At DEP's our mission includes enabling people to recognise the links between North and South in their own lives and to achieve a more just and sustainable world in their schools and communities. Therefore our work aligns itself with the targets of the Millennium Development Goals.
The eight Millennium Development Goals were implemented in 2000 at the Millennium Summit from the Millennium Declaration. All present world leaders agreed that in order to improve social and economic development in developing countries, goals had to be set to work towards a more equal world order. These goals were,
- 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- 2. Achieve universal primary education
- 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
- 4. Reduce child mortality rate
- 5. Improve maternal health
- 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- 7. Ensure environmental sustainability
- 8. Develop a global partnership for development
(Watch this film to gain a better idea of the ideas behind the MDGs).
These eight goals provide targets that DEP projects work towards achieving. DEP coordinates projects and training that work to promote the MDGs through education.
On September 27th 2010 world leaders met in New York to evaluate the progress of the MDGs and continue to push the goals forward (click here for a summary chart of the MDGs progress).
The European Commission stated "Some significant progress, but insufficient and highly uneven"(1). Over the last two decades, the world has made strong and sustained progress in reducing extreme poverty as well as on other goals such as universal primary education, gender equality in primary education, and access to water. However, recent analyses and reports from the UN and the World Bank, together with the EU's own analysis, show that progress has been highly uneven among regions, countries and population groups, and that we are still off-track at global level on several targets such as maternal mortality, child mortality and access to sanitation. Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is off-track on all MDG targets (2).
"To achieve the MDGs the effort needs to be truly global, encompassing a comprehensive, whole-of-country approach, including actions not only from all governments, but also from the private sector, foundations, non-governmental organizations and civil society" (3).
Such a statement clarifies the focus and reasoning behind DEP's work and how your involvement with DEP can help the world achieve the MDGs.
To find out more about the MDGs and the recent UN summit click here.
Resources to support the issues surrounding the eight goals are available in our bookshop.
To further understand the MDGs progress and how you can contribute to them the UN have released a good practise publication which provides case studies on how to achieve the MDGs. This publication may prove useful to give you concrete evidence of the success of the MDGs rather than them being unachievable goals.
Click on the following subjects to gain access to that particular good practise chapter of the United Nations Development Group's 'MDG Good Practices' publication.
Poverty, employment and hunger.
Education and gender equality.
Child mortality, maternal health and combating diseases.
Resources
Tackling Child Labour - A key progress on the Millenuium Development Goals
(1) (European Commission Staff Working Document, "Progress made on the Millennium Development Goals and key challenges for the road ahead", April 2010).
(2) (Millennium Development Goals and the September 2010 UN review summit. June 2010. Ian Townsend).
(3) (G8 Muskoka Declaration Recovery and New Beginnings", G8 25-26 June 2010).