Will the world change by 2015?

On Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh urged reform at United Nations, saying they were crucial to meeting the Millennium Development Goals. If you are wondering just what these Goals mean, here's a quick guide:

It's not only rock musicians who sing of changing the world. In 2000, the United Nations agreed to an eight-point blueprint, called the UN Millennium Development Goals, to be fulfilled by 2015.

All the countries pledged to:

Eradicate poverty

'Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day; reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.'

Promote primary education

'Ensure all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.'

Empower women

'Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.'

Reduce child mortality

'Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five.'

Improve reproductive health

'Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio.'

Fight disease

'Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS; halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.'

Care for the environment

'Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources; reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water; achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.'

'Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory, includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction -- nationally and internationally.

Address the least developed countries' special needs. This includes tariff and quota free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.

Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.

In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.

In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.

In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies -- especially information and communications technologies.

Unfortunately, that's like asking if a Live 8 concert can make the G8 nations sign off the developing world's debts. Sceptics have called the Millennium Development Goals a lot of things, from pipe dreams to weasel words.

In 2002, at a summit in Monterrey, Mexico, the rich countries promised to 'make concrete efforts' to contribute 0.7 percent of their national income as foreign aid by 2015. Just how plausible that is can be gauged by the fact that the US, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that tracks aid, gave 0.16 percent last year. That is the second lowest among the 22 donor nations the OECD tracks.

Will the world change by 2015?

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