title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: A team of four women (a fifth having abandoned the team before entering) crosses the border into an uninhabited area known as "Area X," an unspecified coastal location that has been closed to the public for three decades. The group comprises the 12th expedition into Area X and consists of a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor, none of whom are ever identified by name. The story is told through the biologist's field journal, written near the end of the expedition. It is revealed that the biologist's husband was part of the preceding 11th expedition, from which he had returned unexpectedly, showing up in their kitchen without any recollection of how he got there. The other members of the 11th expedition had shown up similarly, and a few months later, her husband and all the others had died of cancer.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: After the first night spent at the base camp, the 12th expedition comes upon a structure containing a set of spiral stairs descending into the ground. Inside the structure (which the biologist repeatedly calls a tower), along the staircase, they find cursive writing that begins with the words "Where lies the strangling fruit..." The words appear to be written with a plant material growing several inches from the exterior wall. While the biologist examines the writing, she accidentally inhales spores from this material. After returning from the tower, the biologist discovers that the psychologist, who is the appointed leader, has programmed the group with specific triggers via hypnosis. By saying the phrase "consolidation of authority," the psychologist hypnotizes all except the biologist, who believes that the spores she has inhaled have made her resistant. The group decides to return to base camp, and at dusk, they hear a moaning noise from far away.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: After a night at base camp, the anthropologist is missing; the psychologist claims she decided to leave and return to the border. The group then makes their way back to the "tower," where the psychologist stands watch while the surveyor and the biologist descend the stairs. The biologist sees that the tower is made of living tissue, which the surveyor cannot perceive due to lingering hypnotic suggestion. Eventually, they come upon the body of the anthropologist, whom they believe came into fatal contact with the writer of the text on the wall (which the biologist names "the Crawler"). Returning to the top, they find the psychologist missing and, after a fruitless search, decide to return to base camp. That night the biologist sees a light from the area of a distant lighthouse. The next day, the biologist is conscious of a "brightness" growing within herself, which she attributes to the spores. She leaves for the lighthouse while the surveyor stays behind.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: At the lighthouse, the biologist finds a large pile of journals from past expeditions, indicating that there have been many more expeditions than they had been told about. One of the journals belongs to her late husband. She also finds a photograph of someone she thinks is the lighthouse keeper from 30 years previously, when Area X had been abandoned. Near the base of the lighthouse, she finds the psychologist seriously injured after jumping from the top. Perceiving the biologist as glowing and frightened by her approach, the psychologist repeatedly screams the word "annihilation" in an attempt to induce suicide in the biologist through hypnotic suggestion. Before dying, the psychologist tells the biologist that the border is expanding slowly northward toward the Southern Reach's facility.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: As the biologist returns to base camp, she has a close encounter with the moaning creature that the team has heard every night in the reeds. She is able to escape but is ambushed by the surveyor, who is also terrified of her glow. They exchange gunfire. With newly-enhanced perception and reflexes, the biologist manages to outflank and kill the surveyor but is wounded. She learns that being injured impedes the process of her "brightening," which continues to take over her body as she recovers.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: Now the only surviving member of the 12th expedition, the biologist takes time to analyze plant and animal samples she has gathered and discovers that some have human cells. She also reads her husband's journal and finds that his all-male team of eight was designated "11G," suggesting multiple "11th expeditions." Her husband's team had found the "tower" on their fifth day but did not explore it, moving to the lighthouse first. After discovering the massive pile of journals, the team of explorers split up, with two members choosing to explore the tower, four deciding to remain in the lighthouse, and the biologist's husband and his team's surveyor choosing to explore the land beyond. Finding that Area X seemed to stretch out indefinitely, they returned to the lighthouse, only to find that their team's psychologist had been murdered by a beast and then somehow resurrected and that the rest of the men had turned on one another. At the tower, they were unable to find the other two men but later saw doppelgängers of the team's members — including themselves and all except the psychologist — entering the tower. At this point, the two decided to abandon their mission and leave Area X, the surveyor attempting to return via the way the team had entered, and the biologist's husband trying to cross the border via boat, following the shore.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: After reading her husband's journal, the biologist returns to the tower. She makes her way down the spiral staircase and eventually finds the Crawler. After a nearly fatal encounter, she continues down the stairs until she sees a door. Unable to continue, she returns toward the top, perceiving within the Crawler the face of the lighthouse keeper from the photograph. The biologist decides to remain in Area X and seek some trace of her late husband.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: The reviews for "Annihilation" have been generally positive. Jason Sheehan of National Public Radio described the book as page-turning and suspenseful, saying, "about three hours later, I looked up again with half the book behind me and wondered how I'd gotten from there to here." Salon.com named it book of the week while "GQ" Magazine recognized it as one of the top books for the month of February and said that it was "about an intelligent, deadly fungus [which] makes for an enthralling read." "The Washington Post" said that it was "successfully creepy, an old-style gothic horror novel set in a not-too-distant future" while "The Daily Telegraph" said that it "shows signs of being the novel that will allow VanderMeer to break through to a new and larger audience." "Entertainment Weekly" gave "Annihilation" a B+ rating.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: The novel won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: In 2014, Paramount Pictures acquired rights to the novel, with writer-director Alex Garland set to adapt the script and direct the film. In May 2015, Natalie Portman entered into talks to star in the film. In November 2015, "Jane the Virgin" star Gina Rodriguez was in talks to co-star in the film with Portman. In March 2016, it was announced that Oscar Isaac would join the cast of the film.


