MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day
• Every day, 800 million people go to bed hungry
• Every day, 28,000 children die from poverty-related causes
MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
• 115 million children are not in school—56 percent of them are girls and 94 percent of them live in developing countries
• 133 million young people cannot read or write
• Only 37 of 155 developing countries have achieved universal primary
school completion
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
• Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are female
• The employment rate for women is 30% lower than the rate for men
• Women only held 15% of seats in national parliaments in 2003
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
• 48 countries had mortality rates greater than 1 in 10 childbirths, compared to 1 in 143 in developed countries
• Among the childhood vaccine-preventable diseases, measles is the leading cause of child mortality, with over half a million deaths in 2000
• 70% of deaths before age five are caused by disease, or a combination of disease and malnutrition, that would be preventable in developed countries
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
• More than 500,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and child birth every year
• 99 percent of maternal deaths from childbirth occur in the developing world
• Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for girls ages 15-19 in developing countries
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• 4.8 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2003; that’s 13,000 a day!
• Malaria causes more than one million deaths each year
• There were two million deaths from tuberculosis in 2002
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• 2 million children die every year from infections spread by dirty water or the lack of toilets
• 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities
• The collapse of fisheries around the world threatens to increase hunger and poverty among poor coastal communities throughout the developing world
MDG 8: Create a global partnership for development
• Europe’s cows receive $2 a day in subsidies, more than the income of half the world’s population
• Developed countries pledged to give 0.7% of their national income in aid. Only 5 countries are living up to the commitment; the USA is giving less then 0.2%
• It is estimated that were developed countries to break down trade barriers, this could help lift 300 million people out of poverty by 2015
The information in this section comes from the Millennium Campaign’s Youth MDG Campaign Kit.
