The MDG initiative
At the Millennium Summit in 2000, the UN agreed to adopt a list of eight goals of international development that should be achieved by 2015 in order to reduce extreme poverty. Meeting these Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is one of the main objectives of EU development policy, as most recently reflected in the EU's "Agenda for Change", a new communication to refocus EU's aid on fewer sectors and those countries most in need.
While evidence shows that global progress over the past ten years has been relatively good for the goals on poverty, HIV/AIDS, malaria, education and gender, many countries are still off-track on some MDGs and regional trends indicate that Sub-Saharan African countries in particular lag much behind other regions.
In September 2010, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, announced at the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, that the EU would offer an MDG initiative of €1billion to foster progress towards the MDGs. The MDG initiative has been designed around two components, a need-based one, targeting the most off-track MDGs, and a performance-based one, focusing on countries that have shown good performance in implementing aid.
Through the first component, adopted today, the European Union is allocating €700 million to proposals by those countries which aim at accelerating progress on the most off-track MDGs: eradicating hunger, improving maternal health, curbing child mortality and improving access to water and sanitation. All selected proposals are results-oriented, with clear and measurable indicators to demonstrate the benefits of additional funding.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/930
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Millennium Development Goals:
EU gives additional support to 36 countries for tackling major
development challenges
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