Diocese of New Jersey | Outreach | Task Force on Millennium Development Goals

What are the Millennium Development Goals?
Hunger, poverty, health, MDGs bring a better quality of life to youn girls universal education and environmental and economic sustainability are among the issues addressed by the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs are a government-to-government partnership of rich and poor countries with eight quantifiable targets set by the leaders of over 180 nations, including the United States, in 2000, as a challenge to all people of the world, with a specific effort to achieve progress on these goals by the year 2015.

The Episcopal Church has affirmed its support of the MDGs as the top mission priority of the Church. Every diocese, congregation and individual Episcopalian is encouraged to join the global effort. Since 2007 the Diocese of New Jersey has committed .7 percent of the annual diocesan budget to support the advancement of the MDGs.

Take a closer look
In 2000 all the member states of the United Nations pledged to achieve eight goals by 2015. Here's a close look at the goals.

	Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. The aim is by 2015 to reduce by half the proportion of people whose income in 1990 amounted to less than one dollar a day and reduce by half the proportion of people who were hungry. Currently 1.1 billion people live on less than one dollar a day, and 852 million are hungry.
	Achieve universal primary education. The target is for all children to be able to complete primary school. Currently 121 million school-aged children do not go to school.
	Promote gender equality and empower women. The goal is for equal numbers of girls and boys to go to primary and secondary school preferably by 2005 and go on to higher education by 2015. Currently 60 percent of the children out of school are girls.
	Reduce child mortality. The aim is to reduce the number of children who die before their fifth birthday by two-thirds by 2015. Currently 11 million children die of preventable diseases every year.
	Improve maternal health. The target is to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters. Currently about 500,000 mothers die each year of birth-related complications.
	Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. The goal is to reverse the spread of these diseases by 2015. Currently each year 3 million persons die of AIDS, nearly 2 million of tuberculosis, and one million of malaria.
	Ensure environmental sustainability. The aims are to make drinking water safer, improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers, reverse the loss of environmental resources. Currently 1.1 billion people lack access to a source of water reasonably protected from contamination; 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation.
	Develop a global partnership for development. This goal addresses a range of issues in which the developed countries play a particular role in inhibiting poverty or facilitating poverty reduction. Currently rich countries on average give 0.25 percent of their gross national income to development assistance. The goal is to increase this to 0.7 percent.

This list of the MDGs is a shortened version of the one that appears in What Can One Person Do? Faith to Heal a Broken World, by Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell.

The official site for monitoring progress toward the MDGs is here.

What is our task force mission?
To become part of a diocesan-wide movement to promote awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and work with congregations to develop plans for their achievement. The MDG Task Force is a resource for congregations to use in exploring our baptismal covenant “to strive for justice and peace among people.” The primary focus is on people facing extreme poverty throughout the world. Other MDG resources can be found here (insert link to another page with other organization websites here-see list below)

How can you get involved?
Our plan is to act as a catalyst for congregational education, planning and action towards the eradication of extreme poverty and global injustice. We want you to:

Attend a workshop: The Diocesan Task Force is offering a series of workshops to learn about the Millennium Development Goals.Come to learn more about the MDGs and particularly how to involve congregations in supporting these goals. The workshop lasts about three hours and includes time for reflection and planning next steps.

Workshops are being held at various locations and times throughout the diocese. For further details, see the description in the Ministry Institute or email Sarah Paige or phone 609 394-5281, ext. 10.

Become a parish representative: Work with your rector and others within your parish and convocation to develop an action plan for achieving the MDGs involving your parish.

Each parish is identifying two congregational representatives to be responsible for promoting MDG and Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) education and activities on the parish level.These parish representatives meet with the MDG Task Force Convocation Coordinator as a training and support group to share information.

If you're interested in becoming a parish representative, please email Deacon Christopher Cox christopherecox@aol.com to find out more.

Promote Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday: ERD Sunday will be celebrated diocese-wide on March 13, 2011. We encourage congregations to use this Sunday as an opportunity to become educated about the work of Episcopal Relief and Development.

Watch this space for materials to help each congregation with its programming for this very special Sunday.

Tell us what your congregation is doing: Please share your congregation’s projects, using the MDGs as a frame of reference for assessment of congregational interests and for tracking and reporting parish accomplishments. We want other parishes to be inspired and we hope to encourage collaboration. Our contact emails are at the bottom of this page.

For more information, check out these links!
There are many established organizations within the Episcopal Church as well as globally that are working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Here are a few links to their resources:

1. Episcopal Relief and Development All ERD programs are designed and assessed by how well they respond to the MDGs.

2. Episcopalians for the ONE Campaign A grassroots partnership working to rally Episcopalians to the cause of ending extreme poverty and achieving the MDGs.

3. Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation (E4GR) Working to educate, provide resources, and empower ministry for the MDGs.

4. Episcopal Public Policy Network Advocates for social justice issues

5. Companion Diocese Committee Support for the Episcopal Diocese of Ecuador Central

6. Jubilee Ministry (Link to come)

7. The United Nations MDG site Primary documents, information, and links

8. The Millennium Campaign Working to inspire a global movement to end extreme poverty by 2015.

9. Don't forget You Tube! (great MDG videos)

10. President Obama's speech to UN in September 2010

Contact us!
To learn more about this Task Force, please contact the chairs:

The Reverend Lisa Caton, lisaecaton@aol.com
Aline Haynes, Haynesaline@gmail.com