Call to Action on the MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals

At the start of the new millennium, world leaders gathered at the UN to make a promise: that we would do everything within our power to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

Agreed at this summit were the Millennium Development Goals - a set of clear and measurable targets on a range of vitally important issues such as increasing the number of children in school, improving healthcare, cutting maternal and child deaths, combating major diseases and stopping environmental degradation.

All of these make a huge difference to the quality of people’s lives. And, since 2000, we have already seen big changes: there are now 41 million more children in school, 3 million more children are surviving childhood each year, and 2 million more people are receiving treatment for AIDS.

But, halfway to 2015, and in the year of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we now need to ensure that the promises of the international community do not become mere aspirations.

In 2008 we face a development emergency which we cannot ignore. We must face it together.

2008: A critical year for progress

Image courtesy of Andy Mettler/World Economic Forum

In his first speech to the UN in July 2007, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking alongside the UN Secretary-General, launched an international campaign – the Call to Action – to accelerate progress on the MDGs. He called on world leaders, the private sector and civil society to join this effort.

Over 50 countries, representing over two-thirds of the world’s population and 86% of the world’s economy, have already signed up. Business, NGOs, faith groups, cities and professional groups have done the same.

Read the Joint Declarations by the heads of state and private sector leaders.

In January the UN Secretary-General labelled 2008 a "critical year for progress" on the MDGs. Call to Action supporters have sought to push forward the need for accelerated action at every possible opportunity in 2008, including through the G8 and European Union.

In May the UK and United Nations Development Programme co-hosted the Business Call to Action. This event brought together business leaders from around the world to showcase business initiatives to support growth in poor countries.

At the European Union's June Council, EU heads of state welcomed the Agenda for Action on the MDGs. The Agenda for Action set out how EU member states intend to keep their commitments and deliver their 2005 aid pledges. The Agenda includes milestones on health, education and water, and the EU’s contribution to these up to 2010.

The G8 Summit in Japan in July saw the G8 reaffirm their promises on official development assistance (ODA) made in 2005 in Gleneagles. The G8 also made specific commitments on climate change, food security, malaria and increasing the number of health workers in Africa.

On 24 July faith groups showed their commitment at a rally in London. Spearheaded by the Church of England's most senior figure, the Archbishop of Canterbury, more than 1,400 robed bishops and other faith leaders from all over the world walked through the streets of London to call on global leaders to deliver the MDGs. The "Walk of Witness" ended at Lambeth Palace, where Gordon Brown spoke of the need for all faiths to work together to eradicate poverty.

On 2-4 September the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness was held in Accra, Ghana. The Accra Agenda for Action, agreed in September 2008, emphasises the importance of countries taking ownership of their own development. To achieve this, partner countries and donors agreed to improve the way they communicate with each other and make greater use of partner countries' own systems.

On 25 September the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, hosted an historic event in New York aimed at accelerating global progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The event, attended by representatives of over 140 countries plus business, faith and charity leaders and celebrities, was part of a week of action at the UN. During the week over 40 partnership events took place, involving an unprecedented range of stakeholders.

The Secretary-General announced that $16 billion had been pledged at the event, including $4.5 billion for education and $3 billion for malaria. And to keep track of progress an MDGs Review Summit was called for, to be held in 2010.

• Read Secretary of State Douglas Alexander's New York diary
• Read more about what was achieved and see some of the highlights from the week

Also, find out more on the UN website about the meeting, in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's online newsroom and on the 10 Downing Street website.

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Next Steps: The next major international meeting will be in Doha, where the international community will come together to review progress on "Financing for Development". This meeting must reinforce promises and explore the impact of emerging development issues such as food security. Going forward, we must continue to improve international tracking of analysis of the MDGs and ensure that the commitments made at the UN High Level Event are delivered. In order to maintain efforts to achieve the MDGs by 2015 we intend to support the proposal of the President of the General Assembly (PGA) and the Secretary-General for a 2010 MDG Review Summit.