title: Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

text: Garland stated to "Creative Screenwriting" that his adaptation is based on only the first novel of the trilogy, saying, "At the point I started working on "Annihilation", there was only one of the three books. I knew that it was planned as a trilogy by the author, but there was only the manuscript for the first book." Location filming by Lighthouse Pictures Ltd occurred, starting in late April 2016 in South Forest, Windsor Great Park. Lighthouse Pictures has a charge arrangement registered with UK Companies House regarding the matter. Production was confirmed to begin as David Gyasi was added to the cast. The teaser trailer for the film premiered in September 2017, and the film was released on February 23, 2018, to very positive reviews. The film, however, only made $43.1 million on a $40–55 million budget and was a box office bomb.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: Sixpence None the Richer (also known as Sixpence) is an American Christian alternative rock band that formed in New Braunfels, Texas, and eventually settled in Nashville, Tennessee. They are best known for their songs "Kiss Me" and "Breathe Your Name" and their covers of "Don't Dream It's Over" and "There She Goes". The name of the band is inspired by a passage from the book "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: The band received two Grammy Award nominations, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "Kiss Me" and Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album for "Sixpence None the Richer" (1997).


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: Guitarist/songwriter Matt Slocum met Leigh Nash in the early 1990s. They recorded a demo, which circulates as "The Original Demos", with bassist T.J. Behling at Verge Music Works recording studio in Dallas, and eventually an album, "The Fatherless and the Widow", for the independent label REX Music in 1993. After adding more members, the band toured in support of "The Fatherless and The Widow". The band released "This Beautiful Mess" in 1995.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: In 1997, the group signed to Steve Taylor's label Squint Entertainment and released a self-titled album, which slowly began garnering attention from a wider audience in the mainstream industry.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: In 1998, "Kiss Me" was released as a single, propelling Sixpence None the Richer into the national pop spotlight. The next year, the band followed up "Kiss Me" with a cover of The La's' "There She Goes". Sixpence appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", and numerous morning talk shows.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: The band had a follow-up album ready to release, but their label Squint Entertainment started to fall apart, leaving the band in limbo for several years. Finally, Squint Entertainment folded and that album, "Divine Discontent", was released in October 2002.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: In November 2007, Sixpence None the Richer reunited. They released the EP "My Dear Machine" on the website NoiseTrade in 2008, the band's first official release since "The Best of Sixpence None the Richer" in 2004.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: Sixpence signed to Credential Recordings and played a headline slot at the 2009 Greenbelt Festival in the UK. According to Leigh Nash, the band began recording a new album in January 2010. The album was released on August 7, 2012.


title: Sixpence None the Richer

text: On November 12, 2016, the band performed at Love Love Rock Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, including hits "Don't Dream It's Over", "Kiss Me" and "There She Goes".


title: Peshmerga

text: The Peshmerga () is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, are responsible for the security of Kurdistan Region, due to the fact that the Iraqi Armed Forces are forbidden by Iraqi law to enter Iraqi Kurdistan. These subsidiaries include Asayish (intelligence agency), "Parastin u Zanyarî" (assisting intelligence agency) and the Zeravani (Gendarmerie). The history of Peshmerga dates back to 18th century, starting out as a strictly tribal pseudo-military border guard under the Ottomans and Safavids and later changing to a well-trained, disciplined guerrilla force in the 19th century.


title: Peshmerga

text: Formally, the Peshmerga are under the command of the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs. In reality, the Peshmerga force itself is largely divided and controlled separately by the two regional political parties: Democratic Party of Kurdistan and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Unifying and integrating the Peshmerga has been on the public agenda since 1992, but the forces remain divided due to factionalism which has proved to be a major stumbling block.


title: Peshmerga

text: In 2003, during the Iraq War, Peshmerga played a key role in the mission to capture Saddam Hussein. In 2004, they captured key al-Qaeda figure Hassan Ghul, who revealed the identity of Osama bin Laden's messenger, which eventually led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.


title: Peshmerga

text: The word "Peshmerga" can be translated to "to stand in front of death", and Valentine states it was first used by Qazi Muhammad in the short-lived Mahabad Republic (1946–47). The word is understandable to Persian speakers.


title: Peshmerga

text: The Kurdish warrior tradition of rebellion has existed for thousands of years along with aspirations for independence, and early Kurdish warriors fought against the various Persian empires, the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire.


title: Peshmerga

text: Historically the Peshmerga existed only as guerrilla organizations, but under the self-declared Republic of Mahabad (1946–1947), the Peshmerga led by Mustafa Barzani became the official army of the republic. After the fall of the republic and the execution of head of state Qazi Muhammad, Peshmerga forces reemerged as guerrilla organizations that would go on to fight the Iranian and Iraqi governments for the remainder of the century.


title: Peshmerga

text: In Iraq, most of these Peshmerga were led by Mustafa Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In 1975 the Peshmerga were defeated in the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War. Jalal Talabani, a leading member of the KDP, left the same year to revitalize the resistance and founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. This event created the baseline for the political discontent between the KDP and PUK that to this day divides Peshmerga forces and much of Kurdish society in Kurdistan.


title: Peshmerga

text: After Mustafa Barzani's death in 1979, his son Masoud Barzani took his position. As tension increased between KDP and PUK, most Peshmerga fought to keep a region under their own party's control while also fighting off Iraqi Army incursions. Following the First Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Kurdistan saw the Kurdish Civil War between the two major parties, the KDP and the PUK, and Peshmerga forces were used to fight each other. The civil war officially ended in September 1998 when Barzani and Talabani signed the Washington Agreement establishing a formal peace treaty. In the agreement, the parties agreed to share revenue and power, deny the use of northern Iraq to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and not allow Iraqi troops into the Kurdish regions. By then, around 5,000 had been killed on both sides, and many more had been evicted for being on the wrong side. In the years after, tension remained high, but both parties moved towards each other, and in 2003 they both took part in the overthrowing of the Baathist regime as part of the Iraq War. Unlike other militia forces, the Peshmerga were never prohibited by Iraqi law.


