In 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, 189 Heads of State and governments agreed to work with each other to make this world a better world for all by 2015. Did you know that over a billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day? Can you imagine surviving with less than $1 a day? If you think about it, you would realize how difficult it is to survive with very little money. That is why these important people pledged to make life better for all, especially for the poorest of poor people who are struggling to live with barely any money.

That is an ambitious goal. But as you all know, we need to have a goal to reach it. These important people at the summit decided that it would be best to come up with goals so we can all work towards it. On behalf of all of us, these leaders signed the Millennium Declaration, which is a promise made by them to free everyone from extreme poverty and make the right to development a reality for everyone. They could not make one big goal because there were so many different things they had to address, so they came up with eight goals. The eight goals that they came up with during the summit are called the Millennium Development Goals.