Organization Profile: 8 Goals Coalition

by Fabian Musefano, SCPA Intern for Apathy is Boring — April 15, 2008

The 8 Goals Coalition is a group of organizations whose aim is to promote the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) put forth by the United Nations in 2000 to combat poverty, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. The coalition mobilizes students from universities and colleges to campaign for the achievement of the MDGs.

Issues

As the coalition’s name suggests, 8 Goals addresses the following eight objectives:

To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
To achieve universal primary education;
To promote gender equality and empowering women; 
To reduce the child mortality rate; 
To improve maternal health; 
To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; 
To ensure environmental sustainability;
To develop a global partnership for development.

In Canada, the 8 Goals Coalition is determined to have the federal government cancel debt for poor nations, increase foreign aid to 0.7% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and advocate for an improved fair trade justice system.

How to get involved

Individually, you can advocate on behalf of 8Goals by learning about the relevant issues, joining the groups that deal with them, and mobilizing during key action days. For instance, International Development Week is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the MDGs on your campus. Campus activists can champion the goals by setting up information booths, selling white bands to raise funds for the Coalition, distributing 8 Goals material, holding information sessions, organizing benefit concerts, or holding a day of action are all ways that you can get involved with the campaign.
To find out more on how to participate in 8 Goals Coalition’s initiatives go to http://www.8goals.ca/site/get_involved

Interesting facts

The 8 Goals Coalition is extremely well known and respected globally. Its influence can be seen at the very highest levels of government: apparently, the Supreme Court in India ordered the government to increase funding for women and children’s supplementary nutrition to increase India’s chances of meeting the millennium development goals.

Source:http://www.8goals.ca/