title: Peshmerga

text: The Peshmerga are mostly divided among forces loyal to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and those loyal to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), while other, minor Kurdish parties such as the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party also have their own small Peshmerga units. The KDP and PUK do not disclose information about the composition of their forces with government or media. Thus there is no reliable number of how many Peshmerga fighters exist. Media outlets have speculated that there are between 150,000 and 200,000 Peshmerga, but this number is highly disputed. Peshmerga have divided Kurdistan Region into a KDP-governed "yellow" zone covering Dohuk Governorate and Erbil Governorate and a PUK-governed "green" zone covering Sulaymaniyah Governorate and Halabja Governorate. Each zone has its own branch of Peshmerga with their own governing institutions that do not coordinate with the other branch.


title: Peshmerga

text: As a result of the split nature of the Peshmerga forces, there is no central command center in charge of the entire force, and Peshmerga units instead follow separate military hierarchies depending on political allegiance. Multiple unification and depoliticizing efforts of the Peshmerga have been made since 1992. But so far all deadlines have been missed, reforms have been watered down, and most of the Peshmerga are still under the influence of the KDP and the PUK, who also maintain their separate Peshmerga forces. Following the events of the Iraqi Civil War in 2014, the United States and several Europe nations pressured the PUK and KDP to set up mixed brigades of Peshmerga as a condition for aid and funding. The PUK and KDP united 12 to 14 brigades under the Regional Guard Brigades, which were then placed under the command of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs. However, officers continue to report to and take orders from their party leaders who also control the deployment of forces loyal to them and appoint front-line and sector commanders


title: Peshmerga

text: Both the KDP and the PUK rely heavily on irregulars in times of conflict to increase their ranks. However, both maintain several professional military brigades. The following units have been identified within the Peshmerga force:


title: Peshmerga

text: Due to limited funding and the vast size of the Peshmerga forces, the KRG has long planned to downsize its forces from large numbers of low-quality forces to a smaller but much more effective and well-trained force. Consequently, in 2009, the KRG and Baghdad engaged in discussions about incorporating parts of the Peshmerga forces into the Iraqi Army in what would be the 15th and 16th Iraqi Army divisions. However, after increasing tension between Erbil and Baghdad regarding the disputed areas, the transfer was largely put on hold. Some Peshmerga were already transferred but reportedly deserted again, and there are allegations that former Peshmerga forces remained loyal to the KRG rather than their Iraqi chain of command; regardless, thousands of members of the 80 Unit of KDP and the 70 Unit of PUK are based in Baghdad, and they have good cooperation with other Iraqi forces in Baghdad.


title: Peshmerga

text: Peshmerga forces largely rely on old arms captured from battles. The Peshmerga captured stockpiles of weapons during the 1991 Iraqi uprisings. Several stockpiles of weapons were captured from the old Iraqi Army during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, in which Peshmerga forces were active. Following the retreat of the new Iraqi Army during the June 2014 Islamic State offensive, Peshmerga forces reportedly again managed to get hold of weapons left behind by the Army. Since August 2014, Peshmerga forces have also captured weapons from the Islamic State. In 2015, for the first time, Peshmerga soldiers received urban warfare and military intelligence training from foreign trainers, the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.


title: Peshmerga

text: The Peshmerga arsenal is limited and confined by restrictions because the Kurdish Region has to purchase arms through the Iraqi government. Due to disputes between the KRG and the Iraqi government, arms flows from Baghdad to Kurdistan Region have been almost nonexistent, as Baghdad fears Kurdish aspirations for independence. After the Islamic State offensive of August 2014, multiple governments armed the Peshmerga with some light equipment such as light arms, night goggles, and ammunition. However, Kurdish officials and Peshmerga stressed that they were not receiving enough. They also stress that Baghdad was blocking all arms from reaching the KRG, emphasizing the need for weapons to be sent directly to the KRG and not through Baghdad. Despite this, the United States has maintained that the government of Iraq is responsible for the security of Iraqi Kurdistan and that Baghdad must approve all military aid.


title: Peshmerga

text: The Peshmerga lack a proper medical corps and communication units. This became apparent during the Islamic State offensive in 2014 where the Peshmerga found itself lacking ambulances and frontline field hospitals, forcing wounded fighters to walk back to safety. There is also a lack of communication tools, as Peshmerga commanders are forced to use civilian cellphones to communicate with each other. Under the guidance of the US-led coalition the Peshmerga has started to standardize its weapons systems, replacing Soviet-era weapons with NATO firearms.


title: Peshmerga

text: The Peshmerga forces are plagued by frequent allegations of corruption, partisanship, nepotism, and fraud. A common result of corruption in the Peshmerga are "ghost employees" which are employees on paper who either do not exist or do not show up for work but receive a salary. Those setting up such a scam split the salary of these employees.


title: Peshmerga

text: In addition the KDP and PUK have used the Peshmerga to exert or attempt to exert a monopoly on the use of force within their zones. In 2011 KDP Peshmerga fired on anti-government protesters in Sulaymaniyah, and the PUK later used its own security forces to break up these protests, leading to criticism from all of the opposition parties in the parliament. In 2014 the KDP used its Peshmerga to stop ministers from the Gorran Movement to enter Erbil and attend parliament.


