Development and Poverty Reduction
More than one billion people in the world – almost one in five – have to live on less than 1.25 US dollars per day. Every day thousands of young children die of hunger and illnesses, through violence and wars. Poverty leads to resource allocation conflicts and displacement of refugees, creates fertile ground for organized crime and extremism and threatens the stability and security of entire regions. No state can, on its own, overcome these and the many other burning issues of the present.
The promotion of social progress and an improved standard of living in freedom has been among the core challenges of the United Nations since its founding in 1945. The United Nations is central to all efforts to improve the living conditions of people worldwide.
With the Millennium Declaration, adopted in 2000 at the Millennium Summit, the heads of state and government of 189 Member States of the United Nations laid the groundwork for the international development policy of the 21st century. On this basis, eight so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were defined, which the international community of states used to set itself clear objectives for the year 2015:
MDG 1: Halve extreme poverty and hunger
MDG 2: Enable basic education for all children
MDG 3: Promote gender equity
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
MDG 5: Reduce maternal mortality
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other communicable diseases
MDG 7: Improve environmental protection
MDG 8: Build a global partnership for development
Germany expressly supports these goals, most recently affirmed at the MDG Summit 2010. In recent years, the budget for development cooperation was nearly doubled. This makes Germany one of the three largest bilateral donors in the world.
Development cooperation is meant to give people the freedom to shape their own lives in self-determination and of their own authority, without material want. In this sense, Germany wants to use its development policy to contribute to making globalization an opportunity for all people. German development cooperation is focused above all on the sectors of education, health, rural development, good governance and sustainable economic development. Of particular significance are respect for, protection of and ensuring of human rights. Moreover, Germany advocates for the increased efficacy of development cooperation and supports the reform of the development cooperation of the United Nations as well as the organization for women and equity, “UN Women,” established in 2010, which combines the four organizations (UNIFEM, INSTRAW, OSAGI, DAW) that had previously been working in this field.
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For more please read "Millennium Development Goals Report 2012":
