The Eight Millennium Goals

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A Spanish U.N. peacekeeper plays with Lebanese girls near a church after Easter service in Marjayoun, south Lebanon. (Photo: Ali Hashisho/Reuters)

May 2007

In the year 2000, the United Nations developed the Millennium Goals. These goals were started with the intent that they would be achieved by the year 2015.

There are eight Millennium Goals:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
The UN wants to cut the number of people in extreme poverty in half. These people live on less than $1 a day! They also want to cut in half the number of people who suffer from hunger.

2. Achieve universal primary education.
The UN wants kids all around the world to be able to go to school. (In the United States, primary education means elementary school.)

3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
In a number of places in the world, young girls aren't able to go to school. Because of this, it is much harder for them to obtain jobs and to become leaders.

4. Reduce child mortality.
Many countries lack resources for basic needs like health care. Since young children are more fragile, the death rate for children can be higher in these areas. The UN hopes to reduce these rates by 75 percent.

5. Improve maternal heath.
The UN wants to save mothers’ lives, especially during childbirth. To do this, many poor countries need better health care and aid.

6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases.
This goal includes stopping the spread of major diseases and hopefully reversing the effects.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
Sustainability means that something can last a long time. The UN wants to make sure that environment will be able to do just that. The organization wants to aid countries that have environmentally friendly policies and programs. This includes creating ways to distribute safe drinking water without draining the environment. They also want to stop the loss of environmental resources like oil.

8. Develop a global partnership for development
The UN wants healthy countries to partner with undeveloped countries—especially ones that are landlocked, or surrounded by land, and countries on tiny islands.

As you can see some of these goals can be achieved if all the nations work together. So far, the UN has made some progress, but there is still a lot to be done.

Tiffany Chaparro is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.

Michael Carboni is a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.

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