title: Peshmerga

text: Outside of Kurdistan Region the Peshmerga has been accused of using force to exert control of local Arab, Yazidi and Assyrian communities, particularly after taking control of areas officially outside of Kurdistan Region during the Iraqi Civil War.


title: Peshmerga

text: Women have played a significant role in the Peshmerga since its foundation. The Kurdish Zand tribe was known for allowing women in military roles. During the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict the majority of women served within the Peshmerga in supporting roles such as building camps, taking care of the wounded, and carrying munitions and messages. Several women brigades served on the front lines. Margaret George Malik was an iconic Assyrian guerilla fighter who was given a leading position in important battles such as the battle of Zawita Valley. The PUK started recruiting women during the Kurdish Civil War. Women were given a 45-day basic training that included parade drills and basic marksmanship with various rifles, mortars, and RPGs.


title: Peshmerga

text: In the months leading up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the United States launched Operation Viking Hammer which dealt a huge blow to Islamic terrorist groups in Iraqi Kurdistan and uncovered a chemical weapons facility. The PUK later confirmed that female Kurdish fighters had participated in the operation.


title: Peshmerga

text: The modern Peshmerga is almost entirely made up of men, while having at least 600 women in their ranks. In the KDP, these Peshmerga women have been refused access to the frontline and are mostly used in logistics and management positions, but PUK Peshmerga women are deployed in the front lines and are actively engaged in combat.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The Lincoln Town Car is a model line of full-size luxury sedans that was marketed by the Lincoln division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. Deriving its name from a limousine body style, Lincoln marketed the Town Car from 1981 to 2011, with the nameplate previously serving as the flagship trim of the Lincoln Continental. Produced across three generations for 30 model years, the Town Car was marketed directly against luxury sedans from Cadillac and Chrysler.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Marketed nearly exclusively as a four-door sedan (a two-door sedan was offered for 1981 only), many examples of the Town Car were used for fleet and livery (limousine) service. From 1983 to its 2011 discontinuation, the Town Car was the longest car produced by Ford worldwide, becoming the longest mass-production car sold in North America from 1997 to 2011. While not a direct successor of the Town Car, the Lincoln MKS would become the longest American sedan until 2016 (overtaken by the Cadillac CT6).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: From 1980 until 2007, the Lincoln Town Car was assembled in Wixom, Michigan, (Wixom Assembly) alongside the Lincoln Continental, LS, and Mark VI, VII, and VIII. After that factory closed, Town Car production moved to Southwold, Ontario, (St. Thomas Assembly) alongside the similar Ford Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis. That factory was closed in September 2011; the final Lincoln Town Car came off the assembly line on August 29, 2011.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Within the Lincoln model line, the Town Car was not directly replaced; the nameplate was used from 2012 to 2019 to denote livery/limousine/hearse variants of the Lincoln MKT. For 2017, the revived Continental replaced the MKS, closely matching the Town Car in wheelbase and width.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In the 1920s, a town car was a body design typically used for limousines. The description originated from the horse-drawn carriage that featured an open chauffeur's compartment with a fixed roof for the passengers. During that era, the fixed rear roof horse-drawn carriage became a limousine and the term "de Ville" in French meant "for town (use)". In 1922, Edsel Ford purchased a custom-built Lincoln L-Series town car as a personal vehicle for his father, Henry Ford.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Later, the ""sedan de Ville"" was used as a model name by Cadillac, the primary rival to the Lincoln Continental from the 1950s to the 1990s.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 1959, Lincoln augmented its pre-existing Continental lineup with the addition of two formal sedans known as the Town Car and Limousine. Both new vehicles featured pillared construction, interiors of broadcloth and scotch-grain leather as well as deep pile carpeting. No options were offered, all equipment including air conditioning being standard; the Limousine came with a glass partition between the front and rear seats.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In place of the reverse-slant roofline used by all other Continentals (including convertibles), the Town Car/Limousine was styled with a notchback roofline with a heavily padded vinyl top and an inset rear window. In addition to the slightly restrained styling, the change in the roofline was also functional. To add rear-seat legroom, the rear seat was repositioned without any modification to the wheelbase. In the years to follow, both Imperial and Cadillac would redesign the rooflines on their own range-topping vehicles (the LeBaron and Fleetwood Sixty-Special) to appear more formal and limousine-like.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: One of the rarest vehicles ever produced by Ford Motor Company, 214 Town Cars and 83 Limousines were produced from 1959 until 1960; all were painted black.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 1970, the Town Car name returned as a trim package option, including leather seating surfaces and deeper cut-pile carpeting. For 1971, a limited-edition (1500 produced) Golden Anniversary Continental Town Car commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of Lincoln. For 1972, the Town Car was introduced as a sub-model of the Lincoln Continental model line. On nearly all examples, a vinyl top covered the rear half of the roof, with a full-length configuration optional. A raised molding over the roof incorporated coach lamps on the B-pillars. For 1973, Lincoln introduced a two-door variant of the Continental Town Car, named the Town Coupe. As with the Town Car, the Town Coupe was offered with a standard vinyl roof.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: As part of the 1975 redesign of the Lincoln roofline, the Town Car adopted the oval opera windows of the Mark IV coupe, with the Town Coupe given a large rectangular opera window.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The Continental Town Car proved to be a success for the division, becoming the most popular Lincoln vehicle of the 1970s (as the Mark IV and Mark V were not technically branded as Lincolns).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 1980, Lincoln became the final American brand to market downsized full-size cars. In its redesign, the Lincoln Continental shifted from the largest production sedan in North America to a design with a smaller exterior footprint than Cadillac. The Continental Town Car returned as the top trim for the Lincoln model range; in its own downsizing, the Mark series introduced the Continental Mark VI. Though technically not badged a Lincoln, the Mark VI shared its chassis and much of the body with the Continental to reduce development and production costs.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: While Lincoln had brought downsized model lines to production, from a marketing standpoint, the consolidation of the Continental, Continental Town Car/Town Coupe, and the Mark VI proved catastrophic. Following the early 1980 withdrawal of the slow-selling Lincoln Versailles, Lincoln-Mercury dealers offered three highly similar vehicles across a wide price range in the same showroom. The discontinuation of the Versailles also marked the return of Lincoln exclusively to the full-size sedan segment, leaving nothing to sell against European-brand luxury vehicles.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For the 1981 model year, Lincoln underwent a revision to transition its full-size model range from three nameplates to one, commencing a multi-year transition throughout all three Ford divisions. For 1981, the Continental went on hiatus, with Lincoln shifting the nameplate to a mid-size sedan for 1982. The Mark VI ended its model cycle in 1983; for 1984, the Mark VII exited the full-size segment, shifting the Mark Series into a different market segment.