2026-06-27http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/220518At the Millennium Development Summit held in September 2000, the member States of the United Nations reaffirmed their priority commitment to fight against poverty and for sustained development.[1] Taking forward the recommendations of the various world conferences held during the previous decade, eight fundamental development goals[2] were discussed and approved (see box), while a framework was established for monitoring progress towards their achievement (World Bank Group, 2000). These goa ls reflect a present-day consensus on the priority problems of development and on the efforts to be agreed, both individually for each country and globally for the world community as a whole, to deal with these problems effectively. Deadlines, together with specific results to be achieved to allow substantial progress to be made, were accordingly drawn up; at the same time, a number of indicators were suggested whereby results could be assessed in a harmonized way.96FAOBook (stand-alone)