Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight objectives for the social development of the Global South. Their source is the eight chapters of the Millennium Declaration signed by the leaders of 189 member states during the 55th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 8, 2000. The document gave a universal sanction to a new understanding of development and created the most comprehensive and ambitious agreement in the domain of international development so far. The key driver for the MDGs was recognition that, although individual freedom matters, people are restricted in what they can do with that freedom if they are poor, ill, illiterate, discriminated against, or threatened by [Page 1041]violent conflict. The commitments undertaken in the declaration became the guidelines for shaping ...