The Millennium Development Goals,The Magnificent Seven and Our Children

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015, that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals.

1. Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

The Millennium Project is trying to show how a few simple reforms, seven in all, can substantially improve lives and provide livelihoods. These are:

1. fertiliser and seed to improve food yield;
2. anti-malarial bed nets;
3. improved water sources;
4. diversification from staple into cash crops;
5. a school feeding programme;
6. deworming for all;
7. and the introduction of new technologies, such as energy-saving stoves and mobile phones.

"The Magnificent Seven" Apr 27th 2006 ; The Economist print edition

Beyond Rhetoric... What We Have Achieved For Our Children.
What do these goals have to do with children? All of them would save children’s lives and improve their well-being.
http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/MDG_2-Education.pdf

Children and the Poverty Campaign
http://www.care.org/campaigns/childrenpoverty/index.asp?source=170740250000&WT.srch=1

Facts About Children and Poverty
Health Care and Nutrition

1. Measles, malaria and diarrhea are three of the biggest killers of children — yet all are preventable or treatable
2. More than 30 million children in the world are not immunized against treatable or preventable diseases
3. 95 percent of all the people who get polio are under the age of 5
4. HIV/AIDS has created more than 14 million orphans — 92 percent of them live in Africa
5. Six million children under five die every year as a result of hunger

Education

1. 134 million children between the ages of 7 to 18 have never been to school.
2. Girls are more likely to go without schooling than boys — in the Middle East and North Africa, girls are three times more likely than boys to be denied education
3. For every year of education, wages increase by a worldwide average of 10 percent
4. Educated mothers tend to send their children to school, helping to break the cycle of poverty

Exploitation

1. In the last decade, more than 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict
2. More than 300,000 child soldiers are exploited in armed conflicts in over 30 countries around the world
3. 2 million children are believed to be exploited through the commercial sex trade
4. Approximately 246 million children work
5. 171 million children work in hazardous conditions

STAND UP Against Poverty,
STAND UP For the Millenium Development Goals

Keep The Promise

2015

A Report on the UN
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2000/un_summit/default.stm