Editing Millennium Development Goals (section)

== Background ==
=== Origins ===
Following the end of the Cold War, a series of UN‑led conferences in the 1990s had focused on issues such as children, nutrition, human rights and women, producing commitments for combined international action on those matters. The 1995 World Summit on Social Development produced a ''Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development'' with a long and complex list of commitments by global leaders, including many adapted from the outcomes of previous conferences.<ref>{{Cite web|date=14 March 1995 |title=Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development Annex I |url=https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_CONF.166_9_Declaration.pdf|access-date=2021-04-25|website=United Nations}}</ref> But international aid levels were falling and, in that same year, the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD set up a reflection process to review the future of development aid.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Hulme|first=David|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1099885941|title=The Political Economy of the MDGs : Retrospect and Prospect for the World's Biggest Promise|date=January 2010|first2=James |last2=Scott |publisher=University of Manchester. Brooks World Poverty Institute|isbn=978-1-907247-09-5|location=Manchester|pages=3–5|oclc=1099885941}}</ref> The resulting 1996 report, "Shaping the 21st Century", turned some of the Copenhagen commitments into six monitorable "International Development Goals", which had similar content and form to the eventual MDGs: halving poverty by 2015; universal primary education by 2015; eliminating gender disparity in schools by 2005; reductions in infant, child and maternal mortality by 2015, universal access to reproductive health services by 2015 and adequate national strategies for [[sustainable development]] in place everywhere by 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 1996|title=Shaping the 21st century: The contribution of development co-operation|url=https://www.oecd.org/dac/2508761.pdf|access-date=2021-04-26|website=OECD}}</ref>

In late 1997, the UN General Assembly envisaged a special Millennium Assembly and forum as a focus for efforts to reform the UN system.<ref>{{Cite web|last=UN General Assembly|date=1998-01-09|title=Renewing the United Nations: a programme for reform (Resolution 52/12 B of 19 December 1997)|url=http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/UNGA/1997/288.pdf|access-date=2021-04-26|website=World Legal Information Institute}}</ref> A year later, it specifically resolved to hold not only the Millennium Assembly but also a Millennium Summit, and mandated the Secretary-General, [[Kofi Annan]], to come up with proposals for "a number of forward-looking and widely relevant topics", thus opening the possibility of going beyond the institutional questions of UN reform.<ref>{{Cite web|date=12 February 1999|title=The Millennium Assembly of the United Nations (Resolution 53/202 of 17 December 1998)|url=https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/53/202|access-date=2021-04-26|website=United Nations}}</ref> Annan's report, when published in April 2000 under the title "We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century", framed the questions of UN reform within the larger challenges facing the world, the chief of which was identified as "to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world's people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor".<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Annan|first=Kofi A.|title=We the peoples: The role of the United Nations in the 21st century|newspaper=United Nations |url=https://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/We_The_Peoples.pdf|access-date=2021-04-26}}</ref> In the report Annan urged the forthcoming Millennium Summit to adopt certain key goals and objectives on many of the issues raised in the Copenhagen summit, other conferences of the 1990s, and the recently published [[Report of the Panel on United Nations Peacekeeping|Brahimi Report]] on international peace and security.<ref name=":1" />

The Millennium Summit and the General Assembly in September 2000 issued a [[United Nations Millennium Declaration|Millennium Declaration]] echoing the agenda that Annan had set out.<ref>{{Cite web|last=UN General Assembly|date=2000-09-18|title=United Nations Millennium Declaration (Resolution 52/2 of 8 September 2000)|url=https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_55_2.pdf|access-date=2021-04-26|website=United Nations}}</ref> This declaration did not specifically mention "Millennium Development Goals", but it does contain the substance – and much of the same wording – as the eventual goals. A process of selecting and refining the Goals from the content of the Declaration continued for some time. A crucial moment here was unification between discussions under the auspices of the United Nations and approaches being followed by the OECD based on "Shaping the 21st Century"; this unification was agreed at a meeting convened by the World Bank in March 2001.<ref name=":0" /> In September 2001, Annan presented to the General Assembly a "Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration" which did contain a section specifically about "the Millennium Development Goals", enunciating some of them in their eventual wording, and indicating the remaining issues in formulating a definitive set.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2001-09-06|title=Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration: Report of the Secretary-General|url=https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/448375?ln=en|access-date=2021-04-27|website=United Nations|last1=Secretary-General |first1=Un }}</ref>

===Human capital, infrastructure and human rights===
The MDGs emphasized three areas: [[human capital]], [[infrastructure]] and human rights ([[economic, social and cultural rights|social, economic]] and [[civil and political rights|political]]), with the intent of increasing living standards.<ref>"The Millennium Development Goals Report"</ref> Human capital objectives include nutrition, healthcare (including [[child mortality]], [[HIV/AIDS]], [[tuberculosis]] and [[malaria]], and [[reproductive health]]) and education. Infrastructure objectives include access to safe drinking water, energy and modern information/communication technology; increased farm outputs using sustainable practices; transportation; and environment. Human rights objectives include empowering women, reducing violence, increasing political voice, ensuring equal access to public services and increasing security of property rights. The goals were intended to increase an individual's [[capability approach|human capabilities]] and "advance the means to a productive life". The MDGs emphasize that each nation's policies should be tailored to that country's needs; therefore most policy suggestions are general.