In the year 2000, the United Nations convened the so-called Millennium Summit, with the aim of getting all Member States’ commitment towards a global effort addressing the major challenges of our planet, and to strive towards peace, human rights, democracy, strong governance, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and human dignity, equality and equity. As a result, the summit concluded with a Millennium Declaration, which was unanimously adopted by all 189 countries. This declaration then led to a more specific roadmap with concrete goals, targets and indicators to monitor progress and to measure success. For the first time, the global community agreed on a set of realistic and achievable targets in a given time frame until 2015.
The eight Millennium Development Goals are:
- Eradicate extreme Poverty and Hunger
- Achieve Universal Primary Education
- Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
- Reduce Child Mortality
- Improve Maternal Health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases
- Ensure Environmental Sustainability
- Build a Global Partnership for Development
The European Union has adopted the MDGs as one of their priorities and has committed to achieving these goals.