The Millennium Development Goals commit the international community to an expanded vision of development, one that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognizes the importance of creating a global partnership for development. The goals have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress.

Many of the targets of the MDGs were first set out by international conferences and summits held in the 1990s. They were later compiled and became known as the International Development Goals. (For a review of progress on the International Development Goals see www.paris21.org/betterworld.) In September 2000 the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration. Following consultations among international agencies, including the World Bank, the IMF, the OECD, and the specialized agencies of the United Nations, the General Assembly recognized the Millennium Development Goals as part of the road map for implementing the Millennium Declaration.

The UN Secretary-General issues ayearly report on progress toward implementation of the Millennium Declaration, including the MDGs, based on information drawn from across the UN system. The first comprehensive review was conducted in 2005.

The goals, targets, and indicators as developed in 2002 were used until 2007 to measure progress towards the MDGs. In 2007, the MDG monitoring framework was revised to include four new targets agreed by member states at the 2005 World Summit and recommended, in 2006, by the UN Secretary-General in his report on the Work of the Organization. In 2007, the General Assembly took note of the Secretary-General's report in which he presented the new framework, including the indicators to monitor progress towards the new targets, as recommended by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators (IAEG). The current official MDG framework supersedes the previous version, which had been effective since 2003.

To view a complete listing of the goals, targets, and indicators for MDGs, click here. To view the full United Nations document on Millennium Development Goals definitions, sources and methodology, click here.