Millennium Development Goals

 

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were developed as a roadmap for the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. Based on the values and principles agreed upon by Member States in the 2010 Millennium Summit, the MDGs have served as a global framework for collective action to reduce poverty and improve the lives of poor people. Across eight clear goals, the MDGs include 21 time bound targets to measure progress in poverty reduction and hunger as well as improvements in health, education, living conditions, environmental sustainability  and gender equality.

Significant progress has been made across all goals and millions of lives have been improved due to concerted global, regional, national and local efforts. Yet, much more is needed in many areas. Continued progress towards the MDGs in the remaining time is essential in order to provide a solid foundation for the post-2015 development agenda. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs is actively involved in measuring progress towards the MDGs and assists in monitoring and accountability.

MDG Report

The Statistics Division of UN DESA coordinates the inter-agency group on MDG indicators (IAEG) that prepares and publishes the annual MDG Report. As the principal MDG monitoring report prepared by the United Nations System, it presents the annual assessment of progress, drawing on the most updated data on the official MDG indicators. It is the most authoritative and comprehensive monitoring report, based on official data provided by national governments to the international statistical system.

Millennium Indicators

Within UN DESA the Statistics Division coordinates the preparation of data analysis to assess progress made towards the MDGs. The Division also maintains the MDG Indicators database containing the data series related to the selected indicators, as well as other background series intended to supplement the official indicators.

MDG Gap Task Force

The Secretary-General created the MDG Gap Task Force to track progress towards MDG 8, the global partnership for development.  The main purpose of the Task Force is to systematically track existing international commitments and their fulfillment at the international and country level in the areas of official development assistance, market access (trade), debt relief, access to essential medicines and new technologies. The Task Force is co-chaired by UN DESA and UNDP, and publishes  the MDG Gap Task Force Report annually.

Integrated Implementation Framework (IIF)

The Integrated Implementation Framework (IIF), proposed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, is a publicly available inter-active web portal that provides an overview of all international commitments made in direct support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) since 2000. The IIF serves as a one-stop shop to monitor and track financial and policy commitments made by UN Member States, UN agencies and other multilateral organizations, the private sector, civil society and other international stakeholders towards meeting the MDGs.The IIF web portal was launched in June 2012 and is available at http://iif.un.org

MDGs in the United Nations System

United Nations Millennium Development Goals web site serves as the gateway to the United Nations System’s work on the MDGs. The web site provides insight information on the MDG Targets and Indicators, official reports, statements and statistical information related to the MDGs, and links to information on the progress of various Departments and Programmes within the United Nations System.