The purported purpose of the goals is to improve the development of all member nations and to encourage more aggressive assistance to the Third World on the part of more developed countries. Specific stated aims are the reduction of poverty, the reduction of child mortality rates, and the eradication of malaria and AIDS. As with all such schemes, however, the realistic purpose is the eradication of the concept of national sovereignty and personal liberty.
Each of the eight goals is divided into sub-sections known as targets. These targets are meant to be narrowly tailored and easily measurable indicators of the progress being made toward accomplishment of the larger roster of goals. The goals and their targets follow:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target 1A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day
Proportion of population below $1 per day (PPP values)
Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]
Share of poorest quintile in national consumption
Target 1B: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People
GDP Growth per Employed Person
Employment Rate
Proportion of employed population below $1 per day (PPP values)
Proportion of family-based workers in employed population
Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys
Enrollment in primary education
Completion of primary education
Literacy of 15-24 year olds, female and male
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Rate
Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
Under-five mortality rate
Infant (under 1) mortality rate
Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
Maternal mortality ratio
Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health
Contraceptive prevalence rate
Adolescent birth rate
Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
Unmet need for family planning
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread ofHIV/AIDS
HIV prevalence among population aged 15–24 years
Condom use at last high-risk sex
Proportion of population aged 15–24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10–14 years
Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs
Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Prevalence and death rates associated with malaria
Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs
Prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course)
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources
Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
Proportion of land area covered by forest
CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
Proportion of total water resources used
Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
Proportion of species threatened with extinction
Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply)
Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
Proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation
Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers
Proportion of urban population living in slums
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system
Includes a commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction — both nationally and internationally
Target 8B: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC)
Includes: tariff and quota free access for LDC exports; enhanced program of debt relief for HIPC and cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA (Overseas Development Assistance) for countries committed to poverty reduction
Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States
Through the Program of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly
Target 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.
There is much among the morass of meddling that Americans would find offensive and contrary to their own notions of right, wrong, moral, and immoral. The “universal” access to birth control, the education of elementary school children on the ways to avoid contracting HIV, and the setting of gender goals for elected representatives, to illuminate but a few. All are core elements of this plan.
While others of the goals and their associated metrics are noble and would arguably improve the quality of life for many of the world's poor, the participation of the government of the United States in such a scheme is not provided for in the specifically enumerated powers set forth in the Constitution. Charity is a sanctifying principle as practiced by an individual of his own free will. That same principle, however, if forcibly imposed on a man by his government, is stripped of all such ennobling power and ironically enslaves those forced to obey.
Furthermore, regardless of whether the United States accomplishes these goals, indeed, regardless of whether or not the United States actively and enthusiastically participates in the furthering of the intents of these goals, millions and millions of taxpayer dollars are being funneled into the various global currency reserves and banks that lend money to developing nations that despite the constant deposits, never seem to progress toward the "good governance" that reputedly follows from such investments.
The President, the Congress, and the people of the United States, should refuse to participate any longer in these globalist boondoggles that impoverish our own nation, enrich no one, violate our sense of right and wrong, and disdainfully ignore the impassable boundaries of power drawn by our Constitution.
