Meeting the Millennium Goals:
6 Steps You Can Take Today
This video is my reply to a common response, "Wonderful ideals, but..'.
The 6 steps are practical actions that can go much further than rhetoric or donations.
6 STEPS
- FIND OUT: Read more about the Millennium Goals and the targets for 2015 and the Th!nk3: Developing World blogging competition.
- PICK a GOAL: Or combine some such as building partnerships for…
- ADOPT a country or a region to focus on: Start small - Australians might choose East Timor (Timor Leste) or a Pacific nation.
- BACK a project: Follow your head and look for what works, projects with a proven track record. Or follow your heart to where ever it leads you.
The UN fact sheets are a useful place to begin.
- SHARE your ideas: Join our Th!nk3: Developing World Community online. Spread the word. Facebook and tweet away!
- JOIN a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) you trust: Oxfam and Amnesty International are international choices I can recommend from
personal experience but there are lots more. Finding a local group working in the development area may suit you better.
Thanks to Paradoxaction for the music from their track 'Dreaming'.
Um, really? Don’t these just come down to “do something”? Only the last step is really practical, and even then, the benefits are going to be nebulous and delayed.
Meanwhile - http://www.kiva.org/lender/antyx - in the last two years, I have, without ever really making any discernible effort, spending any of my time and very little of my money, helped six people in developing nations grow their businesses and develop the economy of their village and their country. And I’m not boasting - the point is rather that even by my own self-obsessed rating, I have done almost nothing at all.
Andrei
I’m not that concerned about semantics. Whatever works! You’re links look interesting. I was thinking of posting on the financial transactions tax as well.
@ Andrei - It does sound banal - but the problem is that the vast majority of individuals don’t do anything and really do need to at least get more informed. Ignorance really shouldn’t be an excuse. The information is out there, and people need to go out and get it. So while I wouldn’t say many of the actions are practical - they are vital.
On another note… you just reminded me I have a Kiva account and that I haven’t allocated the money yet. Thanks!
I think that taking action is really important - even if it’s direct beneefit is often difficult to truly know. Helping small businesses and the like is also a good idea. But policy change at a national and even international level will have a bigger impact than anything else we can do!
An old colleague of mine used to say there’s nothing as practical as a good plan of action. He was a school principal and a poet so he was a bit cryptic at times. I suspect that the best Th!nk3 stories may well happen out of the blue anyway.
Jodi - see my first article. Also, http://www.kiva.org/team/thinkaboutit
Great thoughts thanks Kevin, think your video gives an ideal roadmap for people “looking to help.”
As editor of the Australasian-focused news/opinion site http://theangle.org, I’m looking for ways to use the site as a vehicle for action. Andrei, your links look very interesting, please tell me more, especially if you operate in the Pacific region.