In September 2000, 189 member states adopted the historic Millennium Declaration at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York. Distilled from the Declaration as well as the development goals agreed on at international conferences and world summits during the 1990s, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been formulated as a set of measurable and time-bound targets that the international community should work on to achieve human development and eradicate poverty. Ranging from poverty eradication, universal primary education to gender empowerment, environmental sustainability and global partnership, the MDGs consist of eight ambitious, but achievable, development goals with 18 targets and 48 indicators.
In order to help achieve the MDGs, the United Nations launched, in July 2002, its core strategy consisting of four pillar activities: (1) research through the Millennium Project; (2) monitoring through the Millennium Development Goal Reports; (3) advocacy through the Millennium Campaign; and (4) implementation through the integration of the MDGs into the UN system's work at the country level.
In light of the above, the objective of this paper is to discuss the latest efforts and developments of the international community to achieve the MDG, drawing on the major findings of the UNDP Human Development Report 2003. It will also briefly touch upon the opportunities and challenges for agricultural development in the context of global developments to promote the MDGs.