About Millennium Promise 
Millennium Promise is the leading international nonprofit organization solely committed to accelerating achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the eradication of extreme poverty, hu nger, and preventable disease.
Our vision becomes action through the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). As a partnership initiative with core science a nd policy leadership of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, alongside Millennium Promise's operational leadership, the MVP offers an innovative holistic approach to sustainable rural development.
Headquartered in New York with regional offices in Bamako, Mali, and Nairobi, Kenya, Millennium Promise operates 14 Mill ennium Village sites in 10 countries, and is working to mobilize a growing global alliance of public, private, and nonpr ofit partners who share our commitment to sustainable development and scaling-up effective ideas.
Together we are empowering 500,000 people in communities across sub-Saharan Africa with the tools and resources they need to escape extreme poverty for good.
Historical Context
In September of 2000, 189 United Nations member states convened under the leadership of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to commit their nations to a new global partnership for reducing extreme poverty worldwide by 2015.
We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals—worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries—but only if we break with business as usual.
The result of this meeting was the adoption of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of quantified objectives for addressing extreme poverty and its many root causes. The MDGs target income poverty, hunger, disease, and exclusion, while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability.
In 2002, world leaders signed the Monterrey Consensus, committing their support to the achievement of the Goals by contributing 0.7% of GNP (gross national product) to official development assistance. G8 leaders again pledged their commitment in 2005 at the Gleneagles Summit, agreeing to double aid to Africa by 2010 en route to larger increases by 2015.
Five years after the Goals were established, an inspired group of people began to see it was time for a movement to help mobilize the global community to fulfill these promises.
Millennium Promise is Born
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Millennium Promise Co-founder
Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
Ray Chambers
Millennium Promise Co-founder
United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Malaria
In 2005, Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the MDGs, teamed up with Ray Chambers, a pioneer of private-equity investing and a passionate philanthropist, to establish Millennium Promise.
The Millennium Promise Alliance would be the first international non-governmental organization solely committed to supporting the achievement of the MDGs, with a specific mandate to translate the world’s commitment to the MDGs through the mobilization of tangible results.
Powerful Partnerships
Millennium Promise set forth to assemble a robust global network of partners and industry leaders to support the new organization and its flagship initiative, the Millennium Villages Project.
Landmark early support from The Soros Fund helped to draw further investments by a passionate group of committed individuals, companies, foundations, and governments.
Technical and in-kind investments followed, including hundreds of thousands of insecticide treated mosquito nets from Sumitomo Chemical, hundreds of miles of piping from JM Eagle to bring safe water to communities, tons of fertilizer from Agrium and Mosaic, and essential drugs from Novartis, among many others. Today hundreds of supporters contribute to our work through financial, technical, and other support.
As a founding partner in the MVP, the Earth Institute, Columbia University, would bring world-class scientific expertise in almost every field related to the Project's work. The United Nations Development Programme served as the Project's implementing partner for the first five years.
Today, UNOPS provides human resource management services to Millennium Promise for its operations in Africa.
The most essential partnership is with the MVP's host countries, local governments, and the communities themselves. With on-the-ground teams comprised of local professionals and no expatriates serving as site team leaders, it is the communities themselves that own the Millennium Villages effort and oversee the day-to-day operations to bring about its objectives.
Some of Our Partners
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- FULL LIST OF PARTNERS
Holistic, community-led strategies are more effective than stand-alone programs. The Millennium Villages Project … has shown that synergistic investments in agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, business development, and environmental conservation can lead to rapid and considerable progress in food security, school attendance and performance, reduced hunger and improved livelihoods in a short period of time.
Helping to Build Sustainable Communities
Since 2006, Millennium Village communities have seen improvements in child and maternal health, enrolled more children in school, gained more access to cleaner water, and started more than 85 new business cooperatives.
Our work is possible because of the motivation and willingness of partners around the world to combine their efforts, merge their ideas, join forces with communities in Africa, and pursue the common goal of ending extreme poverty.
To become a Millennium Promise partner or learn more, click on Become a Donor or contact us at info@millenniumpromise.org.
Teaching a village to fish not only feeds entire families, but also leads to profound improvements in the standard of living.
Fishing has really helped me. I sell fish, and from my profits I was able to buy cows and get milk. I also save some of the money and use it for school fees for my child, and clothe my child. I can also buy household items like sugar, flour, meat, paraffin, and cooking fat.