Working toward the UN Millennium Development Goals

Rotary clubs, through their work in health, literacy, and water initiatives, are not just contributing to the betterment of individual communities. They are simultaneously participating in a major global effort, launched by the United Nations nearly a decade ago, to improve the lives of the world’s poorest.  

At the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, the international community made a commitment to reduce poverty worldwide and tackle related issues such as disease, education, health, shelter, and security. These commitments were condensed into eight targets, called the UN Millennium Development Goals: 

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

4. Reduce child mortality

5. Improve maternal health

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

8. Develop a global partnership for development 

The target deadline for the world’s nations to meet the goals is 2015. Some countries are well on their way toward achieving many of the goals, while others have made little progress. In many cases, progress on one goal can lead to achieving another. For example, many children suffer from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, so success with goal 6 would also help reduce child mortality, which is RI President Dong Kurn Lee's special emphasis for 2008-09.  

Rotary was working on many issues related to the goals long before they were established. Its efforts to alleviate hunger for nearly half a century, for example, have contributed to the top goal. 

“It’s just a part of what Rotary does,” says Helen Reisler, RI alternate representative to the UN and a member of the Rotary Club of New York. “But seeing what the UN is doing shows us the importance of what we’re doing, and inspires us to continue our efforts worldwide.”  

The top goal of eradicating hunger and poverty has long vexed humanitarian organizations. About 852 million people around the world today are malnourished. The issue is access to food rather than food shortages, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian agency. 

“More people are having difficulty gaining access to affordable, adequate amounts of food due to a number of factors: high prices of food and fuel and continued market volatility, and now the global financial crisis, which could drive the numbers of hungry upwards as incomes fall around the world,” says Josette Sheeran, executive director of WFP.  

However, ending hunger is achievable, according to Sheeran. "We're at the point in history where we should decide that our grandchildren will not know a hungry world," she says. “We have the capability to do so, and I think we just have to raise awareness that, if we make the decision, we can end hunger in the world."

Rotary club members, who not only advocate the cause but also volunteer at the grassroots level, can be part of the solution, says Sheeran. “ WFP partners with Rotary especially at the local level, where Rotary’s knowledge of how to move communities and work with people to get the right thing done is almost unparalleled.”  

As part of Rotary’s representative network, Rotary and WFP have officially worked together since 1997. The RI president appoints Rotarians to serve as representatives to the agency to encourage joint initiatives and highlight Rotary activities at meetings such as the World Food Summit. “I look forward to our two organizations working more closely and effectively together,” says Sheeran. 

Rotary clubs have many opportunities to get involved in inexpensive but effective projects that contribute to the Millennium Development Goals. Read the May edition of Global Outlook on reducing child mortality for more information, including a full interview with Sheeran.  

Learn more about the UN Millennium Development Goals at www.unmillenniumproject.org .