Our website offers many English tests, including the “English Test – The Millennium Development Goals.” This test evaluates your understanding of English in terms of Reading, Grammar, Functions, and Writing. An answer key is also provided.
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1. The United Nations Millennium Summit on sustainable development was held in New York in September. All member states of the United Nations reaffirmed their commitment to sustaining development and eliminating poverty by adopting the Millennium Declaration. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the road map for meeting the commitments of the Millennium Declaration, have been internationally accepted as a common global development framework. The commitment to this development framework and to achieving the MDGs was reiterated at the UN assembly in 2005.
2. It is essential to realize that even though the MDGs are global, they can most effectively be achieved through action at the local level. It is at the local level that inequalities between people in a city can be addressed. It is at the local level that safe drinking water, electricity, and other services, including health and education, are provided, that garbage is collected, and that food is sold at markets.
3. In each city and town, there will be a local reality to be taken into consideration, and indeed the MDGs should be adapted to meet this reality. This is also the only way to make the most of local social capital and get the community involved. Of course, national-level plans and actions are critical. But experience has shown that national plans must be linked with both local realities and the people they serve to be successful.
4. The summit agreed on global goals to focus on during the first two decades of the third millennium. They include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.
5. To meet the MDGs, cities in low-income and middle-income countries need to draw up courageous, long-term strategies for investments in health, education, infrastructure, and environmental management sufficient to achieve the MDGs in the urban setting. These strategies must build on upgrading life conditions; security for poor urban residents; community participation; and enhanced international competitiveness through promoted urban infrastructure, including industrial zones, telecommunications, power, and port facilities.
