The United Nations has come up with eight goals called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to “meet the needs of the world’s poorest” and encourage a standard of equality within nations. Accomplishing these goals will require global cooperation and effort.
In this blog I will be discussing several of the MDGs and how Miami’s Venezuelan community has embraced and relates to these goals.
First I want to highlight one of the MDGs and explain it briefly.
Goal 7 aims to “Ensure Environmental Sustainability.” It includes four targets to accomplish that goal. First, nations must integrate sustainable development principles into their policies and contain greenhouse emissions and limit ozone-depleting substances. We also must significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, requiring us to regulate land and marine area conseravation, slow deforestation and ensure fisheries are sustainable in order to reduce the number of species threatened with extinction. The third target is to cut in half by 2015 the number of people living without sustainable access to drinking water and basic sanitation. Currently around 1 billion people worldwide live without such necessities. Finally, the UN aims to achieve by 2020 significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers through “simple, low-cost interventions.”
As you can see, several of these targets’ deadlines are quickly approaching with some achieving more progress than others. But these are global problems and must be met by not just the affected nations. Where applicable, achieving this MDG will require funding and implementation by all member nations of the UN, not just those who have significant water problems (because we all will) or host many slum dwellers, for example.
It will be interesting to find out how Miami’s Venezuelans have embraced these MDGs and talk to them about their home country’s progress in these areas.
Corey @ HM Magazine 