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: A model year removed from the extensive downsizing of its full-size model range, the Lincoln division underwent a revision of its nameplates. Following the discontinuation of the compact Versailles sedan, Lincoln was left marketing six nearly identical vehicles (Continental, Continental Town Car, and Mark VI, all offered both as two-door and four-door sedans). For 1981, the Lincoln Town Car was introduced, consolidating the Continental and Continental Town Car into a single model line slotted below the Mark VI.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Largely similar to the 1980 Lincoln Continental, the Lincoln Town Car was offered as a two-door and four-door sedan (the Town Coupe nameplate was discontinued). Largely overshadowed by its Mark VI counterpart, the Town Car two-door was discontinued for 1982. As the Mark VII was introduced for 1984, Lincoln pared its full-size line down solely to the Town Car four-door sedan.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: At the time of its launch, the Town Car had been slated for replacement by front-wheel drive model lines (in anticipation of further volatility in fuel prices); as fuel prices began to stabilize, demand initially rose for the model line, leading Lincoln-Mercury to produce the Town Car through the 1980s with few visible changes. Over 200,000 were sold for 1988, the highest ever for the model line. However, this increase was mostly due to an extended 1988 Town Car model year which ran from March 1987 to October 1988 instead of the usual 12-month period. Conversely, the 1987 Town Car with its shortened model year only had sales of just over 76,000. Although remaining Lincoln's top-selling model, calendar-year sales declined each year for the Town Car between 1986 and 1989. This decline was mostly blamed on its aging design and the increased popularity of the Continental which had been fully redesigned for 1988.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The 1980–1989 Lincoln Continental/Town Car utilized the Panther platform shared with Ford and Mercury. Delayed to the 1980 model year due to engineering issues, the Panther platform meant radically different exterior dimensions for the Lincoln models. Although extended three inches in wheelbase over its Ford/Mercury/Mark VI coupe counterparts, the 1980-1989 versions would have the shortest wheelbase ever used for a full-size Lincoln at the time (10 inches shorter than its 1979 predecessor). The 1980 Continental/Town Car was the shortest Lincoln since the Versailles. In the interest of fuel economy and handling, the Panther chassis reduced weight by up to 1400 lbs compared to the 1970-1979 full-size Lincolns. As the lightest full-size Lincoln in 40 years, the 1980 Continental/Town Car came within less than 200 pounds of the curb weight of the compact-sized Versailles. The new Panther platform meant reduced overall size, better suspension geometry, and upgraded power steering with a reduced turning diameter by over 8 feet (compared to the 1979 Lincoln Continental). For 1984, gas-pressurized shocks were added.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: To achieve better Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) results, Ford discontinued the 400 and 460 big-block V8s in its full-size cars. For 1980, a 130 hp 4.9 L V8 (the 302, marketed as a "5.0 L" V8) was the standard engine. A 140 hp 351 CID V8 was available as an option. Following the introduction of the Lincoln Town Car in 1981, the V8 became the only available engine (with the 351 becoming an option for Ford and Mercury). In Canada, the 302 V8 remained carbureted until 1985. In 1986, the 302 V8 was revised to 150 hp, following a redesign of the fuel-injection system with the introduction of sequential multi-port fuel injection. These engines are identifiable by their cast aluminum upper intake manifolds with a horizontal throttle body (vertical throttle plate); this replaced the traditional throttle body with a carburetor-style top-mounted air cleaner previously used. Introduced in the Lincoln Continental for 1980 and marketed in all Panther-platform vehicles in 1981, the Lincoln Town Car was equipped with the 4-speed AOD automatic overdrive transmission, the sole transmission of 1981-1989 examples.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: All Town Cars from 1980 to 1989 featured an optional trailer towing package which included dual exhausts, a 3.55:1 limited slip differential (code 'K') and an improved cooling package for the engine as well as transmission.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: During the late 1970s, the sales of the Lincoln Continental had held steady and the Continental Mark V would go on to outsell its Cadillac Eldorado counterpart. In the development of the Lincoln Town Car, the design themes of the 1977-1979 Lincoln Continental and Mark V would both influence the exterior design of the 1980 Continental/Town Car. As with its predecessors, the Town Car features nearly flat body sides, sharp-edged fenders, and a radiator-style grille. In a major departure, hideaway headlamps gave way to exposed halogen headlamps (the first on a full-size Lincoln since 1969). Another first included fully framed door glass (retractable vent windows were now standard); in sharp contrast to its Ford and Mercury counterparts, the window frames were painted matte black. While chrome trim remained around the headlamps and window frames, in a break from Lincoln tradition, it was deleted from the top of the fenders. Though mechanically similar to the Ford LTD and Mercury Marquis (the Ford LTD Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis after 1983), the Lincoln Town Car shared visible body panels only with the Continental Mark VI. In contrast to its Ford, Mercury, and Mark VI counterparts, the rooflines of 1981-1989 Town Cars feature a vertical quarter window in the C-pillar.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: After only 4,935 two-door Town Cars were sold in 1981, the body style was discontinued for 1982. In the shift from rebadging the Continental to the Lincoln Town Car for 1981, Lincoln replaced the "Continental" badging above the headlights with "Town Car", which was removed in 1984.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: A padded roof was standard equipment on all Town Cars, with its design determined by trim level. On standard-trim Town Cars, a leather-grained vinyl full-length covering with center pillar coach lamps was fitted. For Signature Series and Cartier trims, a padded vinyl coach roof (covering the rear half of the roof) with a frenched (smaller) rear window opening was fitted; the coach roof was also an option on standard-trim Town Cars. On non-Cartier Town Cars, a full-length cloth (canvas) roof was an option; imitating the look of a convertible, the design deleted the C-pillar quarter windows.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: During the 1980s, the Lincoln Town Car would undergo several exterior revisions. For 1985, the model was given a mid-cycle facelift. In addition to (slightly) improving its aerodynamics, the design was intended to visually shorten the car (though the length was essentially unchanged). The front and rear bumpers were redesigned, better integrating them into the bodywork. The rear fascia was redesigned; distinguished by redesigned taillamps, and the trunk lid was better integrated with the rear fenders. For 1986, to meet federal regulations, a center brake light was added in the rear window. For 1988, the grille was updated with a brushed-metal panel between the taillamps, which now featured the reverse lamps.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: 1989 models are distinguished by special trim features including satin black paint for grille blades, trim between headlights, and amber (instead of clear) front parking lamps. The ""Lincoln"" front-end badging is moved from above the left headlight onto the grille and changed to a large sans-serif script. In the rear, the brushed-metal panel was given a pinstripe finish and all badging was moved from the panel onto the trunk lid. All models feature a landau roof with a smaller, more formal "frenched" rear window. All non-Cartier models also include an embedded Lincoln "star" emblems in their opera windows


