Which of the following is one of the Millennium Development Goals fixed by the UNO ?

Correct — A, (a) Halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The Millennium Development Goals were eight goals for international development to be reached by 2015, developed out of the commitments in the Millennium Declaration signed in September 2000 and carrying twenty-one targets between them. The keyed option names two of those targets, one from each of two goals.

Halving extreme poverty is target 1A under Goal 1, ‘Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger’: halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living on less than a dollar and a quarter a day. The same goal carries target 1C, to halve over the same period the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Halting the spread of HIV and AIDS is target 6A under Goal 6, ‘Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases’: have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. The same goal covers universal access to treatment and the reversal of the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

So the option is not a loose description of the goals’ general spirit; both of its halves are the language of the framework itself, and the two verbs it uses — halving and halting — are the framework’s own.

The other three options describe things that would be useful and that no Millennium Development Goal mentions. That is the shape of this item: the wrong answers are not false statements about the world but proposals that were never part of the list. The eight goals are worth learning by their titles for exactly this reason, because a question of this kind is decided by whether a candidate can recite them.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)Develop a new variety of foodgrains which can ensure bumper crops — Developing a new variety of foodgrains that can ensure bumper crops is not a Millennium Development Goal. Goal 1 does address hunger, and its target 1C is to halve the proportion of people who suffer from it, but the framework sets outcomes to be achieved rather than the technical means of achieving them; it says nothing about plant breeding or crop varieties. The option is plausible because agricultural research genuinely has reduced hunger, and because the language of the Green Revolution is familiar in an Indian examination. The general point it illustrates is that international goal frameworks are written as measurable targets — a proportion halved, a rate reduced by two-thirds, universal access achieved by a date — so an option phrased as a technological project is unlikely to belong to one.
• (c)To ensure that population does not increase in the least developed countries — Ensuring that population does not increase in the least developed countries is not among the goals either, and it misrepresents the framework in a more serious way. The Millennium Development Goals contain no population-control objective. What they do contain, under Goal 5 on maternal health, is a target of universal access to reproductive health by 2015, which is a matter of services and rights rather than of holding a population down. The distinction between the two is one that international documents of this period are careful about, and it is worth carrying: a goal about reproductive health is not a goal about numbers. The option is offered because population is a familiar subject in Indian policy discussion and can be mistaken for a global development priority of the same kind.
• (d)Develop procedures towards adequate and timely forewarning on hurricanes and tsunamis — Developing procedures for adequate and timely forewarning of hurricanes and tsunamis is not a Millennium Development Goal. Early warning systems became a prominent international subject in the years after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which is what makes the option feel contemporary with the framework, but disaster preparedness belongs to a different set of international instruments. Goal 7, ‘Ensure environmental sustainability’, is about the loss of environmental resources and biodiversity, access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, and the lives of slum dwellers. Nothing in it concerns storm or tsunami warning. The option is a reminder to check an attractive proposal against the actual list before accepting it, since the framework’s coverage is narrower than the general idea of ‘development’ suggests.

The eight Millennium Development Goals were: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. They were adopted in the wake of the Millennium Declaration of September 2000, carried twenty-one targets and a set of measurable indicators, and ran to 2015.

The targets are where the examination questions usually lie, and the headline ones are worth knowing: halve the proportion of people living on less than a dollar and a quarter a day and the proportion suffering from hunger, both between 1990 and 2015; reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds and the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters over the same period; halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria; halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

The framework was succeeded in 2016 by the Sustainable Development Goals, seventeen goals with a hundred and sixty-nine targets, adopted in September 2015 and running to 2030. The differences are examinable in themselves: the Millennium goals were addressed principally to developing countries and were largely about basic deprivation, while the Sustainable Development Goals apply to every country and take in inequality, energy, industry, consumption, climate and institutions.

Key facts

• The Millennium Development Goals were eight goals for international development by 2015, developed from the Millennium Declaration signed in September 2000, with twenty-one targets in all.
• Target 1A: halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day. Target 1C: halve the proportion suffering from hunger over the same period.
• Target 6A: have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS; the same goal covers malaria and other major diseases.
• The eight goals were: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; gender equality and women’s empowerment; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and a global partnership for development.
• Goal 5 includes a target of universal access to reproductive health — which is not a population-control objective.
• The Sustainable Development Goals succeeded the framework in 2016: seventeen goals and a hundred and sixty-nine targets, adopted in September 2015 and running to 2030.

Common traps

• Choosing an option because it describes a worthwhile development activity; the question asks what is on the list.
• Reading Goal 5’s reproductive health target as a population-control objective.
• Assuming disaster early warning belongs to the environmental sustainability goal.
• Being influenced by the options’ unequal grammar, which is a feature of the printing and not a clue.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  How many Millennium Development Goals were adopted, and by which year were they to be achieved ?

  • (a)Eight goals, by 2015
  • (b)Seventeen goals, by 2030
  • (c)Eight goals, by 2020
  • (d)Twelve goals, by 2015

  Answer(a) Eight goals, by 2015 — the framework carried eight goals and twenty-one targets and ran from the Millennium Declaration of 2000 to 2015. Option (b) describes the Sustainable Development Goals that succeeded it, and the other two misstate either the number or the horizon.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following was a target under the Millennium Development Goal on child mortality ?

  • (a)Reduce by half the under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2015
  • (b)Reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2015
  • (c)Reduce by three-quarters the under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2015
  • (d)Eliminate under-five mortality by 2015

  Answer(b) Reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate between 1990 and 2015 — that was the headline target under Goal 4. The three-quarters reduction in option (c) belongs to the maternal mortality ratio under Goal 5, and the other two figures appear in no target.