synthesise, in a single package, many of the most important commitments made separately at the international
conferences and summits of the 1990s;
recognize explicitly the interdependence between growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development;
acknowledge that development rests on the foundations of democratic governance, the rule of law, respect for human
rights and peace and security;
are based on time-bound and measurable targets accompanied by indicators for monitoring progress; and
bring together, in the eighth Goal, the responsibilities of developing countries with those of developed countries,
founded on a global partnership endorsed at the
International Conference on Financing for Development in
Monterrey, Mexico in March 2002, and again at the Johannesburg
World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002.
Functionally, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals which nations of the world have contractually pledge to cooperatively
achieve by 2015 that respond to the world's main development
and humanitarian challenges.