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The interior of the Lincoln Town Car featured many advanced luxury options for its time. Signature Series and Cartier models featured 6-way power seats (and manual seatback recliners) for the driver and front passenger; the Lincoln Town Car adopted a split front bench seat previously seen on the Mark coupes. Several electronic features included an optional digital display trip computer showing the driver "miles to empty" and (based on driver input) an "estimated time of arrival". A keypad-based keyless entry system unlocked the vehicle through a 5-digit combination (factory-programmed or owner-programmed). Mounted above the driver's door handle, the keypad allowed the driver to lock all four doors; after entering the code, the driver could unlock the doors or release the trunk lid. Along with keyfob-based systems, the keypad system is still in use on Ford and Lincoln vehicles (as of 2021).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: As part of the 1985 update, the Lincoln Town Car was the first Ford vehicle to feature a CD player as an option (as part of a 12-speaker JBL premium stereo system); while 1984 was the final year for the option of 8-track players and CB radios for the Town Car. In a functional change, the horn button was moved from the turn-signal lever to the steering wheel hub. The door trim was changed from wood to upholstery matching the seats.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 1986, the front-seat head restraints were replaced with a taller 4-way articulating design; walnut burl trim replaced much of the satin black trim on the lower dash. For 1988, the instrument cluster was updated; for Town Cars with analog gauges, the instrument panel was given round dials in square bezels. In addition, new wood trim was added to the dashboard and steering wheel.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: At its 1980 launch, the Lincoln Town Car was offered in two trim levels, a standard/base trim and a Lincoln Town Car Signature Series (a name shared with the Mark VI, though with less exclusive features). In 1982, Lincoln adopted the Mark-Series tradition of Designer Series editions as the Cartier Edition was shifted from the Mark VI to the Town Car, becoming the top trim level; the Cartier Edition would remain part of the Town Car line through the 2003 model year.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In 1982, in a trim level shift, the Cartier Edition was moved from the Mark Series to the Lincoln Town Car. As before, the special-edition package consisted of exclusively coordinated exterior colors and interior designs, with the Cartier logo embroidered in place of the Lincoln "star" emblem on the seats. For 1987, the package underwent a redesign with a new upholstery design and new two-tone (metallic beige) platinum added alongside the traditional platinum silver and two-tone arctic white.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Sail America Commemorative EditionThis special edition 1987 Signature Series model came in white with a blue carriage roof and had a white leather interior with blue piping and special badging. Ford Motor Company was one of the corporate sponsors of the "Sail America Foundation" syndicate, owner of the 1987 America's Cup winning yacht "Stars & Stripes 87."


