What were the Millennium Development Goals and what specific targets did they set for poverty and disease?

Think of the MDGs as a global scorecard. World leaders came together at the UN in New York to adopt the Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets with a deadline of 2015. Eight goals and 18 targets provided a concrete framework for tackling poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, communicable disease, education, gender inequality, environmental damage and the global partnership for development.

The eight goals

The eight goals covered: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and ensuring environmental sustainability. An eighth goal covered building a global partnership for development.

What the poverty and disease targets actually said

On poverty and hunger: MDG 1 had three targets: halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income was less than one dollar a day; achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all; and halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

On child mortality: MDG 4 targeted a two-thirds reduction in the global under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2015.

On maternal health: MDG 5 included two targets, the first being a three-quarters reduction in the maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2015.

On disease: MDG 6 had three targets: to halt by 2015 and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS; to achieve global access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for those who need it by 2010; and to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases by 2015.

What actually happened by 2015

The record was uneven but real. In 1990, nearly 50 percent of the population in developing nations lived on less than $1.25 a day; by 2015, that proportion had dropped to 14 percent. The MDG target of halting and beginning to reverse the incidence of malaria was already met. The annual global number of new cases of tuberculosis had been slowly falling for a decade, achieving the target to reverse the spread of the disease. On child and maternal mortality, the numbers moved in the right direction but fell short of the specific fractions the goals had demanded.

Following the expiration of the MDGs in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced, expanding the focus to encompass environmental concerns and social equity, with a broader framework applicable to all countries until 2030. Sachs, as President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, moved with that transition and has been a leading architect of the SDG Advocate framework ever since.