What does UNA-UK do?

Through the work of our staff, volunteers and members, we campaign and educate to promote the principles of the UN Charter and to support the work of the UN and its agencies.

UNA-UK is a non-party political organisation. Our head office in London provides policy expertise to support the advocacy work of UNA-UK members. It maintains an ongoing dialogue with UK government ministers, parliamentarians and the media on issues relating to the UN. UNA-UK wants to promote multilateralism and adherence to international law through four policy programmes:

Education lies at the heart of our work. Only through education and public awareness and pressure can effective, lasting change be achieved. To this end UNA-UK provides support and materials for those interested in organising Model UN events and provides resources for people wanting to develop their knowledge of the UN system and activities.

THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS:
RESOURCES

GOAL 1: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER
Extreme poverty remains a daily reality for more than 1 billion people who subsist on less than $1 a day. Hunger and malnutrition are almost equally pervasive: more than 800 million people have too little to eat to meet their daily energy needs. For young children, the lack of food can be perilous since it retards their physical and mental development and threatens their very survivial. More than a quarter of children under age 5 in developing countries are malnourished.

Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day

Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Paying the Price (pdf) Oxfam International's report on financing for development. The publication estimates that 45 million more children will die between now and 2015 than would be the case if the world met the goal to reduce child mortality .
How to Make Poverty History (pdf) The International Institute for Environment and Development's (IIED) report examines the central role of local organizations in meeting the MDGs.
UNICEF & Poverty
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG One (Educational Resource)
GOAL 2: ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION
Education gives people choices regarding the kind of lives they wish to lead. It enables them to express themselves with confidence in their personal relationships, in the community and at work. But for more than 115 million children of primary school age who are out of school, this human right is being denied. These are mostly children from poor households, whose mothers often have no formal education either.

Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

UNSECO: Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2006 This report aims to shine a stronger policy spotlight on the more neglected goal of literacy - a foundation not only for achieving education for all but, more broadly, for reaching the overarching goal of reducing human poverty.
Campaign for Global Education: Girls can't wait (Word document) 2005 is the year that the world will miss the first, and most critical of all the Millennium Development Goals – gender parity in education. This paper proposes a new action plan to get every girl in school and learning.
UNICEF & Education
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG Two (Educational Resource)
GOAL 3: PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN
Gender equality is a human right and at the heart of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It is a prerequisite to overcoming hunger, poverty and disease. This means equality at all levels of education and in all areas of work, equal control over resources and equal representation in public and political life.

Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015

Gender Equality and the MDGs A new website from the UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality, the Multilateral Development Bank working group and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
State of the World Population 2005 This report for the United National Population Fund calls upon world leaders to fulfill promises made to the world’s women and young people in order to meet poverty reduction goals agreed to at the 2000 Millennium Summit.
UNIFEM: Progress of the World's Women 2005 UNIFEM’s flagship publication makes the case for more focus on women’s informal employment as a key way to reduce poverty and strengthening women’s economic security.
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG Three (Educational Resource)
GOAL 4: REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY
The death of a child is a tragic loss. Yet, every year, almost 11 million children die - that is, 30,000 children a day - before their fifth birthday. Most of these children live in developing countires and die from a disease or a combination of diseases that can be prevented or treated by existing inexpensive means. Sometimes, the cause is as simple as a lack of antibiotics for treating pneumonia or of oral rehydration salts for diarrhoea. Malnutrition contributes to over half these deaths.

Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

UNICEF & Child Mortality
The MDGs: They are about children (pdf) UNICEF highlights the importance of protecting the rights of children in accordance with fulfilling the MDGs.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Child Health This page provides links to descriptions of activities, reports, news and events, as well as contacts and cooperating partners in the various WHO programmes and offices working on this topic.
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG Four (Educational Resource)
GOAL 5: IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH
Giving birth should be a time of joy. But for more than half a million women each year, precancy and childbirth end in death. Twenty times as many women suffer serious injuries or disabilities, which, if untreated, can cause life-long pain and humiliation. A mother's death can be particularly devestrating to the children left behind, who are more apt to fall into poverty and to become the objects of exploitation.

Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

WHO: Health & the MDGs Building up and strengthening health systems is vital if more progress is to be made towards the Millennium Development Goals, the World Health Organization (WHO) says in this report. Unless urgent investments are made in health systems, current rates of progress will not be sufficient to meet most of the goals
MDGs: Sexual and Reproductive Health (Word document) An advocacy document desgined to give a briefings on how to raise awayness of MDG Goal 5.
UNICEF & Maternal Health
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG Five (Educational Resource)
GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA & OTHER DISEASES
In the 25 years since it was first reported, AIDS has become the leading cause of premature death in sub-Saharan Africa and the fourth largest killer worldwide. More than 20 million people have died around the world since the epidemic began. And by the end of 2004, an estimated 39 million people were living with HIV. In addition to the incalculable human suffering that AIDS has wrought, the epidemic has reversed decades of development progress in the worst-affected countries.

Target 7: Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS

Target 8: Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

The World Malaria Report 2005 The World Malaria Report 2005 is the first comprehensive effort by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership to take stock of where the world stands in relation to one of its most devastating diseases. It reveals that the tide may be beginning to turn against malaria as control and prevention programmes start to take effect.
Department for International Development (DFID) Factsheet on HIV/AIDS (pdf) Includes charts, facts and statistics on the fight to reduce the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
UNICEF & Disease
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG Six (Educational Resource)
GOAL7: ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Visit the UNA-UK pages on Climate Change and sustainable development
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG Seven (Educational Resource)
GOAL 8: DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT


Visit the UNA-UK pages on trade, aid and debt
UN CyberSchoolbus on MDG Eight (Educational Resource)