Social Impact

HNMUN 2010 is proud to support Millennium Promise as our charitable venture.

The Millennium Development Goals

Endorsed by 192 countries, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world’s time-bound and quantified targets for tackling the many dimensions of extreme poverty by 2015. The eight Goals are:

1. Eradicate Extreme hunger and Poverty
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Millennium Promise

The MDGs have galvanized an unprecedented global effort in the fight to end extreme poverty. However, progress has been uneven across the globe with sub-Saharan Africa the furthest off-track towards meeting the Goals. The mission of Millennium Promise is to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty in Africa by 2015. Their flagship project, the Millennium Villages, provides a framework to incubate new initiatives for the MDGs and to use the lessons learned to affect national and international policy dialogue in the effort to end extreme poverty, hunger and preventable disease.

Supported by world leaders in science, business and government, their work advances the global agenda to meet the basic needs of the world’s poorest people. The Millennium Villages now operate in 80 villages across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and takes a comprehensive approach to addressing extreme poverty. By combining the best scientific and local knowledge, Millennium Villages address all the major problems simultaneously to assist communities on their way to self-sustainable development. [Source: http://www.millenniumpromise.org/]

The Millennium Villages

Africa has the greatest proportion of people living in extreme poverty – more than 40 percent or roughly 300 million people living on less than US$1 a day. The continent’s environmental, epidemiological and geographical challenges render African countries most vulnerable to persistent extreme poverty. With rural communities stuck in a poverty trap, they are unable to make the investments in human capital and infrastructure required to achieve self-sustaining economic growth. Astounding statistics are as follows:

• Half the deaths of children under five in the developing world occur in this region.
• Eighty percent of the more than one million people who die annually from malaria are children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Although up dramatically, the net primary school enrollment ratio only recently reached 71% in 2005/06, from 58% in 1999/2000.
• Half a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to basic sanitation services.
• The region accounts for more than a third of those without improved drinking water supplies.
• Twenty-two million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV.

The Millennium Villages are proving that by fighting poverty at the village level through community-led development, rural Africa can escape the extreme poverty that traps hundreds of millions of people throughout the continent. Simple solutions like providing high-yield seeds, fertilizers, medicines, drinking wells and materials to build school rooms and clinics are effectively combating extreme poverty and nourishing communities into a new age of health and opportunity. Improved science and technology such as agroforestry, insecticide-treated bed nets, antiretroviral drugs, remote sensing, geographic information systems and Internet and mobile phone connectivity enriches this progress. With the help of new advances in science and technology, project personnel work with village communities to create and facilitate sustainable, community-led action plans that are tailored to the villages’ specific needs and designed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. [Source: http://www.millenniumpromise.org/]

What Harvard National Model United Nations Can Do

As a conference, we are 3000 delegates, 182 Harvard undergraduates, faculty advisors, and guest speakers. Here is what we can do:

• $50 – Treat 2,500 people with parasites.
• $100 – Protect 20 people from malaria.
• $250 – Feed 42 school children for one year.
• $500 – Give 100 children a better education.
• $1000 – Help 77 farmers feed their families.

These amounts represent the total cost for providing these items, including the costs of purchase and distribution, needed technical assistance, and the associated operational costs. We, as socially conscious individuals participating in a conference that champions the spirit of cooperation, can all contribute and support Millennium Promise and its overall mission. The examples provided are symbolic and donations will be used where needed most to help those living in poverty.

Look out for ways to get involved or donate during conference! Until then, find out more about Millennium Promise at http://www.millenniumpromise.org/ and their progress at http://blog.millenniumpromise.org/