Millennium Development Goals
About the MDGs |
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What are the MDGs?
In September 2000, world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly in New York to take stock of the challenges to humanity in the new millennium. They noted the importance of establishing peace and security, and turning globalization into a positive force for the world's people. Sri Lanka is one of the 191 signatories to the Millennium Declaration, which emerged from the Summit .
News on MDGs
25 August 2009
Dr. Abeyratne, Senior Programme Analyst, discusses the advances in the Millennium Development Goals made by the country, some of the challenges that still remain and UNDP's role in promoting the goals in the coming months.
The Declaration captures the universal aspiration for peace, cooperation and development. It sets out, within a single framework, concrete goals and targets on development, governance, peace, security and human rights, and thereby consolidated international goals agreed in a series of conferences during the 1990s.
The international community developed eight, inter-related goals to reduce poverty in the millennium. These eight goals are known as the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs which essentially embody the agreed commitments made by Sri Lanka and other countries at a range of United Nations World Summits and global conferences throughout the 1990s.
The eight Millennium Development Goals
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See Also
Values in the Millennium Declaration
- Freedom - Men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their children in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression or injustice. Democratic and participatory governance based on the will of the people best assures these rights.
- Equality - No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to benefit from development. The equal rights of men and women must be assured.
- Solidarity - Global challenges must be managed in a way that distributes the costs and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles of equity and social justice. Those who suffer or benefit least deserve help from those who benefit most.
- Tolerance - Human beings must respect one another, in all their diversity of belief, culture and language. Differences within and between societies should be neither feared nor repressed but, cherished as a precious asset of humanity.
- Respect for nature - Prudence must be shown in the management of all living species and natural resources, in accordance with the precepts of sustainable development.
- Shared responsibility - Responsibility for managing worldwide economic and social development, as well as threats to international peace and security, must be shared among the nations of the world and should be exercised multilaterally. As the most universal and most representative organization in the world, the United Nations must play the central role.
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