Saturday, October 04, 2008

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS...



Many are probably unaware that there was even such an event in 2000 like the "MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS." Continuous efforts are being done to this day by countries and cause-oriented organizations to help achieve these goals.

As a backgrounder, in September of 2000, 189 world leaders from Member States of the United Nations gathered for the Millennium Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York.

Though the Goals are for all humankind, priorities were focused on children for the following *reasons (*source: UNICEF):

Because six of the eight goals relate directly to children. Meeting the last two will also make critical improvements in their lives.

Because meeting the Goals is most critical for children. Children are most vulnerable when people lack essentials like food, water, sanitation and health care. They are the first to die when basic needs are not met.

Because children have rights. Each child is born with the right to survival, food and nutrition, health and shelter, an education, and to participation, equality and protection – rights agreed to, among others, in the 1989 international human rights treaty the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention has been ratified by 192 states, every country in the world except two. The Millennium Development Goals must be met for these basic human rights to be realized.

Because reducing poverty starts with children. Helping children reach their full potential is also investing in the very progress of humanity. For it is in the crucial first years that interventions make the biggest difference in a child’s physical, intellectual and emotional development. And investing in children means achieving development goals faster, as children constitute a large percentage of the world’s poor.


I have attached links to the 8 Millenium Development Goals that may be of interest to readers.

GOALS:
  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  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

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