Connecting People to Peace

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What is the United Nations working for?

             As a branch off of the United Nations Millennium Development Project, eight goals are working to be reached sometime before 2015.

Under the goal of eradicating poverty and hunger, the United Nations wants to cut in half the amount of people whose income is less than $1 a day by 2015. The second marker is to halve the amount of people who suffer from hunger by 2015 as well.

            By 2015, the U.N. hopes to have all children around the world completing a primary school education.

            For gender equality, the U.N.’s previous goal was to end “gender disparity” by 2005 in secondary education. By 2015, the goal is to eradicate gender inequality in all levels of education.

            Goal 4’s marker is to reduce the mortality rate of children under 5 years old by two thirds in 2015, while goal 5’s marker is to reduce the maternal mortality rate by one third.

            To combat disease, the U.N. hopes by 2015 to halt and reverse the spread of HIV, malaria, and other diseases plaguing mankind.

            For ensuring environmental sustainability, the U.N. wants to reserve the loss of environmental resources (such as oil), create programs for the upkeep of resources, cut in half the amount of people without safe drinking water, and improve the living conditions of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.

            Lastly, the U.N. is working to develop an international partnership for development by promoting open trading and financial systems, targeting the financial needs of third world countries, assisting land-locked nations, deal with the debt of developing countries, develop work for third world countries and their young citizens, cooperate with drug companies to lower the cost of medications, and cooperate with businesses to make technology more affordable.

 2006 Conferences:

            The immediate future of the United Nations includes nine meetings: the World Urban Forum (on the future of substainable cities), the Commission on Human Rights, the Human Rights Committee, the World Conference on Art Education (the continuation of artistic endeavors for youths), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the United Nations Forum on Forests, the Commission for Social Development, an open ended working group for the International Covenant (Economic, Social, and Cultural rights), the Conference on Disarmament (opened in January). World Health Day (April 7) and World Environment Day (June 5) are special observances to be held in 2006 also.

 Main Goals of UN:

            In a nut shell, the United Nations is working towards a global system of checks and balances through partnerships amongst countries. As the world becomes more entangled by economy and health, the presence of healthy international relationships is the key to solving the problems every nation has, at one time or another, encountered. Poverty, illness, and death are universal struggles that the U.N. is aiming to reduce or eliminate in the future.  

Supporting the Future: Students

            While the U.N. is still a fairly new organization, it has a large following in high schools and colleges through the Model U.N. The Model UN is a club that allows students to participate in conferences as represented nations. Since the early 1920’s, schools have run simulations of the League of Nations, which has thus evolved to the U.N. The U.N. supports the Model U.N. through a site called the Cyber School Bus and various conferences throughout the year. Learn more about Model Conferences HERE.

Last Updated: March 19, 2006