The Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, are the blueprint for UN action in promoting development and serve as the framework for UN partnerships. In September 2000, 189 world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit agreed to the MDGs, a set of measurable goals and targets to be reached by 2015. The goals provide a framework of accountability and transparency by setting forth concrete targets, and also help strategically focus programs and grants. To meet these challenges the UN and its member states need the infrastructure and intellectual capital of the private sector.
Conversely, the MDGs are also important to business. There are growing international demands for companies to be more transparent and more accountable for the economic, social and environmental impact where they operate. There are three broad reasons why private industry's support of the MDGs make good business sense:
1. Investing in a sound environment in which to do business;
2. Managing the direct costs and risks of doing business;
3. Harnessing new business opportunities.
Business can make a contribution to the achievement of the MDGs through their:
• core business activities,
• social investment and philanthropic activities,
• and engagement in public policy dialogue and advocacy activities.