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The theme for our Transcultural Nursing Society’s annual conference held in Orlando FL, October 17-20 this year was Envisioning the United Nations Millennium Goals (MDGs) from a Transcultural Nursing Perspective. We welcomed speakers from Taiwan, China, Saudi Arabia, Canada, United States and many other countries. Each provided current research, clinical applications, academic innovations and effective strategies for community involvement in their presentations. They shared ways in which we could incorporate these goals into our settings. So what are the UN MDGs?

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. You can see a video and read more specifics at www.un.org/millenniumgoals. Listed below are the eight goals and some of the targets:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger. Target: Halve between 1990 & 2015 the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day and people who suffer from hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education. Target: Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women. Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary & secondary education, preferably by 2005, & in all levels of education no later than 2015
4. Reduce child mortality. Target: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 & 2015, the under-five mortality rate
5. Improve maternal health. Target: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ration; Achieve universal access to reproductive health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria & other diseases. Target: Have halted by 2015 & begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria & other major diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability. Target: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies & programmes & reverse the loss of environmental resources
8. Develop a global partnership for development. Target: Develop further an open rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading & financial system.

Which ones stand out for you? Where can you make a difference? We each have a unique perspective and can, in our own way, become an active participant in the process of achieving the UN MDGs by 2015.  Will you join us?