5 April 2013: With 1,000 days remaining until the end of 2015, the UN called for accelerated action and scaled up efforts to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their 2015 target date. Since Member States adopted the MDGs in 2000, several targets have been met, but gaps and inequalities in other goals and targets remain.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the “MDG Momentum: 1,000 Days of Action” campaign in Madrid, Spain, on 5 April 2013. He described the MDGs as “the most successful global anti-poverty push in history,” and urged the international community to: increase investments in education, energy, health and sanitation; focus on the most vulnerable; empower women and girls; and re-energize efforts, with the overall aim of maintaining momentum for sustainable development and the post-2015 development agenda.

According to UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark, 45 countries are using the MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF) “to speed up progress on lagging MDGs and to reduce disparities in progress.” Achim Steiner, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, praised the MDGs for extending terrestrial protected areas and achieving progress on water provision. He highlighted the post-2015 development agenda as an opportunity “to deliver goals based on broader notions of wealth – from the planet’s freshwaters to its forests, soils and atmosphere,” and urged decoupling economic growth from pollution footprints.

The UN is holding several events as part of the MDG Momentum Campaign, from 5-12 April 2013, including: 1,000 minutes of online programming about building momentum to achieve greater gains by 2015; 1,000 minutes of digital photos illustrating local MDG impacts around the world; and, on social media, Facebook chats, Google+ Hangouts, and Twitter dialogues. [UN Press Release] [UNRIC Press Release] [UNDP Press Release] [UN Women Webpage on MDGs] [UN System Webpage on MDGs]