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Special EditionThe 1988 Town Car Signature Series was available with a $2,461 'Special Edition package', which included a carriage roof (giving the appearance of a convertible top), wire-spoke aluminum wheels, JBL audio system, leather-wrapped steering wheel, and leather upholstery with contrasting-color piping. This replaced a proposed Gucci edition Town Car that had been in the works.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Gucci Edition1989 Signature Series Gucci Edition had a special blue canvas roof with fluorescent B-pillar light and a special blue badge on the C Pillar with the word signature. It was designated in the VIN as code 84.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For the 1985 model year, the Cadillac DeVille and Fleetwood, traditional competitors of the Lincoln Town Car, shifted to front-wheel drive platforms (although, the Fleetwood Brougham retained its rear-drive platform and styling). At the time, Lincoln marketed the larger size of the Town Car as a selling point. In response to the downsized Cadillacs, Lincoln introduced a series of advertisements in late 1985 titled ""The Valet"" which depicted parking attendants having trouble distinguishing Cadillacs from lesser Buicks (Electras) and Oldsmobiles (Ninety-Eights), with the question "Is that a Cadillac?" answered by the response "No, it's an Oldsmobile...or Buick." At the end, the owner of a Lincoln would appear with the line "The Lincoln Town Car, please." The commercial campaign saw the emergence of a new advertising slogan for the brand, ""Lincoln. What a Luxury Car Should Be."" which was used into the 1990s. The marketing campaign was unable to turn around declining Town Car sales. It was only after an all-new redesigned Town Car was introduced in 1989 for the 1990 model year that sales temporarily rebounded.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: After ten years on the market (nine of them as the Town Car) relatively unchanged, the Lincoln Town Car was given an extensive redesign inside and out, being launched on October 5, 1989, as a 1990 model. In a move to bring a new generation of buyers to the Lincoln brand, the Town Car adopted a far more contemporary image, bringing it in line with the Continental and Mark VII. In addition, the Town Car adopted a new range of safety and luxury features and would mark the debut of a powertrain that would see usage in a wide variety of Ford Motor Company vehicles. The Town Car was named the 1990 Motor Trend Car of the Year.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The Town Car’s redesign gave the model a significant sales boost in 1990, helping Lincoln achieve record total sales that year. The second-generation Town Car became one of the best-selling full-size U.S. luxury sedans. Town Car sales quickly declined again and would drop below 100,000 in 1995 for the first time in over ten years. This decline mirrored what had been going on in the luxury car market as buyers’ tastes shifted more towards nimbler, performance-oriented models, and eventually SUVs.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Following the discontinuation of the Cadillac Fleetwood by General Motors after 1996, the Lincoln Town Car became the longest-length regular-production sedan sold in the United States.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The second-generation Town Car was developed from 1985 to 1989 under the codename FN36, at a cost of $650 million USD, led by project manager John Jay. Following its downsizing to the Panther platform in 1980, the Lincoln Town Car was originally slated to be discontinued by the middle of the decade and replaced by a smaller front-wheel drive sedan; after the 1979 fuel crisis, gasoline prices were predicted to reach $2.50 per gallon and Ford Motor Company had lost $1.5 billion for 1980. However, by 1984, full-size Lincoln sales had rapidly increased, with 1984 sales up 300% over 1980. Instead of ending the product cycle of the Lincoln Town Car, Ford product planners instead chose its front-wheel drive mid-size platform (of the Ford Taurus) to become the next-generation Lincoln Continental.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In August 1985, Ford designers began sketching and constructing clay models of competing designs under lead designer Gale Halderman and Ford Group Design Vice President Jack Telnack, with a final design chosen in May 1986; two full-scale (1:1) proposals were reviewed by a four-member design committee, chaired by CEO Donald Petersen, Jack Telnack, Ford President Harold Poling, and William Clay Ford, vice-chairman. Various proposals were considered ranging from a conservative update of the existing Town Car to a European-style body in the design language of the 1988 Lincoln Continental (FN-9, designed in 1984).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The final compromise of the committee sought to keep the identity of the Town Car while introducing a contemporary vehicle for the 1990s. In the interest of fuel economy, the Lincoln Town Car was required to become more aerodynamic (reducing wind noise), but key parts of its design were integrated into its design, with its radiator-style grille, chrome trim, and opera windows. In a major design constraint, the design team was not to make any major reductions in size to the Town Car, preserving its large interior and trunk space as key marketing points to buyers.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In 1984, a second factor driving the design of the FN36 project was initiated, as the United States government introduced regulations mandating passive restraints on vehicles produced after September 1, 1989; along with automatic seat belts, out of necessity, automakers began to reconsider the use of airbags as passive restraints. By 1988, dual airbags remained nearly unused in cars sold in the United States, with the exception of the Mercedes S-Class (Mercedes-Benz W126) and the Porsche 944. To comply with the legislation, Lincoln introduced the 1988 Continental with dual airbags, becoming the first Ford Motor Company (and first domestically-produced vehicle) with them standard. As adding airbags to the 1988-1989 Town Car would require a redesign of the steering column and entire dashboard, dual airbag were moved to the FN36 project, making them an intended standard feature.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In March 1986, the design freeze for the project occurred, with an intended production start of mid-1989. The second-generation Lincoln Town Car would become the first domestic Ford vehicle engineered outside of the company and constructed by foreign suppliers, with International Automotive Design of Brighton, England handling the engineering, while Japan-based Ogihara Iron Works supplying all of the Town Car body panels from its own factory near the Wixom plant. To improve quality of prototypes, project managers broke from automotive industry precedent, requiring successive hand-built prototypes to be built to production-level quality to determine the locations and causes of specific issues of tooling and manufacturing. From 1988 to 1989, the Town Car would go from over a year behind its production date to two weeks ahead of schedule.