline of 2015 when all children everywhere should be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

Target 3 - Achieve Primary Education

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 1 who reach grade 5
• Indicator 8 Literacy rate of 15-24 year olds

Reading, Writing, and Retention

• To reach the education goal, countries must first enroll all school-age children. Then they must keep them in school. While the majority of developing countries have already built sufficient schools to educate their primary school-age children, only about a quarter of these countries retain all the children through primary gradation
• According to a World Bank study, only 37 of 155 developing countries analyzed have achieved universal primary completion. Based on trends in the 1990s, another 32 are likely to achieve that goal. But 70 countries risk not reaching the goal unless progress is accelerated. In several of them completion rates have stagnated or even fallen in recent years.
• Why measure primary completion rate? Primary school completion is the number of students successfully completing the last year of (or graduating from) primary school in a given year, divided by the number of children of official graduation age in the population. Although not officially included as one of the MDG indicators, primary completion rate is increasingly used as a core indicator of an education system's performance. Because it measures both the coverage of the education system and the educational attainment of students, the primary completion rate is a more accurate indicator of human capital formation and the quality and efficiency of the school system than are gross and net enrollment ratios. It is also the most direct measure of national progress toward the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education.

Women have an enormous impact on the well-being of their families and societies – yet their potential is not realized because of discriminatory social norms, incentives, and legal institutions. And while their status has improved in recent decades, gender inequalities remain pervasive.

Gender inequality starts early and keeps women at a disadvantage throughout their lives. In some countries, infant girls are less likely to survive than infant boys because of parental discrimination and neglect – even though biologically infant girls should survive in greater numbers. Girls are more likely to drop out of school and to receive less education than boys because of discrimination, education expenses, and household duties.

Target 4 - Gender Equality and Emoper Women

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

The differences between boys' and girls' schooling are greatest in regions with the lowest primary school completion rates and lowest average incomes. In low-income countries, the ratio of girls' enrollments in primary and secondary education as a percent of boys' was 84 percent, compared to 101 percent in upper-middle income countries.

In most regions, literacy is higher among young men. The number of literate women aged 15-24 years in the went up between 1990 and 2002. This represents a global increase in the female literacy rate of approximately 5 percentage points from 78 to 83 per cent. At current rates, however, the target of eliminating gender disparity in education by 2015 will not be met, with the literacy rate for women 15-24 projected to be 88 per cent, versus a projected rate of 90 for young men.

Women's equal participation with men in power and decision-making is part of their fundamental right to participate in political life, and at the core of gender equality and women's empowerment. While almost all countries in the world now grant to both women and men the right to vote and be elected, women continue to experience difficulties in exercising this right. In 2003, globally the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments stands at 15 percent. This constitutes a modest increase of just 6 percentage points since 1987. At the same time, the percentage of women in parliament and the changes in their parliamentary representation continues to be characterized by large differences across regions and sub-regions.

More than 10 million children die each year in the developing world, the vast majority from causes preventable through a combination of good care, nutrition, and medical treatment. Mortality rates for children under five dropped by 15 percent since 1990, but the rates remain high in developing countries.

In developing countries, one child in 10 dies before its fifth birthday, compared with 1 in 143 in high-income countries. Child deaths have dropped rapidly in the past 25 years, but progress everywhere slowed in the 1990s, and a few countries have experienced increases in the same period. At current rates of progress, only a few countries are likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality to one-third of their 1990 levels.

Target 5 - Reduce Child Mortality

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

Child mortality is closely linked to poverty. In 2002 the average under-five mortality rate was 121 deaths per 1,000 live births in low-income countries, 40 in lower-middle-income countries, and 22 in upper-middle-income countries. In high-income countries, the rate was less than 7. For approximately 70 percent of the deaths before age five, the cause is a disease or a combination of diseases and malnutrition that would be preventable in a high-income country: acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, measles, and malaria.

Causes of death among children In 2002, 48 countries had child mortality rates greater than 100 per 1,000 live births. 15 countries – 14 in Sub-Saharan Africa – had mortality rates of more than 200. A major factor contributing to child mortality is malnutrition, which weakens children and reduces their resistance to disease. Malnutrition plays a role in more than half of all child deaths.

Immunization is an essential component in reducing under 5 mortality rates Among the childhood vaccine-preventable diseases measles is the leading cause of child mortality, over half a million deaths in 2000. Increased routine measles immunization to at least 90 per cent coverage in all countries combined with a ‘second opportunity' for measles vaccination either through a second dose in the routine immunization schedule or the supplemental immunization activities are the main strategies to reduce measles deaths.

Worldwide, more than 50 million women suffer from poor reproductive health and serious pregnancy-related illness and disability. And every year more than 500,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Most of the deaths occur in Asia, but the risk of dying is highest in Africa.

