END EXTREME POVERTY
Millennium Promise
432 Park Avenue South
Villagers in Mali join together for a community planning meeting. OverviewMillennium Promise works with impoverished communities, national and local governments, and partner organizations to implement high-impact programs aimed at transforming lives on the continent and engaging donor nations, corporations, and the general public in the effort. Our work is premised on the belief that, for the first time in history, our generation has the opportunity to end extreme poverty, hunger, and disease. MissionThe mission of Millennium Promise is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - eight globally endorsed objectives that address the many aspects of extreme poverty - in Africa by 2015. ProgramsOur flagship initiative, the Millennium Villages, now operating in 80 villages across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, takes a comprehensive approach to addressing extreme poverty. By combining the best scientific and local knowledge, Millennium Villages address all the major problems simultaneously -- hunger, disease, inadequate education, lack of safe drinking water, and absence of essential infrastructure -- to assist communities on their way to self-sustainable development. The project is already producing remarkable results. Millennium Promise also plays a leading role in mobilizing the private sector to find solutions to key problems that contribute to extreme poverty in Africa , like malaria, which kills between one and three million Africans a year. Millennium Promise is a founding partner of Malaria No More, an initiative launched at the December 2006 White House Summit on Malaria that seeks to galvanize corporations, foundations, faith-based groups, grassroots networks, and the public to support a comprehensive approach to controlling the deadly, yet preventable disease. ImpactCurrently, there are 80 Millennium Villages in sub-Saharan Africa. While, these villages are at different stages of implementation, all have achieved substantial increases in sustainable agriculture, health, education and infrastructure. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a leading British think tank, issued an independent review of the Millennium Villages project on November 3. In this report, ODI notes that “the MVP has recorded remarkable achievements on the ground” and that it has “demonstrated the impact of greater investment in evidence-based, low-cost interventions at the village level to make progress on the Millennium Development Goals.” The report recommends that donors support African countries that wish to join or scale up the project, noting that, “While all innovations imply risks, the risks of not acting – in terms of the continuing costs of poverty to individuals and nations – are unacceptable in the 21st century.” The complete report can also be downloaded at http://www.millenniumpromise.org/site/DocServer/ODI_MVPReview.pdf?docID=1781. FinancialChanging The Present will soon provide financial information on nonprofit organizations. |
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