Millennium Development Goals the final countdown!

The Millenium Development goals are a set of 8 International  goals, each containing a range of SMART targets, aimed at alleviating poverty and improving developmental equality. The goals were agreed by all UN member states (189 countries) and by 23 International organisations including the World Bank, the G8 and the IMF who worked together to cancel $55 billion debt from the HIPC's (Heavilty indebted poor countries) as a step towards helping them to achieve the goals.

By 2013, progress towards the goals was as expected, uneven. Varied progress can be explained by a multitude of reasons - funding, conflict and government support being just some of these.

These goals have been talked about in geography classes all over the world for the past 15 years and are very important for your IB exams as they are a recurring theme that features in all three of your exam papers. So why am I talking about these again now?

Because it is 2015! The deadline year for the Millenium Development goals to be met. Which means several things:

1) It is quite likely that there will be a question on this on your exam.
2) The UNDP will meet again this year to discuss the progress of the goals and to set crucial next steps.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK have just released a fantastic article which focuses on three of the MDG's and looks at whether or not progress has been made - exceptional case study material for your exams. The article can be found here.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/series/millennium-development-goals-the-final-countdown