Introduction The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) concern us all. For young people their achievement is even more crucial as we will have to deal with the consequences of not taking action today. Young people make up a disproportionately large part of populations living in poverty so reaching the goals is of the utmost importance to millions of youth - not just in the future, but also today. This brochure will give you some background information on the importance of the MDGs. Foremost, however, it is, a call for action from individuals and organisations:the MDGs will only be reached if there is enough pressure on policy makers to follow up on their promises and on individuals and organisations to take action.
The Goals
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• • • • Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015. Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five.
2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
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5. Improve maternal health
• • • • Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio. Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources. Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020. Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and nondiscriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction— nationally and internationally. Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction. Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States. Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term. In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth. In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
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8. Develop a global partnership for development
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In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies— especially information and communications technologies.
Getting the Ball Rolling These are the eight goals and 18 targets that were agreed upon in 2000 by 147 World Leaders. Over 189 countries have committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals and the commitment was reaffirmed in the Millennium Review Summit in September 2005. What are the Goals? The MDGs are a set of people-orientated, time bound, and measurable goals which join together efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. Covering a broad range of areas and with a target of the year 2015 for their achievement, they are the strongest goals to date aimed at achieving greater peace, security, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms. Young People in the Goals Although encompassing a large set of issues, it is noteworthy that the MDGs fail to fully incorporate the youth aspect onto their agenda. This is regrettable considering that many of the goals developed have a direct link to young people. For example, it is often young mothers in poverty who suffer from bad health conditions; in countries with high HIV prevalence rates, young people and especially
young women are at particular risk of contracting the virus as soon as they become sexually active. Thus, even if many of the goals relate directly to young people, they are still not dealt with explicitly and are in fact rarely mentioned. Linking young people to the goals One month after the Millennium Review Summit (September 2005), the ten year evaluation of the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) in the UN General Assembly took place . This should have proved ample opportunity to make a linkage between the MDGs and WPAY; but unfortunately, this opportunity was not seized and the fact remains that young people are still not given an explicit focus in the MDGs. Why is it important to Youth? Of the 1.2 billion young people in the world today, over 500 million live in poverty and over 200 million are living in extreme poverty; 130 million are illiterate; 88 million are unemployed; and 10 million are living with HIV/AIDS. Indeed, in exploring ways to deal with such issues, the compatibility of the MDGs and the WPAY is clear: young people should be recognised as an ‘untapped resource for development and peace’, and as having a crucial role to play in achieving the MDGs! What can you do? Youth organisations all over the world are already working on the implementation of the MDGs. They are running development projects,
doing advocacy work, as well as raising awareness on the Goals. There are plenty of activities your organisation could undertake to contribute to the achievement of the Goals. It could be everything from a small action taking 5 minutes of your time, to running a larger project together with other persons and organisations. Examples: Gather a few organisations to write a common report or statement and use it to get media attention. This could also be used to organise a hearing with parliamentarians or to petition ministers on specific issues related to the MDGs. Produce promotional materials, or convene meetings in partnership with other organisations,to help pressure for change. Get attention from both policy-makers and the media by organising demonstrations or rallies. For example you could rally in front of a Government Ministry or Parliament building, wrapping yourself in a white-band or distributing reminder cards noting how many days are left till 2015, and asking what those in power will do today to achieve the MDGs; and also if they have thought about linking them to the WPAY. An easy way to show policy-makers that people care about the issues involved and to raise awareness is simply to call or write to ask them what they are doing to fulfill the MDGs. If you have a little bit more time, you could form a group to do this regularly and
see if different organisations could work together, for example, by organising an email campaign. There are many other ways of raising awareness about the MDGs: from designing training courses about them; to writing articles; going to schools to talk about them; or simply talking to your friends about the issues. Don’t forget to check what campaigns are already underway! Often you and your organisation could join an existing campaign. Last but not least, you could work for the achievement of the MDGs by running your own projects to contribute to the goals. You could, for example, check what funding possibilities are available in your country, try to find partners in other countries and run projects together. What Issues Can You Raise? The Millennium Development Goals cover a large number of issues. Exactly what you want to focus on is up to you. As we have seen, one issue that has not been overly emphasised is the youth aspect, and you could easily raise this with your government by asking them how youth has been dealt with in their national MDG-plan. For ‘developed countries’, the achievement of Goal 8 - for a global partnership - is perhaps the most important. For ‘developing countries’, one could focus more on the achievement of Goals 1-7.
Conclusions Agreeing on something is not always enough. Actions are also needed and they don’t happen by themselves. Pressure is needed to show that these issues are of interest to many people and to raise awareness. No one can achieve the MDGs by themselves, but if all contribute a bit, then we can get a lot closer. More information and contacts The UN Millennium Campaign has over 50 national campaigns on the MDGs. At their website (www.millenniumcampaign.org), there are a lot of resources on progress towards the Goals in different countries; and campaigns promoting the MDGs, etc. You could, for example, check out what youth events are happening at www.millenniumcampaign.org/youthcalendar. Another ongoing campaign is the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. Check out what is happening in your country at www.whiteband.org. You could also check the progress of MDGs in your country at http://www.undg.org http://www.undp.org/mdg/countryreports.htm l http://www.undp.org/mdg/trackingprogress.ht ml For further information on youth and issues related to MDGs you can go the
www.un.org/youth, where you will also find the World Youth Reports.