This year, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), launched by the UN in 2000, are scheduled to expire. The UN is now going to put forth the Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) which are meant to replace MDGs. Now is thus a good time to ask how much progress was made in achieving the MDGs, what do the SDGs aim to achieve, and how they differ from the MDGs.
The MDGs ambitiously aimed to drastically reduce poverty and hunger; achieve universal education; promote gender equality; reduce child and maternal deaths; combat HIV, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and create global partnerships for development.