Raleigh International

The United Nations has launched a bid to bring electricity to everyone on the planet by 2030 as part of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs include reducing by half the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015, and ensuring environmental sustainability.

The UN's Millennium Development Goals are still obtainable but we'll probably miss the 2015 deadline, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has said.

Gates, who is also co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told the European Parliament's development committee in Strasbourg, that the increase in aid agreed by the EU's 15 member states would make a huge difference and would achieve the MDGs, not by 2015, but in the next 10 years.

Today marks World Water Day, a day set up to celebrate water and its contribution to human life across the globe.

An EU ambassador has expressed concerns that the Millennium Development Goals won’t be achieved in most regions of the developing world unless there is a ”major push forward”.

Child survival and development in disadvantaged communities is the “underlying imperative” of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the executive director of the UN’s Children’s Fund has said.

Money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) intended to boost medical care in poor countries is being diverted for other causes, new research has suggested.

Countries that borrow from the IMF are spending just one cent in every dollar on improving the health of their populations due to tough loan conditions, according to new Oxford University-led research.

Several non-governmental organisations along with United Nations volunteers will be marking International Volunteer Day on Sunday (December 5).

International Volunteers Day is an opportunity for volunteer organisations and individual volunteers to show their contributions - at local, national and international levels - to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The failure of rich countries to dig deep and help poor countries would "devastate" the fight against global poverty, the president of the World Bank has warned.

Speaking in Washington, Robert Zoellick said it was critical that the eight millennium development goals were achieved despite the global recession.
All 192 member states of the UN have committed to achieving the goals, including wiping out extreme poverty and reducing child mortality rates by 2015.

Gordon Brown has said he is "angry" with the rich nations that have failed to honour their pledges to combat global poverty.

In 2000 eight Millennium Development Goals were set out by 189 nations with a target of them being reached in 2015. The former Prime Minister said he is particularly concerned by the lack of progress in ensuring every child has access to primary education. Speaking in New York, Mr Brown said ensuring education for all was an issue of "security, anti-poverty and health".