We were impressed with the many excellent submissions we received for our Millennium Development Goals poster design contest, organized in partnership with GOOD.

I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve selected Francesca Cianfarini and the entire team at Leftloft, a design company based in Milan, as the winner from among five finalists. You can see a slideshow of the final five posters over at GOOD.

We invited people to create posters that illustrated the progress made toward the MDGs, especially 1, 4, and 5, since these goals—eradicating extreme hunger and poverty and improving the health of mothers and children—align most closely with our own objectives as a foundation. Francesca’s evocative design was a clear favorite with the judges. 

See for yourself:

You can also download the winning poster (PDF, 428KB) and the runner-up (PDF, 205KB).

She highlights the amazing progress the world has made in reducing the child mortality rate by immunizing children for measles. According to the World Health Organization, measles deaths dropped by 78 percent between 2000 and 2008, which means approximately 12.7 million lives saved.

We would like to hear your thoughts on the MDGs and how we can keep making progress toward achieving their goals by 2015, when they expire, and beyond. So please join the conversation taking place on our website or via Facebook, Twitter, and our community page.  We’re hoping you can join us online for the live webcast of TEDxChange or at any of the now 50 live satellite events happening around the world. You can RSVP to watch the webcast via Facebook.

Look for much more from me in the weeks ahead on these crucial issues, and congratulations to Francesca and Leftloft for a thoughtful design that tells the story of the work being done to save millions of lives.