Millennium Development Goals

Decent Work and the MDGs

The goal of Decent Work for All and the pledges in the Millennium Declaration go hand in hand. The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda, in a context of fair globalization, is essential to the achievement of these shared aims.

The information folder below includes one brief for each of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Each brief contains links to further information about how decent and productive employment, social protection, rights at work and dialogue contribute to the achievement of the MDGs.

In addition, an extract is included from the Key Indicators of the Labour Market (ILO, 2008) on thetarget under MDG 1: "to make the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, a central objective of our relevant national and international policies and our national development strategies".
  1. The road ahead

    A new development agenda

Review of progress by the UN General Assembly, September 2010

The UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, held in New York on 20-22 September 2010 during the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date and the announcement of major new commitments for women's and children's health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease. UN agencies prepared reports for the meeting describing successful case studies that can be replicated and scaled up, highlighting lessons learned, identifying remaining challenges, and making recommendations for progress. The ILO, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization jointly coordinated the preparation of the report on MDG 1 (Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger) with input from other UN agencies and the World Bank. The ILO also contributed to the reports on MDG 2 (Achieve universal primary education), MDG 3 (Promote gender equality and empower women) and MDG 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases).