Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session # 2560

Engineering and the Millennium Development Goals

Dato’ Ir Lee Yee-Cheong, President World Federation of Engineering Organizations

Russel C. Jones, Chairman WFEO Committee on Capacity Building

Abstract

This paper outlines elements of a global action program to apply science, technology and innovation (STI) to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For purposes of the report, STI is used to mean the generation, use and diffusion of all forms of useful knowledge as well as the evolution of associated institutional arrangements. The MDGs include: halving extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and gender equity, reducing under-five mortality and maternal mortality by two-thirds and three-quarters respectively, reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and ensuring environmental sustainability. They also include the goal of developing a global partnership for development, with targets for aid, trade and debt relief. As a long-term vision, the idea is to see achieving the MDGs as steps towards longer term targets for developing global learning mechanisms, which facilitate the building of internal capacity in developing countries such that the institutions for learning can in the long run act as an engine for growth in these countries.

Introduction

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 world leaders passed the Millennium Declaration, which formally established the Millenium Development Goals. Since then the MDGs have become the international reference standard for measuring and tracking improvements in the human condition in developing countries. They have the advantage of (i) a political mandate agreed by the leaders of all UN member states, (ii) offering a comprehensive and multi-dimensional development framework, and (iii) setting clear quantifiable targets to be achieved in all countries by 2015.

The full list of Millenium Development Goals follows:

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Jones, R. (2005, June), Engineering And The Millennium Development Goals Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15365