Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals

 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were declared by world leaders in the United Nations Millennium Declaration which was the main outcome of the United Nations Millennium Summit held in September 2000 in New York, USA. The Declaration asserted that every individual has dignity of life which included right to freedom, equality, a basic standard of living and the freedom from hunger and violence. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the eight international goals to be achieved by developing countries within the deadline of 2015 AD. The MDGs set concrete targets and indicators for poverty reduction to achieve the rights. UN General Assembly had already passed a resolution in 1990 AD for eradicating poverty from the world. Therefore, the eight international goals of MDGs considered the 1990 resolution their base and set the time frame to achieve the goals by 2015 AD. In addition to eight goals, MDGs had 21 targets, and a series of measurable health and economic indicators for each target. All 189 UN member states at that time and at least 22 international organizations signed the UN Millennium Declaration to assure their commitment for achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 AD. The main goals of Millennium Development Goals are as follows: 

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 
2. Achieve universal primary education 
3. Promote gender equality and women empowerment 
4. Reducing child mortality rate 
5. Improve maternal health 
6. Control of harmful diseases like HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Jaundice, etc. 
7. Preserve sustainability of environment 
8. Develop global partnership for development 

The concerted efforts of national governments, the international community, civil society and the private sector have shown encouraging results. MDGs have helped expand hope and opportunity for people around the world. Yet the job is unfinished for millions of people- we need to strive much harder for ending hunger, achieving full gender equality, improving health services and getting every child into school. This is the time to shift the world onto a sustainable path to achieve the Sustainable development goals (SDGs). Thus, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the MDGs in 2016 AD. 

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are global set by United Nations Organization to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all that will guide policy and funding all over the world for the next 15 years, beginning with a historic pledge on 25 September 2015. There is a set of seventeen "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" with 169 targets between them. Each goal has specific targets to be achieve over the next 15 years. Officially known as 'Transforming the world: the 2030 Agenda' or Sustainable Development, the SDGs provide us with a common plan and agenda to tackle some of the pressing challenges facing our world such as poverty, climate change and conflict.

The need for the SDGs was urgently felt as early as 1972 when governments gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, for the UN conference on the Human Environment and examined all the aspects of rights of the human family to a healthy and productive environment. United Nations Organization took further steps and created the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1983 AD. This commission defined sustainable development goals as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." In a sequence of events the first UN Conference on Environment and Development was held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 1992 AD. It was here that the first agenda for Environment and Development was developed and adopted, popularly known as Agenda 21. 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN NEPAL 
Nepal has set the development goal to graduate to the group of "Developing Countries" by 2022 AD from the current status of being Least developed country. Nepal has already aligned itself with the global goals set out as "Sustainable Development Goals". These goals are broad, ambitious, and challenging to achieve for Nepal. Nepal needs to act in time-bound manner for completing the development projects which require ample means and resources. Nepal is  looking forward to become a welfare state having inclusive, quality-based, and middle-income prosperous society by 2030 AD. 

The sustainable development goals are: 

1. End poverty in all its form everywhere. 
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. 
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for at all ages. 
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. 
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. 
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. 
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. 
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. 
10. Reduce income inequality within and among countries. 
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, sage, resilient and sustainable. 
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. 
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy. 
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. 
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. 
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. 
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.