Millennium Development Goals

In 2000 the whole world came together to make a solemn promise for 2015; the millennium development goals:

• The promise of primary education for every child
• The promise of an end to avoidable infant and maternal deaths;
• The promise of a halving of poverty
• On the current rate of progress these will not be achieved till 2130 and beyond

8 goals in all. Find out more from www.un.org/millenniumgoals.index.html

It has become increasingly clear that the goals are not going to be reached by 2015, and it may be 130-150 years, on current performance, before the goals are reached. That has lead Chancellor Gordon Brown to declare
“ I say 150 years is too long for a people to wait for justice;
150 years is too long to wait when infants in dying in Africa when there are medicines in the rest of the world to heal them;
150 years is too long to wait for promises to be redeemed and a bond of trust to be honoured;
150 years is too long to wait when all the world lacks is the will to act. ”

14 - 16th September 2005 the UN General Assembly Special Summit on the Millennium Development Goals takes place and is the focus of campaigning effort to ensure that progress is achieved on aid, debt cancellation and trade justice so that the Goals can be reached.