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Change the World in Eight Steps

‘Poverty is not natural. It is man-made and can be overcome and eradicated.’ Nelson Mandela

How can we overcome poverty? This was a question the world’s leaders asked themselves at the turn of the millennium. Their response was to devise a set of goals to reduce poverty by 2015 – the Millennium Development Goals.

What are the Millennium Development Goals?

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international targets for reducing global poverty. They aim to lift around 500 million people out of poverty by the year 2015. If this happens, fewer women will die in childbirth, fewer people will die from treatable diseases, many more boys and girls will go to school, and the lives of millions of people will improve dramatically.
Read about each goal in detail and download photos and activities

How did they come about?

In the year 2000, the member states of the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration. This document contains the Millennium Development Goals, a set of realistic and achievable targets. By signing up to these goals, governments across the world have committed themselves to working collaboratively towards a better future for us all.

What is happening now?

Progress on the goals will be measured each year, in order to help achieve them all by 2015. At the current rate of progress, many of the targets will be missed and it is therefore vital that pressure is stepped up on the world community to increase efforts to achieve them.

For the first seven goals, the onus is on the governments of developing countries to ensure that targets are met or bettered. It is the eighth goal, however, to ‘build a global partnership for development’ that will create the conditions necessary for achieving the other seven. With this goal, the responsibility falls on the richer countries and the wider ‘global community’ to reduce debt, to give more and better aid and to make trade more fair, among other measures.

> Buy the Millennium Development Goals full colour poster set

> To order a FREE SUMMARY POSTER explaining the Millennium Development Goals and containing activities for the classroom, email education@oxfam.org.uk or phone 0870 333 2700.

> For more information about the Millennium Development Goals, visit the UN’s official site (external link)