The Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs are a set of internationally agreed targets, to be achieved by 2015.
They constitute both an instrument to rally support for international development interventions, as well as more importantly providing a standard against which aid effectiveness can be measured.

In the UNDP's words "The MDGs represent a global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s. Responding to the world's main development challenges and to the calls of civil society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases.

Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are an agreed set of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part. Poor countries have pledged to govern better, and invest in their people through health care and education. Rich countries have pledged to support them, through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade." If your new to the topic of International Development, these pages will provide a a complete overview of what they are, what they are meant to achieve, as well as progress to date. These pages are also available in French and Spanish.