What are the Millennium Development Goals?  

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges. The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration  that was adopted by 189 nations-and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit  in September 2000. We Can End Poverty - UN Summit on MDGs took place in New York 20-22 September 2010.The 8 MDGs break down into quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators. Below is the status at a glance in Mozambique, 2008:

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger  
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education  
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women  
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality  
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health  
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases  
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability  
• Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development  

The MDGs are :

• synthesise, in a single package, many of the most important commitments made separately at the international conferences and summits of the 1990s;
• recognise explicitly the interdependence between growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development;
• acknowledge that development rests on the foundations of democratic governance, the rule of law, respect for human rights and peace and security;
• are based on time-bound and measurable targets accompanied by indicators for monitoring progress; and bring together, in the eighth Goal, the responsibilities of developing countries with those of developed countries, founded on a global partnership endorsed at the various internnational conferences and summits. 

United Nations Core Strategy on MDGs  is focused on the following:  

• Campaigning & mobilisation: Supporting advocacy for the MDGs and working with partners to mobilise the commitments and capabilities of broad segments of society to build awareness on the MDGs;
• Analysis: Researching and sharingbest strategies for meeting the MDGs in terms of innovative practices, policy and institutional reforms, means of policy implementation, and evaluation of financing options;
• Monitoring: Helping countries report advancement towards the MDGs and  track progress;
• Operational activities: Goal-driven assistance to support governments to tailor MDGs to local circumstances and challenges;  address key constraints to progress on the MDGs.

Contact person at UNDP Mozambique:  Thomas Kring - Economic AdvisorEmail: thomas.kring@undp.org