Where Extreme Poverty Ends and Urban Transformations Begin
The Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), a project of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, assists sub-Saharan cities in their efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, thereby helping to make severe poverty a thing of the past. MCI helps selected, under-resourced urban centers become viable, sustainable “Millennium Cities” — each with distinct livelihood opportunities, improved access to public services and links with the countryside and international markets. MCI accomplishes this through a combination of research and policy analysis, and by working with local, domestic and international partners to stimulate economic and social development.
MCI Progress Report
"Spurring Sustainable Urban Development: Effecting Lasting Change in the Millennium Cities" is MCI’s latest progress report. This report celebrates MCI’s accomplishments in the course of our first six years, from our comprehensive research to our support for new investment opportunities to our groundbreaking programs in public health, education, gender equality, water, sanitation and urban design. We also take a look ahead at the next phase of our work, which will focus on empowering the Millennium Cities and enabling them to effect lasting change.
MCI Celebrates World Read Aloud Day and International Women's Day
Two recent events married issues about which MCI cares deeply: literacy and equality for women and girls. On March 7, we celebrated World Read Aloud Day, organized by our partner LitWorld to encourage people around the world to engage in literacy-strengthening activities. Click here to read about the celebrations that took place in Kisumu, Kenya.
On March 8, MCI honored International Women’s Day. Our Director, Susan Blaustein, published a blog noting women’s and girl’s achievements, as well as work remaining, focusing on some of the areas in which MCI has begun to take on this challenge. Read her blog, "Celebrating International Women's Day: Triumphs and Challenges - MCI and Partners Strive to Create Replicable Models and Fill Key Gaps for Women and Girls in the Millennium Cities."
"We will support the Millennium Development Goals ... and we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time."
U.S. President Barack Obama
Learn More
Learn more about MCI's approach to confronting the challenges faced by Africa’s urban residents. As our video suggests, there is a global movement underway, committed to improving the quality of life for millions of Africa’s urban residents. Watch the video.
Read Our Recent News
Johnson & Johnson Supports a Neonatal Resuscitation Program in Northern Ethiopia
Shadrack Ngewa Joins MCI as Kisumu's Social Sector Specialist
MCI and Kisumu, Kenya, Renew Partnership for Sustainable Urban Development
The Urban Design Lab and MCI Release Urban Development in Accra, Ghana: An Implementation Toolkit
Join MCI on March 7 and 8 to Celebrate World Read Aloud Day and International Women's Day
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