GMF’s Trade & Development program promotes international trade as a vital force for human development, as envisioned by the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), established in the Millennium Declaration of September 2000. The MDGs represent an international pledge to vastly improve core areas of human development by 2015, setting targets for fighting poverty, hunger, disease, and child mortality, and for promoting primary education, maternal health, gender equity, and environmental sustainability. In addition, the MDGs lay out a plan for global partnerships to achieve these goals, including an open and rules-based trading and financial system, increased debt relief and development aid, and cooperation toward more equitable access to new technologies and life-saving drugs.

Fulfilling the MDGs will require a steadfast commitment to good governance by developing countries, as well as cooperative leadership from the United States, Europe, and other major donors. Both public and private sectors will have to play vital roles in generating the economic growth necessary to finance development.

Considerable progress has already been made on a number of the MDGs. In general, child mortality rates have declined, life expectancy is up, and more people now have access to clean water than ever before. Unfortunately, in much of the developing world, progress is lagging on the first development target: halving the proportion of people suffering from extreme poverty and hunger globally by 2015. Asia, particularly China and India, has made great strides forward, accounting for most of the total global reduction in extreme poverty. Between 1990 and 2001, however, the number of hungry people in the rest of the developing world increased by over 10 million. Specifically, Sub-Saharan Africa remains on the sidelines. It is the only part of the developing world which is absolutely no better off today than it was ten years ago, and is even faring worse by certain standards. At current rates, global poverty will not be halved before 2040, and Sub-Saharan Africa won’t achieve the Millennium Development Goals until 2150. 

Last year provided a unique opportunity to galvanize political will and resources in pursuit of equitable development: the agenda for the G8 Summit in Scotland in July 2005 made African development a priority, the UN General Assembly reviewed progress on the Millennium Development Goals in New York in September 2005, and key decisions affecting developing countries in the global trading system will be made in the WTO’s Ministerial in Hong Kong in December. GMF’s Trade & Development Program is working with a variety of organizations to help harness the energy generated by these key events to promote poverty alleviation and constructive engagement with the challenges of development.