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Biotechnology and the UN's Millennium Development Goals

Nature Biotechnology volume 21, pages 1434–1436 (2003)Cite this article

All 189 United Nations (UN; New York, NY, USA) member states have committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. These goals are aimed at poverty alleviation, improved education and health, environmental sustainability and other development indicators (Table 1). They grew out of the commitment of the UN to promote sustained development and eliminate poverty worldwide. They help quantify progress by defining targets and indicators to measure them. The MDGs have the advantage of being agreeable to and having the support of the leaders of all UN member states, offering a comprehensive and multi-dimensional development framework, and setting clear quantifiable targets for countries to meet by 2015. Although at first glance, it may appear that science and technology have no role to play in meeting these development goals, a closer examination shows the opposite. In this article, we describe the potential contribution of biotechnology in realizing the UN MDGs.

Table 1 UN Millennium Development Goals
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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided primarily by the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund and Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute, with matching partners including GlaxoSmithKline, International Development Research Centre, Merck, Sun Life Financial, the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine and the University of Toronto. P.A.S. is supported by a Distinguished Investigator award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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  1. the University of Toronto Joint Center for Bioethics, University of Toronto, 88 College Street, Toronto, M5G 1L4, Ontario, Canada

    Tara Acharya, Abdallah S Daar & Peter A Singer

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  1. Tara Acharya
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  2. Abdallah S Daar
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  3. Peter A Singer
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Acharya, T., Daar, A. & Singer, P. Biotechnology and the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Nat Biotechnol 21, 1434–1436 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1203-1434

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