Milennium Development Goals

عربي | 中文 | Español | Français | Русский

Advanced Search

Home : ITU-D : ICT Data and Statistics (IDS)

The UN Millennium Development Goals

The MDGs and how ITU is helping to track goal 8

In September 2000, world leaders came together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets - with a deadline of 2015 - that have become know as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs recognize the contribution that developed countries can make through trade, development assistance, debt relief, and technology transfer. Progress over time is measured for each of the eight MDGs through relevant targets and indicators.

ITU has been given the mandate to measure Target 8F, (of Goal 8): ‘In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications’. ITU is monitoring 3 indicators:

8.14: fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants,
8.15: mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants,
8.16: Internet users per 100 inhabitants.

Goals, targets and indicators

To track the 8 MDG goals, a framework including a specific set of targets and indicators were identified. The current official MDG framework, which was revised in 2007, supersedes the previous framework.

For a description of the monitoring process, and to access the MDG database, visit the UN Statistics Division.

Access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) by development status and region

	Fixed telephone lines per 100 population			Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 population			Internet users per 100 population
	1990	2000	2010	1990	2000	2010	1990	2000	2010
World	9.8	16.0	17.3	0.2	12.1	78.0	0.1	6.5	29.7
Developing Regions	2.3	7.9	11.9	0.0	5.4	70.0	0.0	2.1	21.1
Northern Africa	2.8	7.2	11.4	0.0	2.8	95.2	0.0	0.7	28.1
SSA	1.0	1.4	1.4	0.0	1.7	44.7	0.0	0.5	10.6
LAC	6.3	14.7	18.2	0.0	12.3	98.2	0.0	3.9	34.0
Latin America	6.2	14.9	18.7	0.0	12.6	101.1	0.0	4.0	34.6
Caribbean	7.0	11.3	10.7	0.1	7.5	58.5	0.0	2.9	25.4
Eastern Asia (EA)	2.4	13.7	23.9	0.0	9.9	66.0	0.0	3.7	36.1
EA without China	24.8	43.0	47.9	0.3	50.2	90.6	0.0	28.6	58.9
Southern Asia (SA)	0.7	3.2	4.2	0.0	0.4	60.5	0.0	0.5	8.3
SA without India	1.0	3.5	7.5	0.0	0.5	58.3	0.0	0.3	10.5
SEA	1.3	4.8	12.8	0.1	4.2	97.6	0.0	2.4	17.6
Western Asia	8.6	17.1	15.3	0.1	13.1	94.4	0.0	3.2	31.2
Oceania	3.3	5.2	6.0	0.0	2.4	41.1	0.0	1.8	6.5
Caucasus & Central Asia	7.9	8.8	12.9	0.0	1.3	91.7	0.0	0.5	24.0
Developed Regions	37.0	49.4	41.6	0.9	40.0	114.3	0.2	24.9	68.8
LDCs	0.3	0.5	1.0	0.0	0.3	33.7	0.0	0.1	4.6
LLDCs	2.4	2.8	3.9	0.0	1.1	43.6	0.0	0.3	9.1
SIDS	7.9	13.0	12.3	0.2	11.0	64.3	0.0	5.2	24.9

Note: SSA=Sub-Saharan Africa; LAC=Latin America and the Caribbean; SEA=South-eastern Asia; LDCs=Least Developed Countries; LLCDs=Landlocked Developing Countries; SIDS=Small Island Developing States. Regional classifications are those of the United Nations.
Source: ITU.

Links to official MDG sites

Visit the official UN site for the MDGs
The Millennium Project was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary-General to develop a concrete action plan to achieve the MDGs

Partners in tracking the MDGs

There are many organizations and many people working in different ways to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Visit the list of agencies that are providing information for monitoring progress toward the goals.

Latest MDG related reports and news

MDG Report 201 1 (available in the six UN languages) NEW
MDG Progress Chart 2010 (English, pfd.)
Link to all official MDG Reports
ITU also contributes to the UN MDG Gap Task Force, which is in charge of tracking existing international commitments and their fulfillment at the international and country level in the areas of official development assistance, market access (trade), debt relief, access to essential medicines and technology.