Women in high-fertility countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have a 1-in-16 lifetime risk of dying from maternal causes, compared with women in low-fertility countries in Europe, who have a 1-in-2,000 risk, and in North America, who have a 1-in-3,500 risk of dying. High maternal mortality rates in many countries are the result of inadequate reproductive health care for women and inadequately spaced births.

Target 6 - Improve Maternal Health

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

Why do mothers die? The high rates of maternal mortality throughout much of the developing world are the result of serious neglect of women's reproductive health, particularly for the poorest women, as well as ineffective interventions.

• Even where fertility rate are low, the timing and spacing of pregnancies, and the extent to which the births are wanted, warrant attention. Greater access to family planning can help reduce the maternal mortality rate by reducing the number of pregnancies.
• In addition to contraception, women need access to a broad range of services. The primary means of preventing maternal deaths is to provide rapid access to emergency obstetrical care, including treatment of hemorrhages, infections, hypertension, and obstructed labor. It is also important to ensure that a midwife, or doctor is present at every delivery. In developing countries only about half of deliveries are attended by professional health staff.
• Skilled attendants must be supported by the right environment. Life-saving interventions – such as antibiotics, surgery, and transportation to medical centers – are unavailable to many women, especially in rural areas. These women may lack the money for health care and transport, or they may simply lack their husbands' permission to seek care.
• Extreme risks of dying from pregnancy or childbirth in some regions The lifetime risk of maternal death is the risk of an individual woman dying from pregnancy or childbirth in her lifetime. A 1 in 3,000 lifetime risk represents a low risk of dying from pregnancy or childbirth, while a 1 in 100 lifetime risk is a high risk of dying.

Change in the proportion of attended birth in the last 10 years All regions except for the Middle East and North Africa appear to fall short of achieving the 2015 target. Only 56 percent of women in developing countries give birth with the assistance of a trained midwife or doctor. In Latin America, where the share of births attended by skilled health personnel is high, maternal mortality is relatively low. But in Africa, where skilled attendants and health facilities are not readily available, it is very high.

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are among the world's biggest killers, and all have their greatest impact on poor countries and poor people. These diseases interact in ways that make their combined impact worse. Effective prevention and treatment programs will save lives, reduce poverty, and help economies develop.

The economic burden of epidemics such as tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS on families and communities is enormous. Estimates suggest that tuberculosis costs the average patient three or four months of lost earnings, which can represent up to 30 percent of annual household income; Malaria slows economic growth in Africa by about 1.3 percent a year; and when the prevalence of HIV/AIDS reaches 8 percent the cost in growth is estimated at about 1 percent a year.

Target 7 - Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/Aids

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 Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14

In 2003, 36 million adults and 2 million children were living with HIV/AIDS – more than 98 of them in developing countries and 66 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. There were almost a million new cases in South and East Asia, where more than 7 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS. Prevention programmes reach fewer than one in five people who need them. Comprehensive prevention could avert 29 million of the 45 million new infections projected by 2010. Five to six million people need HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries, yet only 7% -- or 400,000 people -- had access by end of 2003.

HIV strikes at youth -- women are particularly vulnerable. More than half of those newly infected with HIV today are between 15 and 24 years old. With rates of almost 13 percent for males and 6 percent for females, East and Southern Africa is the region of the world hit hardest. East Asia and the Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa have the lowest rates.

Target 8 - Halt and begin to reverse incidence of Malaria and other Diseases

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 (internationally recommended TB contral stategy).

Malaria is endemic in large parts of the developing world, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. Because many cases of malaria are not clinically diagnosed or reported to official agencies, it is hard to gauge the full extent of the epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates that 300-500 million cases occur each year, leading to 1.1 million deaths. Almost 90 percent of all cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, where children are the most affected and malaria may account for as much as 25 percent of child mortality.

Treated bednets are a proven way to combat malaria, but they are still not widely used. An effective means of preventing new infections is the use of insecticide-treated bed nets. Vietnam, where more than 16 percent of children sleep under treated bed nets, has made significant strides in controlling malaria. But in Africa, only 7 of 27 countries with survey data reported rates of bed net use greater than 5 percent

Tuberculosis kills around 2 million people a year, most of them 15-45 years old. The emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis; the spread of HIV/AIDS, which reduces resistance to tuberculosis; and the growing number of refugees and displaced persons have allowed the disease to spread. Each year there are about 8 million new cases – 2 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3 million in Southeast Asia, and more than a quarter million in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. However, using the treatment strategy developed by the World Health Organization – directly observed treatment, short course (DOTS) – that emphasizes positive diagnosis followed by effective course of treatment and follow-up care, cure rates of up to 95 percent, even in poor countries, can be achieved. While some countries have made rapid progress in DOTS detection rates, those with high tuberculosis burdens are not increasing detection rates toward the 70 percent target.

