1. These statistics are from The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012.

3. a blueprint for a better world. The plan sets 8 life-changing goals
In the millennium year, 189 United Nations member states, including Australia, gathered together aiming to halve world poverty by 2015.
So our world leaders came up with a plan;
a blueprint for a better world.
The plan sets 8 life-changing goals
to bring about freedom from poverty
for some of the world's poorest people.
These goals are the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

4. Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs)

5. Goal 1
This is MDG 1. Within each MDG there are specific targets to help reach the Goal. These targets are monitored in each country so that progress can be measured year by year.

6. Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day
This is one of the targets of MDG1. Progress towards the targets can be found in the MDG Report which is published each year. These statistics are from The Millennium Development Goals Report Extreme poverty is also known as ‘abject’ or ‘absolute’ poverty. It is defined as people living on less than US$1.25/day. People who live on more than $1.25 / day can still be living in poverty. The World Bank defines ‘general’ poverty as living on less than $2/day.
*While a baseline measurement is important, we acknowledge that such a definition of poverty in relation to income does not take into account the social, cultural, spiritual and other needs of individuals and communities.

7. live in extreme poverty
1.3 billion people
live in extreme poverty

8. Progress

9. Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
This is another target of MDG1.
It is important to note that the cause of hunger is not an inability to produce enough food for all, but the many other issues related to food security such as distribution, consumption, transport and sustainability.
Measuring hunger:
Proportion of the population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption is the percentage of the population whose food intake falls below the minimum level of dietary energy requirements. This is also referred to as the prevalence of under-nourishment, which is the percentage of the population that is undernourished.
Source:

10. 850 million people
hunger
suffer from

11. Goal 2
This is MDG2.
Ask students: Why is education important in tackling poverty?

12. Ensure that, by 2015, all children can complete primary school.
A report in 2005 found that 100 million children were out of school. In the 2012 MDG report, this number had dropped to 61 million. This means that progress is being made.
Measuring access to education.
DEFINITION
Net primary enrolment ratio is the ratio of the number of children of official school age (as defined by the national education system) who are enrolled in primary school to the total population of children of official school age. Primary education provides children with basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills along with an elementary understanding of such subjects as history, geography, natural science, social science, art and music. Source:

13. children of primary school age
61 million
children of primary school age
are denied the right
to an education

14. Progress

15. Goal 3
This is MDG3.

16. Ensure girls have the same access as boys to schooling
This is a target for MDG3.
Ask students what they think will need to be measured in order to check whether or not the target is being achieved?
The “indicators” being used by the UN are:
Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education in each country
Ratio of literate women to men, years old
Share of women in waged employment in the non-agricultural sector
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

17. More girls than boys miss out on school
Ask students why they think this is so.
Often girls are expected to help in the home doing jobs like fetching water or looking after younger siblings. Boys can be seen by their parents as the ones who will need to become bread-winners and therefore benefit more from an education. In some places, it is not safe for girls to walk alone to school, eg. there is a high danger of rape in DRC.

18. Progress
Note the lack of progress for Oceania.

19. Equality for women in employment
Ask students what might help women to have equality in employment.

20. 70% of the world’s poor are women and girls
Ask students why they think this is and whether this is fair. Is it related to the education goal, MDG2?

21. Goal 4
This is MDG 4.
Ask students to explain why small children need protection in particular.
Children are particularly prone to illnesses such as measles and may not have the strength to fight the disease.

22. Reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate
The under-five mortality rate is the probability (expressed as a rate per 1,000 live births) of a child born in a specified year dying before reaching the age of five if subject to current age-specific mortality rates.
Source:

23. 7.6 million children die before their 5th birthday
This is over 20,000 every day.

24. Progress
Note that while the Oceania region is progressing a little slower, they are still ahead of the average developing regions rate.

25. Goal 5
This is MDG5.

26. Reduce by three-quarters the proportion of women dying in childbirth
Each year, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation are recording the number of women who die in childbirth and the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel, to check whether progress is being made towards MDG5. Progress is being made: in the developing regions, the number of women dying in childbirth dropped by 34% between 1990 and 2008.
Maternal mortality ratio:
DEFINITION
The maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, per 100,000 live births.
Such deaths are affected by various factors, including general health status, education and services during pregnancy and childbirth.
Source:

27. from childbirth or pregnancy related causes
32 women die
every hour
from childbirth or pregnancy related causes

28. Progress
Note that it is unlikely that this goal will be met.

29. Goal 6

30. Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015
Ask students how HIV/AIDS affects people. Check that they understand that HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system and that, with proper medication, AIDS may not develop for many years. AIDS is a development issue because most of those affected by AIDS are in developing countries (eg. 68% of those living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa) and often cannot access treatment. People weakened by AIDS cannot work. This impacts on their country’s economy, and can make it impossible to send their children to school, thus further damaging the economy.

