UN's Window Into the World (22 photos)

Back in 2001, the United Nations adopted eight important goals that they agreed to achieve by the year 2015. Called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they included everything from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. Bill Gates called them "the best idea for focusing the world on fighting global poverty that [he has] ever seen." One of the ways they've chosen to shed light on these issues is with a photo contest. Putting a much-needed human face on the MDGs, the contest brought together a fascinating cross-section of culture, gender and economic background. In fact, all of the winning images portray ordinary people doing their best to better the world for themselves, their families and their communities.

The overall first prize winner was Tran Vinh Nghia's photo of fisherman in southeastern Vietnam bringing in the daily catch. “I took the photo Daily Work by chance one morning in the fishing village of Phu Hai,” Tran Vinh Nghia says. “These fishermen are busy collecting fish from the net with a hope to escape from poverty by the efforts of people in this area. The photo is like a message that calls on us to eradicate extreme poverty.”

Outside of this contest, UN Photo chronicles the history of the UN and its work. The collection includes coverage of historic UN meetings, events, and field coverage. Here we've compiled a set of photos that not only includes some of the contest winners, they also include some of the UN's most fascinating photos from around the world.

Uruguay