Number of people affected by tuberculosis: With an incidence of tuberculosis of 358 per 100,000 people in 2002, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest tuberculosis rates. The epidemic is worsening in Europe and Central Asia. The lowest rates are in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa.

The environment provides goods and services that sustain human development so we must ensure that development sustains the environment. Better natural resource management increases the income and nutrition of poor people.

Improved water and sanitation reduce child mortality, and better drainage reduces malaria. It also reduces the risk of disaster from floods. Managing and protecting the environment thus contribute to reaching the other Millennium Development Goals. Fortunately, good policies and economic growth, which work to improve people's lives, can also work to improve the environment.

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

Forests shrinking - Forests contribute to the livelihoods of many of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty. They nourish the natural systems supporting the agriculture and food supplies on which many more people depend. They account for as much as 90 percent of terrestrial biodiversity. But in most countries they are shrinking. Some loss of forest is an inevitable part of economic development. But because forests are undervalued in many places, they are subject to more destructive and unsustainable activities than is economically or environmentally justified.

Forests now cover about 30 percent of all land, that means that forests shrank by 95 million hectares in the last decade.

Excessive energy use is CAUSE of Global Warming - The Earth's climate has warmed by about half a degree Celsius this century and much scientific evidence suggests that human activities have contributed to this. The burning of coal, oil, and natural gas and the cutting of forests are changing the atmospheric concentration of green-house gases, changing our planet's climate, with far-reaching consequences. The direction and magnitude of climate change vary across regions, but developing countries are likely to suffer most because of their dependence on climate-sensitive activities – such as agriculture and fisheries. They also have limited capability to respond to climate change.

Increase in the protected sites during the last 30 years In response to the pressure on biodiversity, several international conventions have been developed to conserve threatened species. One of the most widely used approaches for conserving habitat is to designate protected areas, such as national parks. The total area of protected sites has increased steadily in the past three decades.

Target 10 - Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

• Indicator 30 Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
• Indicator 31 Proportion of population with access to improved sanitation, urban and rural

Clean water contributes to better health - Lack of clean water and basic sanitation is the main reason diseases transmitted by feces are so common in developing countries. In 1990 diarrhea led to 3 million deaths, 85 percent of them among children. Between 1990 and 2000 about 900 million people obtained access to improved water sources, gains just sufficient to keep pace with population growth. An improved water source is any form of water collection or piping used to make water regularly available. It is not the same as “safe water,” but there is no practical measure of whether water supplies are safe. Connecting all households to a reliable source of water that is reasonably protected from contamination would be an important step toward improving health and reducing the time spent collecting water.

Change in the proportion of people with access to safe water More people have access to safe water compared to 10 years ago. But, in 2000, 1.2 billion people still lacked access to an improved water source, 40 percent of them in East Asia and Pacific and 25 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Meeting the Millennium Development Goals will require providing about 1.5 billion people with access to safe water and 2 billion with access to basic sanitation facilities between 2000 and 2015.

Target 11 - By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

• Proportion of households with access to secure tenure

Slum dwellers exposed to high risks and deprivation Slums are the stage to the most acute scenarios of urban poverty, physical and environmental deprivation. Approximately one-third of the urban population globally live in these conditions. Typical slums in developing countries are unplanned informal settlements where access to services is minimal to non-existent and where overcrowding is the norm. Slum conditions result in placing residents at a higher risk of disease, mortality and misfortune. 94% of the world's slum dwellers live in developing regions, which are the regions experiencing the most rapid growth in urban populations and with the least capacity to accommodate this growth. Where available, trend data indicate that this problem is worsening. UN-HABITAT estimates that in 2001there were 924 million slum dwellers in the world and that without significant intervention to improve access to water, sanitation, secure tenure and adequate housing this number could grow to 1.5 billion by 2020.

What will it take to achieve the Millennium Development Goals? A lot. Economies need to grow to provide jobs and more incomes for poor people. Health and education systems must deliver services to everyone, men and women, rich and poor. Infrastructure has to work and be accessible to all. And policies need to empower people to participate in the development process. While success depends on the actions of developing countries, which must direct their own development, there is also much that rich countries must do to help. This is what Goal 8 is for – it complements the first seven.

Goal 8 calls for an open, rule-based trading and financial system, more generous aid to countries committed to poverty reduction, and relief for the debt problems of developing countries. It draws attention to the problems of the least developed countries and of landlocked countries and small island developing states, which have greater difficulty competing in the global economy. It also calls for cooperation with the private sector to address youth unemployment, ensure access to affordable, essential drugs, and make available the benefits of new technologies.

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

• 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