31. were infected with HIV in 2010
2.7 million people
were infected with HIV in 2010

32. Progress
New HIV infections has stabalised around 2.7 million per year.

33. Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases like tuberculosis
From the introduction of the MDGs in 2000 until 2009, deaths from malaria reduced by an estimated 33 per cent—from nearly 985,000 to 655,000. Some of the steps that have helped towards this target are: long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets; new therapies combining medications; reduction of bottlenecks in the production, procurement and distribution of medicines.

34. A child under the age of 5 dies
every minute
from malaria

35. Goal 7

36. Halve the proportion of people without access to improved water and sanitation
This is one target that the world is far from meeting. At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2049 to provide 77 per cent of the global population with flush toilets and other forms of improved sanitation.
(Source: MDG Report 2011)
Water:
Access to improved water source refer to the percentage of the population who use any of the following types of water supply for drinking: piped water, public tap, borehole or pump, protected well, protected spring or rainwater. Improved water sources do not include vendor-provided water, bottled water, tanker trucks or unprotected wells and springs.
Access to safe water refers to the percentage of the population with reasonable access to an adequate supply of safe water in their dwelling or within a convenient distance of their dwelling. The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report defines reasonable access as “the availability of 20 litres per capita per day at a distance no longer than 1,000 metres”.
Sanitation:
Access to improved sanitation refers to the percentage of the population with access to facilities that hygienically separate human excreta from human, animal and insect contact. Facilities such as sewers or septic tanks, poor-flush latrines and simple pit or ventilated improved pit latrines are assumed to be adequate, provided that they are not public, according to the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund’s Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report. To be effective, facilities must be correctly constructed and properly maintained. Source:

37. 783 million people
don’t have access to
clean drinking water

38. Progress
Oceania is the region most off-track with this goal.

39. 2.5 billion people don’t have access to improved sanitation
1.1 billion people have no sanitation facilities at all.
Ask students what they would do if they had no access to a toilet. Probably use a field, or a plastic bag. Ask them to image 1.1 billion people doing the same, then to imagine the consequent impact on hygiene and health.

40. Progress

41. Reverse the loss of biodiversity and environmental resources
In Asia, overall, things are improving, mostly because of large-scale afforestation programmes in China, India and Vietnam. But forests continue to disappear rapidly in Africa and Latin America.
Ask students why forests are important (not only for timber, but to produce oxygen and absorb carbon).

42. Forests are lost at the rate of 13 million hectares per year
(roughly the land area of Bangladesh)

43. Goal 8
Goal 8 is concerned with the partnership that will need to exist between countries across the globe if the MDGs are to be achieved. For example, one of the main causes of poverty in developing countries is unfair international trade rules.

44. Develop a trading and financial system that is fair
Go to to find out about tax havens which allow big businesses to dodge the taxes that developing countries are due – just one aspect of international financial systems that needs to be reformed.

45. Reduce the burden of debt
Thanks to campaigners, large amounts of debt (US$110 billion so far) were cancelled following the G8 meeting in But the debt crisis is still with us. The poorest 128 countries have debts of US$3.7 trillion.
(Source: Jubilee Debt Campaign)
The picture shows Charity Musamba, former Coordinator of Jubilee Debt Zambia, speaking at a rally in 2007 to remind G8 leaders to keep their debt promises.

46. How much of Australia’s is needed to help achieve
Gross National Income
is needed to help achieve
the MDGs?
0.7%
In 1970, the UN made a commitment that every developed country would increase its aid to developing countries and “exert its best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.7 percent of its gross national product... by the middle of the decade”, (i.e. 1975).
Ask students to find out how much of its GNI Australia gives in aid to developing countries. Also to investigate how much other countries give and where Australia sits in the list of richest countries. What are their reactions?
(70c out of every $100)

47. John 10:10 says “I came that they might have life and have it to the full.” Poverty denies a large proportion of our sisters and bothers the opportunity to live life to the full. With our support, world leaders can make the MDGs work, for the sake of the poorest people in our world.

48. For an interactive, multi-media experience of the MDGs please visit:
Find out more!
For an interactive, multi-media experience of the MDGs please visit:
Last updated Mar 2013

49. Find out more about the MDGs, including stories and films, at:
Picture credits:
Maya Haviland
Cristiana Ximenes Belo
Phillip Gibbs
Sean Sprague
C. Lee
Cindy Godden
CAFOD
Find out more about the MDGs,
including stories and films, at:
Last updated Mar 2013