The Millennium Development Goals The leaders of the world’s governments identified the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the Millennium Summit in 2000: eight measurable objectives with deadlines for fighting against poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, degradation of the environment and discrimination against women.
The Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015
Halve extreme poverty and hunger
Reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters
Ensure that all boys and girls complete primary school
Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Empower women and promote equality between women and men
Ensure environmental sustainability
Reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds
Create a global partnership for development, with targets for trade, debt relief and aid, for example the improvement of the lives of at least 100 million slum dweller by 2020.
The MDGs include commitments in the areas of human rights, good governance and democracy.
UCLG members contributing to the achievement of the MDGs This contribution is witnessed in the daily work of local councillors in the service of their citizens. Indeed, the realities of urbanisation are all in a day’s work for locally elected representatives: improving unhealthy environments, managing water resources, finding pragmatic solutions environmental problems, raising education levels, promoting the participation of women in local political life, fighting major diseases and enhancing sanitation.
Making local government know-how available to all The urgency of these problems necessitates practical solutions. The proximity of local governments to their citizens allows for a dialogue which encourages innovative methods. Consequently, local governments offer both the know-how and the expertise which should be at the service of everybody. The members of UCLG share their expertise with one another; they also share their expertise with the international community and are committed to furthering this information exchange.
2050: adequate food and housing for all Some experts believe that the conditions are now in place to ensure that everyone in the world can have access to sufficient food, clothing and accommodation by 2050. But what happens tomorrow depends on what is done today. With UCLG, local authorities are committed to ensuring the welfare of all the citizens of the world.
United Nations Millennium Campaign UCLG keeps developing its strong partnership with the United Nations Millennium Campaign in order to promote the local government role in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As part of this partnership and thanks to the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the city of Barcelona, a Millennium Campaign office has been opened in UCLG headquarters in Barcelona.
UCLG Committee on the MDGs UCLG members are deeply committed to the Millennium Development Goals through the working group on the MDGs, whose main task is to encourage the planning and implementation of local actions to support the realisation of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals.
« Eight ways to change the world » Together, UCLG and the Millennium Campaign have published the brochure “Eight ways to change the World” which provides 8 action points each for Northern and Southern local authorities to help achieve the MDGs and gave locally elected representatives the opportunity to record their commitment to the MDGs in the ‘Voice Box’ recording studio.
Working group on Millennium Development Goals
