Business Call to Action

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the most broadly supported, comprehensive and specific development goals the world has ever agreed upon. These eight time-bound goals provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. They include goals and targets on income poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality, environmental degradation and the Global Partnership for Development.

Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the MDGs are both global and local, tailored by each country to suit specific development needs. They provide a framework for the entire international community to work together towards a common end – making sure that human development reaches everyone, everywhere. If these goals are achieved, world poverty will be cut by half, tens of millions of lives will be saved, and billions more people will have the opportunity to benefit from the global economy.

The BCtA seeks to accelerate progress toward the achievement of these goals by encouraging private sector investment in base-of-the-pyramid markets.

	Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger		Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
	Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women		Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
	Goal 5: Improve maternal health		Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
	Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability		Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Source: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/