In September 2000, 189 member states of the United Nations, including Germany, adopted the “Millennium Declaration”. This brings together the challenges to the world community at the start of the new millennium in four key objectives:
1. Peace, security and disarmament
2. Development and poverty eradication
3. Protecting our common environment
4. Human rights, democracy and good governance.
To implement the Millennium Declaration, a list of international development goals was formulated. The eight goals in this list became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The main goal is to halve world poverty by 2015.

New principles emphasised in the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs are policy coherence, a coordinated approach by the various actors in development cooperation in partnership with the developing countries, and focus on results. The MDGs are binding goals which set clear deadlines and specific targets. They do, however, leave open how these goals are to be achieved. The approach for achieving the goals in a given country accordingly has to be determined specifically for each individual country.

In September 2005 the signatory states will meet in a UN Summit in New York to review progress in achieving the goals.