I
n a world of abundance, 854 million people suffer from
hunger.1 Almost one billion people live on less than $1
a day.2 This year more than 9.7 million children will die
before their fifth birthday, and complications during pregnancy or birth will lead to the death of more than half a million
women.3 Hundreds of thousands of children do not attend
school, 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water
and basic sanitation, and 33 million people live with HIV/
AIDS, most without access to essential lifesaving drugs.4
These are numbers that could lead anyone to despair—and
yet, all over the world, there is convincing evidence that the
fight against hunger, poverty and disease can be won. Dramatic reductions in extreme poverty have occurred in India
and China. Countries as different as Ghana and Brazil have
cut hunger thanks to aggressive government campaigns. International commitments to fund health interventions have
helped nations such as Haiti and Uganda to achieve impressive gains in fighting infectious diseases, especially HIV.
There is good reason to be optimistic that much broader
progress is within reach. In 2000, all U.N. member nations
agreed to the Millennium Declaration. From this agreement
emerged the set of eight interrelated goals that have come to
be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The goals commit all countries to eradicate hunger and poverty, ensure that all children have access to a primary school
education, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health,
promote gender equality, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis, and ensure environmental sustainability. The
MDGs call on developed countries to provide additional
development assistance, grant debt relief to low-income
countries and reform global trade rules. The goals provide
a vision of the future—one marked by dignity, equality and
opportunity for all.
In 2000, nations declared that they were dedicated to
“making the right to development a reality for everyone and
to freeing the entire human race from want.”5 In 2005, the
United Nations Millennium Project prepared a set of recommendations on how the global community can work together
to achieve the MDGs and laid out a plan of action. More
than 250 experts from around the world contributed to the
formulation of the recommendations and action plan, including members of civil society, policy makers, researchers,
scientists and representatives of development agencies.
But action to follow through on the lofty rhetoric has been
slow. We are just past the halfway point between 2000, when
the MDGs were adopted, and 2015, the target date for their
achievement. Now is the time to recapture the spirit of 2000
and make real the promise of a better world for all.
Why the MDGs Matter
The MDGs represent unprecedented support for the
world’s hungry and