Millennium Development Goals:

The September 2010 world summit at United Nations Headquarters reaffirmed governments’ support for meeting the MDGs by 2015. The United States, which played a leading role in galvanizing international support for meeting the MDGs in 2000, may now find its own commitments challenged on Capitol Hill in the context of a stringent budgetary environment. Further, the global financial crisis continues to cast a heavy pall over the world’s commitments to the MDGs.

Extensive recent polling sponsored by the United Nations Foundation, however, finds that a solid majority of the American public supports the MDGs as well as an active and sustained role for the United States in meeting them. UNA-USA chapters and affiliated national organizations are well-placed to have a positive impact in this area, having just concluded many successful local UN Day 2010 events focused on the importance of the MDGs. United Nations Foundation programs, such as the Nothing But Nets and Girl Up campaigns can inspire activism in support of the MDGs in local communities and aid in the recruitment of new UNA-USA members.