• Over one billion people around the world currently live on less than one dollar a day. The goal set by the United Nations is to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. According to UNICEF, many countries in East Asia including India and China are on track to meet the income target, but most sub-Saharan African countries will miss the target as food costs continue to rise. Ending the cycle of poverty starts with children. Children are affected most when communities lack essential goods and services, so providing children with the proper start can impact entire communities.
  • Boys and girls around the world should be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. The UNFPA estimates over 100 million children remain out of school. Many young people around the world could not attend school because of the high cost of school fees, but many UN organizations are working with countries to find solutions to abolish the fees. Gender equality in primary education is also a major target. For every 100 boys out of school, there are still 117 girls in the same situation according to UNICEF. Educating more girls also helps advance the third MDG, promoting gender equality.
  • All of the MDGs are related to women’s rights, and societies where women are not afforded equal rights as men never achieve sustainable development. The target is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education in all levels no later than 2015. Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75% of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. Another fascinating statistic is that women do about 66% of the world’s work in return for less than 5% of its income according to the Women’s International Network.
  • The target set for 2015 is to reduce child mortality by two-thirds, from 93 children of every 1,000 dying before age five in 1990 to 31 of every 1,000 in 2015. More than 70 percent of the child deaths every year are attributed to six causes: diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. In most cases the children can be saved by low-tech, cost-effective measures like vaccines, antibiotics, insecticide-treated bed nets, and improved family care practices. In developing countries health care occurs in the home, so with the proper education, support, and basic supplies many child deaths could be prevented.
  • A women dies from complication in childbirth every minute. The lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth in Africa is 1 in 22, while it is 1 in 120 in Asia and 1 in 7,300 in developed countries. The targets for this goal is to reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015 the maternal mortality ratio and to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015. Only 28 in 100 women giving birth are attended by trained health professionals in the least developed countries, so providing access to emergency obstetric care will help to improve this issue.
  • Malaria, along with HIV/AIDS and TB, is one of the major public health challenges undermining development in the poorest countries in the world. Approximately 40% of the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria. Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least one million deaths annually. 1 in every 100 people worldwide is HIV positive, and one third of people HIV positive are aged 15-24. The goal is to achieve universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it by 2010, and have halted and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other diseases by 2015.
  • Natural resources such as forests, land, water, and fisheries are exploited for the wellbeing of the powerful few causing major changes for vulnerable people in the world dependent on natural resources for their livelihood. Believe it or not, around 2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation and about 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. The goal is to halve the proportion of people living without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
  • The MDGs will only get accomplished through the equal partnership between rich and poor countries. Poor countries are working to achieve the first seven goals while rich countries deliver on their promise by delivering more effective aid, more sustainable debt relief, and fairer trade rules. In 1970, 22 of the world’ richest countries pledged to spend 0.7% of their national income on aid. 34 years later, only 5 countries have kept that promise. The poorest 49 countries make up 10% of the world’s population but account for only 0.4% of world trade. The target set for this goal by 2015 is to develop an open and non-discriminatory trading and financial system, address the needs of the least developed countries, deal with debt problems of developing countries, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries, and make benefits of new technology available like access to the internet.