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Children lobbing outside the Houses of Parliament to demand education for all, 2004. Photo: Crispin Hughes, Oxfam
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international targets to reduce poverty.
They were set at a meeting in 1999 when it was realised that the existing poverty reduction targets to be achieved by 2000 would not be met. Thus governments set new goals to be achieved by 2015.
There are 8 global objectives. Achieving these goals would mean that at least 500 million people are lifted out of poverty:
Nothando Ntombela with his freshly harvested pumpkins, South Africa.
Photo: Gisele Wulfsohn/Oxfam
Reduce by half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality by two-thirds for all children aged under five
Reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio
Combat the spread of HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure worldwide environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development
If met, these goals will do a lot to improve the lives of millions of people. However, at the present rate of international action, they will not be met for many countries, especially those in Africa, by the 2015 deadline. Oxfam is campaigning to turn the promises into reality.
Boys from Lergho primary school, Burkina Faso, playing a game during their lunch-break. Universal primary education is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals.
Photo: Crispin Hughes/Oxfam
We must hold governments to account on their commitment to achieve the MDGs and ensure they take the action now. If these 8 global objectives are achieved, 500 million people could be lifted out of poverty.
Rebecca Lokalii, 13, (left) collecting water from the pump in the wadi (dry river bed) in Kalobeiyei, Kenya. Rebecca walks 4km to reach the hand-pump and return home. Over a billion people in the world do not have access to clean water and over two million people die from diseases related to lack of safe drinking water every year.
Photo: Crispin Hughes/Oxfam
