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The Millennium Development Goals

Access to safe water and sanitation will underpin success in achieving all the MDGs and must be part of an integrated approach to development
Access to safe water and sanitation will underpin success in achieving all the MDGs and must be part of an integrated approach to development.
Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international targets to halve world poverty by 2015, agreed upon by all 189 United Nations member states at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000.

However, there is a genuine risk that the MDGs will not be met if international donors continue to pursue single issue 'global causes', instead of building an aid system that will respond to the complex needs of poor communities.

Progress in health and education is dependent on access to safe water and effective sanitation. And yet the failure to recognise this interrelationship means that global spending on health and education has nearly doubled since 1990 while the share allocated to water and sanitation has contracted.

As part of MDG seven there is a target to halve the proportion of people living without access to water and sanitation. But at the mid-way point to 2015 the target on sanitation is way off-track. In sub-Saharan Africa, at the current rate of progress, it will not be met until 2076 - 61 years late.

The costs, and opportunity costs, of failing to implement the water and sanitation MDG targets are huge - in the area of US$38 billion per year in lost productivity and healthcare costs. And yet, our research states that the global return on investment in sanitation is roughly $9 for every $1 spent, with even higher returns for universal coverage.

So why does the neglect continue, when sanitation, along with access to safe water, is frequently at the top of poor people's priorities? The answer is that the international aid system is only weakly responsive to poor people's demands.

The tendency is for rich, developed countries to impose single issue plans that resonate well with their domestic constituencies. This flawed approach is undermining progress on all of the MDGs and must give way to a renewed focus on the articulated needs of the poor.

Access to safe water and sanitation will underpin success in achieving all the MDGs and must be part of an integrated approach to development.

How our work relates to each of the eight goals - in brief

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are international targets to halve world poverty by 2015, agreed upon by all 189 United Nations member states at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. They are:

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger - access to convenient water supplies frees up valuable time for economic activity; healthy people are better able to absorb nutrients, excess water is used for kitchen gardens; and composting latrines produce a free alternative to fertilisers.
  2. Achieve universal primary education - access to water frees children from water carrying burdens to go to school; sanitation in schools encourages girls to attend; and water and sanitation facilities at schools attract teachers.
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women - women are actively involved in all stages of WaterAid community projects and their involvement has a positive impact on their status and position in the community.
  4. Reduce child mortality by two thirds for children under five - hygiene education, clean water and sanitation significantly reduces water-related diseases which kill 5,000 children every day.
  5. Improve maternal health - access to water frees pregnant women from collecting water and clean, accessible water and sanitation help women to minimise the chances of illness or even death to the baby and themselves.
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases - the immune systems of those living with HIV will be less likely to fight or recover from water-related illness.
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability - all future water supply and sanitation projects supported by WaterAid will address the issues of water depletion and contamination through appropriate integrated water resource management.
  8. Develop a global partnership for development - WaterAid's work with partnership organisations, governments and national and international agencies towards achieving the MDGs is part of a mutually reinforcing framework to improve overall human development.
Find out more about WaterAid and the Millennium Development Goals