Nick 2015 Initiative

This initiative involves partnership between a United Nations agency programme and an entertainment organisation. Through this collaboration, organisers have created a series of 8 original animated shorts that are designed to appeal to young viewers but that include factual, educational information on the MDGs. Reflecting on this strategy, Bill Roedy, Vice Chairman MTV Networks and President MTV Networks International, said: "Through Nickelodeon's uniquely kid-centric perspective, the Nick 2015 initiative makes the Millennium Campaign relevant to kids and empowers them to play a role in shaping their future."

Along these lines, the short films, which may be viewed on the Millennium Campaign website (in 18 languages), focus on inspiring kids to talk to others about the development issues highlighted by the MDGs, such as poverty and hunger, education and equity, the environment and health, as well as to use their voices to put pressure on world leaders. Celebrities lent their voices to help inspire kids: India's Miss Universe 2000 Lara Dutt, the Phillipines' Kitchie Nadal and Gary Calenciana, and Danish/Swedish actor Shanti Rooney and Nordic VJ Amelia voiced over the spots in their regions.

The Nick 2015 website is one key tool for helping kids understand what is at stake in meeting the 2015 deadline, and for encouraging them to take action to speak up and demand that their governments live up to the promises they made in 2000. An online petition is designed to engage kids in advocacy. To enable broad(er) access, the website is offered in 16 languages; users click on a particular country flag to indicate their language choice. The website is interactive, and features colourful, diverse images of children.

In addition to information and communication technology (ICT), awards were used as an incentive to increase participation, learning, and creative reflections/expressions on the part of children. The theme of the Nick 2015 "Hear My Voice" contest was Aspirations. Any type of artwork could be submitted, including photographs, poems, essays, paintings, collages, drawings, and so on. The instructions read, "Do something that represents your life today and then something that you want in your life in 2015." Organisers received over 150 entries. Selected pieces from each country are expected to displayed at the foyer of the United Nations Building in New York early in 2006.

Children, Youth, Poverty, Hunger, Education, Gender Equality, Maternal and Child Health, HIV/AIDS and Malaria, Environment, and Partnership.

An initiative of the United Nations, the Millennium Campaign supports citizens' efforts to hold their government to account for the Millennium promise. Nickelodeon is a multimedia entertainment brand dedicated exclusively to kids. Its channels, branded programme blocks, and broadband services reach a total of 283 million households in 163 territories worldwide; programming is also aired on third-party broadcasters in major territories around the world, increasing Nickelodeon's exposure to 669 million households.

Nick 2015 was designed in anticipation of the September 2005 New York meeting of world leaders. Organisers argue that the Nick 2015 initiiative is important in light of current conditions in which more than a billion people worldwide survive on less than a dollar a day, over 11 million children under the age of 5 die each year from preventable diseases, and 7,000 young people contract HIV/AIDS every day.