Hep with answering questions about the MDGS

What are the Millennium Development Goals?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)are 8 goals agreed to in 2000 by all member nations of the U.N. They represent a structured common effort to address the deepest material brokenness and poverty in the world today.

What makes the MDGs unique?

Several things. Among them:

1. Each goal has markers and targets that are tangible and measurable. This isn’t just a pipe dream. We know specifics of what we have to achieve, and can see how we’re doing.

2. They are a structure for common mission. Not only has every UN member nation signed onto them, but civil society, faith communities, and more and more other people and entities each day are using them as a framework for efforts to eradicate poverty.

3. They are achievable. Despite the fact that the MDGs will take an unprecedented common commitment to eradicate extreme global poverty, they are quite achievable by the target date of 2015. In fact, in relation to the problems they address, the goals are quite modest.

Do we really need some big centralized bureaucracy – especially the UN – trying to run all this?

The MDGs are a framework for common action – not some big centralized program. They are GOALS … goals that are designed to be achieved by a global partnership of a wide spectrum of people, organizations and nations. Everyone has a different role in achieving the MDGs. Lots of people have lots of different ideas on how best to achieve them – and each can do what they deem best.

Also, although the MDGs originated at the United Nations, they are not a program of the UN. The UN coordinates monitoring of progress, and, like many other organizations, has programs that aim to help achieve the goals, but that’s it.

So when we accomplish the MDGs, we’ll have wiped out extreme poverty?

Unfortunately, no. The MDGs are only a first step . Accomplishing them will make a dent – a sizable one – in the worst poverty of the world, but there will still be much to do. But once we achieve the MDGs, we will know we can do it.

How did the Episcopal Church get involved with the MDGs?

The Episcopal Church has a long history of following Christ’s call to seek and serve him in the poorest of the poor. The MDGs emerged as a structure for this ministry from several sources at once – meetings of the House of Bishops under the leadership of Frank Griswold (who had first championed debt relief as part of the Jubilee 2000 movement), legislation from a Standing Commission, and a grassroots movement begun by what would eventually become Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. In 2006, Peace and Justice was adopted as the top mission priority for the Church for this triennium, and the MDGs were named as the structure for incarnating that mission.

What’s all this talk about 0.7% giving? Where did that figure come from?

0.7% is the percentage of the rich nations’ Gross National Income that development economists and world leaders agree it will take to accomplish the MDGs by the target date of 2015. (Currently, the U.S gives 0.17%) The figure first emerged in the late 1960s and has remained a commonly-accepted standard ever since. In the 1998 Lambeth Declaration, the bishops of the Anglican Communion urged every diocese in the communion to devote a minimum of 0.7% of their budgets toward international development and a resolution at the 2000 General Convention affirmed this. Beginning in 2003 (and again in 2006), the minimum standard of 0.7% giving was linked to the MDGs because the MDGs were the best common framework for eradicating extreme poverty. (For more information about 0.7% giving see the detailed “0.7% FAQ available on the EGR website – www.e4gr.org)

So if I want to give to the MDGs, do I send my money to the UN?

No. Remember, the MDGs are not a centralized UN program. They are goals to which a broad partnership of people, countries and organizations are contributing. Your own giving (at least 0.7% of your income) can go to ANY organization whose work is contributing toward the achievement of the MDGs. You can give through Episcopal Relief and Development, through your companion diocese relationship, through microfinance agencies like Five Talents or online on www.kiva.org. You can support the work of a friend or fellow parishioner. Your commitment to give is an opportunity to discern where God is calling you to be involved more deeply in this mission. Take this opportunity to educate yourself and pray through this great opportunity!

So is money all it will take to accomplish the MDGs?

No. Trade barriers need to come down. Debt relief needs to happen. Corporations need to integrate principles of worker justice into employment practices. Perhaps most of all, the catastrophic effects of global warming and climate change must be reversed if the MDGs are to be achieved and sustained.