The UN MDGs Theme Group with support of UNDP and Resident Coordinator office have organized a 3 day workshop for expets from 25-27 December 2006. The workshop were designed and planned based on the UND toolkit on MDGs training. Government institutions, NGOs and Private Sector were invited to attend this workshop. This is the first of its kind in Iran, with a focus on planning and policy making, rather than advocacy and general information on the MDGs. The participants were chosen from key experts working on planning and budgeting in various departments of the government. An Iranian NGo has been selected to facilitate and support the organization of the workshop. Please click on the below link for more information.

If you wish to see the toolkit, please click on the following link:

A Seminar on the Millennium Development Goals in Iran organised by the United Nations Country Team in Iran and the Management and Planning Organisation took place on Monday 12 September 2005 in the Iranian Center for Internation Conferences (Alborz Hall). This seminar reviewed a number of issues related to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Iran and its objective is to raise awareness on MDGs and assess the current situation of the country. Please click on the below link for more information.

If you wish to See the pictures and presentations of the seminar,please click on the following links:

For a high resolution DVD copy, please contact RC Office in Tehran.

Email: rc.office.iran@undp.org

Since 1990, the United Nations has sponsored a series of world summits and global conferences with a view to laying out a comprehensive rights-based development agenda, including quantitative goals, time-bound targets and numerical indicators.

The consensus is that goals and targets mobilise national and international partners into action and help forge new alliances for development. They also provide a means for benchmarking and assessing progress in development. Policy reforms, institutional change and budget reallocations often result from discussions centred on time-bound targets. Yet, less than one-third of developing countries have set specific and quantifiable national targets for reducing poverty.

In September 2000, 147 heads of State and Government, and 191 nations in total, adopted the Millennium Declaration. This remarkable document originated from a series of international conferences and summits that began in 1990 and encompasses unprecedented agreement within the international community on a wide range of commitments and plans of action. The Declaration outlines peace, security and development concerns, including in the areas of environment, human rights, and governance. The Declaration mainstreams a set of inter-connected and mutually reinforcing development goals into a global agenda. By committing to the Declaration, world leaders agreed to a set of eight time bound and measurable Millennium Development Goals. (MDGs) for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women, as follows:

1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. To achieve universal primary education;
3. To promote gender equality and empower women;
4. To reduce child mortality;
5. To improve maternal health;
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
7. To ensure environmental sustainability; and
8. To develop a global partnership for development.

Numerical targets have been set for each goal. Most goals are to be achieved over a 25-ear period - between 1990-2015. Appropriate indicators have been selected to monitor progress on each of the targets. The MDGs incorporate most of the goals and targets set at the global conferences and world summits of the 1990s, as well as the goals contained in the Millennium Declaration. The MDGs should be considered as indicative for country-level monitoring, not as a rigid directive.

MDGs monitoring will take place at the global and country levels. At the global level, the UN Secretary-General will report annually to the General Assembly on progress towards a sub-set of the MDGs and to report more comprehensively every five years. These reports will support a dynamic campaign to help keep poverty issues front and centre of the national and global development agenda. At the country level, MDG reports (MDGRs) will help to engage the Government, civil society, communities, general public and the media in a systematic and identifiable follow-up to the global conferences and world summits of the 1990s.

For more information please see:

The UN and the MDGs: A Core Strategy (June 2002)

UN Fact Sheet: MDG Country Reporting - Vehicles for Action 1

UN Fact Sheet: MDG Country Reporting - Vehicles for Action 2

MDGNet