Un Millennium development goals - Analysis and observation using Gapminder

Not many people are aware of the UN's humanitarian work. The image of the UN is most often that of the general assembly or Security Council unable to make progress or act on various global issues.

Even less are aware the UN has set explicit millennium development goals.

I've stumbled upon a very interesting tool available on the UN MDG (Millennium development goals) site. It's called Gapminder and it clearly visualizes the MDG over time, geography and income levels for each primary and secondary goals. It is a most important tool to learn of the world we are living in. For Gapminder follow this link.

The UN's millennium development goals are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
a. Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day
b. Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education - Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

3. Promote gender equality and empower women - Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

4. Reduce child mortality - Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

5. Improve maternal health - Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
a. Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
b. Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

7. Ensure environmental sustainability
a. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources
b. Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
c. Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

8. Develop a global partnership for development

The UN works towards these goals mainly through the organization's agencies such as: UNRA, UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, FAO, WFP and many more.