Photo by Orlando Ducay Jr., World Vision
This year will mark the end of a major milestone in the fight to end extreme poverty; the expiry of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, declared that the Millennium Development Goals produced the most successful anti-poverty movement in history. Here’s why.
15 years of the world’s collaborative efforts to end poverty have seen the Millennium Development Goals save the lives of millions of children and their families and improve the lives of billions more.
Since 1990:
Carrying on the torch of the Millennium Development Goals are the new Sustainable Development Goals or ‘Global Goals’ which will be officially signed off at the United Nations General Assembly in September. The Global Goals don’t replace the Millennium Development Goals; rather they build upon them.
So what can we expect from these successor goals and how are they different from the Millennium Development Goals?
What will World Vision focus on?
The recent MDG report gives an encouraging story of how far we’ve come, but also reminds us how much work remains if we are to reach all of the world’s most vulnerable people.
World Vision will focus on ensuring that the new Global Goals reach the most vulnerable children. This means addressing hunger, malnutrition, preventable child deaths and violence. It’s also about reaching children in hardest places to live as it’s children living in war, fragility and instability that have largely missed out on the benefits the Millennium Development Goals have brought.
World Vision believes it is possible to end extreme poverty by 2030 if world leaders deliver truly ambitious goals focused on the most vulnerable children in the hardest places to live. And, if governments like Australia, do all they can to support these goals.
The Millennium Development Goals made us focus on poverty reduction in a way we’ve never seen before. However, we must take the lessons we’ve learnt over the past 15 years and stop at nothing to ensure the new Global Goals reach the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children in the hardest to reach places – children like Ana. Millions of lives depend on it.