At the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 the 189 states of the United Nations reaffirmed their commitment to work toward a world in which eliminating poverty and sustaining development would have the highest priority. The Millennium Declaration was signed by 147 heads of state and passed unanimously by the members of the UN General Assembly.
The Millennium Development Goals, which grew out of the agreements and resolutions of world conferences organized by the United Nations in the past decade, have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress. The goals focus the efforts of the world community on achieving significant, measurable improvements in people’s lives. They establish yardsticks for measuring results not just for developing countries but for the rich countries that help to fund development programs and for the multilateral institutions that help countries implement them.
Health and the Millennium Development Goals
The first seven Millennium Development Goals are directly or indirectly linked with the activities of the health, nutrition, and population sector in the World Bank, either as health and nutrition status indicators or as determinants of health outcomes. There are many synergies among these activities, so that working with other sectors—such as education, water and sanitation, and gender—is likely to be the most effective way of achieving progress.
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