December 18, 2007

By Jenny Carless, News@Cisco

On November 1, 2007, as part of a global campaign known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations (UN), Google and Cisco unveiled MDG Monitor, a pioneering online site that tracks progress towards these eight important global goals, including decreasing global poverty by 2015. Cisco and Google partnered to create the unique application, which takes advantage of the power of the Internet and the Human Network to create awareness and collaboration in order to reach these goals as quickly as possible.

Tackling the World's Development Challenges

The MDGs, agreed upon in 2000 by leaders from 189 countries, call for quantified, time-bound progress in achieving eight specific objectives that respond to the world's main development challenges. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated MDG Monitor as an innovative means of both keeping track of progress and raising awareness.

"Achieving the goals is a truly global task, requiring governments, international organizations, private companies and civil society to work together," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

MDG Monitor tracks progress toward the goals in a number of categories in nearly every country. The site presents the most current data from multiple sources in development bellwethers like public health, education and women's empowerment. The idea is to keep the global community's eye firmly fixed on the goals and to provide vital information for policy makers and development practitioners worldwide.

Through country-specific fact sheets, interactive maps measuring global progress on the MDG indicators, and news and feature stories, the site enables users to better understand the MDGs and what it will take to achieve them. All of this information is also featured on Google Earth as an MDG layer.

The eight objectives to be achieved by 2015 are:

1.Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
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

Blueprint for a Better World

In partnering with Google to create MDG Monitor, Cisco provided expert consultancy as well as technical and financial support for the site's development.

Many of Cisco's corporate social responsibility initiatives - such as achieving universal primary education through its Global Education Initiatives and ensuring environmental sustainability through the company's efforts to reduce its own "carbon footprint" and those of its customers - are aligned with the MDGs.

"Cisco believes that the power of technology, along with human ingenuity in deploying it, can effectively address global socio-economic issues and lead to sustainable change," said Carlos Dominguez, senior vice president.

The MDGs serve as a blueprint governments can use in building a better world in the 21st century. Using the power of the network to bring focus to the needs of some countries and the successes of others, the MDG Monitor can effectively promote renewed national efforts, and guide expertise and resources to those in need.

Jenny Carless is a freelance writer based in Santa Cruz, CA.