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: To lower the development and production costs of the extensive redesign, Ford Motor Company retained the Panther platform for the Lincoln Town Car, continuing its use of rear-wheel drive. In a major change, rear air suspension (introduced as an option for all three Panther vehicles in 1988) became standard equipment on all Town Cars. For 1990, the Town Car was produced with 11-inch rear drum brakes (identical to its 1989 predecessor); for 1991, they were replaced by 10-inch solid rotor disc brakes.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Due to development delays in the Modular engine program, the 1990 Lincoln Town Car was released with the same powertrain as its predecessor: the small block V8 engine with a 4-speed AOD overdrive automatic. In October 1990, the 302 (marketed as 5.0 L) V8 was replaced by a 4.6 L SOHC Modular V8 for 1991 models; for the 1994 model year, the optional 210 hp dual-exhaust version of the engine became standard. Shared with the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis, the SOHC version of the 4.6 L Modular V8 would see use in a number of other Ford vehicles within the Ford light-truck line, remaining in production into 2014. For 1993, the AOD transmission was converted to electronic operation, becoming the AOD-E. In 1994, along with a mid-cycle refresh, the 1995 Town Car received the higher-torque 4R70W from the Lincoln Mark VIII.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The second-generation Lincoln Town Car was designed by Gale Halderman and Ford Group Design Vice President Jack Telnack.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In its redesign for the 1990 model year, Lincoln stylists sought a completely new design for the Town Car. Many traditional Lincoln styling cues were heavily reworked or abandoned completely. Although the Town Car would keep its formal notchback sedan roofline, the flat-sided fenders and angular lines seen since the Continentals and Mark IIIs of the late 1960s disappeared. Stylists made the body more aerodynamic reducing drag coefficient from 0.46 to 0.36 (matching the 1988 Continental and besting the Mark VII). The 1990 Town Car still retained several styling influences, including its vertical taillights, radiator-style grille, hood ornament, alloy wheels, and vertical C-pillar window. In a move to market the Town Car to buyers of contemporary vehicles, several other changes were made. Although two-tone paint remained available (featuring a lower body accent color in gray metallic), monotone paint schemes would become increasingly standard. In a major change, a vinyl roof was no longer offered, since vinyl roofs declined in popularity among many buyers. Spoked aluminum wheels were dropped from the options list for 1990, while locking wire wheel discs remained through 1992.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In late 1992, the exterior was given a minor update with a new grille and slightly redesigned tail lamp lenses (distinguished by a "checkerboard" pattern) for 1993 models. As with the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis, the Town Car received a larger update for the 1995 model year in late 1994 as the FN116. This facelift is distinguished by the deletion of the fixed quarter glass in the rear doors along with the redesign of the side mirrors (enlarged and changed to body-color). Although the bumper largely remained unchanged, the front fascia was updated as the headlamp clusters are changed to a clear-lens design and separated from the grille. The grille was redesigned, returning to the 1990-1992 design in a surround fitting closer to the body. The rear fascia saw the trim between the tail lamps redesigned, featuring additional running lights, while the reverse lamps were moved from the outer edges of the reflector panel to the center, beneath the lid lock cover (similar to the 1985 - 1987 models).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In a departure from the Lincoln Continental and Mark VII, the use of the Panther platform necessitated a degree of component sharing with the Ford and Mercury counterparts. Although fitted with its own seats and door panels, the Town Car was fitted with essentially the same dashboard as the Mercury Grand Marquis (versions with digital instruments retain the instrument panel layout from 1988-1989). In 1993, the wood trim was changed to an orange-toned walnut. Due to its popularity (and to better separate the Town Car from its Ford/Mercury counterparts), the digital instrument panel was made standard; as such, the climate-control system was converted to a digital display. New for the 1995 model year was an integrated, voice-activated in-car cellular telephone concealed in the center armrest, which featured a speakerphone as well as a rearview mirror-mounted microphone for hands-free calling.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: As part of its 1995 Mid-cycle refresh, the interior saw a greater degree of change than the exterior. To bring the design up to date (and in line with the rest of the Lincoln line), the dashboard and door panels featured a curved design, while influenced by the Mark VIII, the 6-passenger design of the Town Car precluded the adoption of a center console in the interior. To increase storage space, the dual center armrests of the front seats on Signature and Cartier models were redesigned to include storage compartments (to hold cassettes and the optional cellular telephone). The dashboard design continued into the new door panels, now with an illuminated power window and seat adjuster cluster, and a back-lit power door lock switch placed higher on the door. Releases for the trunk and fuel door were moved from the dashboard onto the lower driver's door. Redesigned seat patterns now offered an available driver and front passenger electric heat feature. The radio antenna was integrated into the rear window. Although the basic controls of the interior remained common across all Panther vehicles, the Town Car gained a model-specific instrument panel, featuring italicized readouts.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 1996, the climate controls were again redesigned; while Cartier Designer Editions featured genuine wood trim on the dashboard and door panels. In 1997, few changes were made: the rear center armrest added a pair of cup holders, while Cartier models gained rear-seat vanity mirrors mounted in the headliner. Also in 1997, the trim level badges were moved to the front fenders in place of the "Town Car" badges. Subsequently, the rear side opera windows no longer featured their trim level engravings.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Upon its redesign in October 1989, the Lincoln Town Car carried over its three previous trim levels: base, Signature Series, and Cartier Designer Edition. For 1991, the base trim was renamed Executive Series. From 1989 to 1996, the Lincoln Town Car was available with a factory towing package.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The Base (Executive Series from 1991MY onward) Town Car offered six-passenger seating with two bench seats, a four-speaker AM/FM stereo with cassette player, 6-way front power seats, a four-speed automatic overdrive transmission, cloth seating surfaces, fifteen-inch tires, dashboard clock, and keyless entry with Ford's SecuriCode keyless entry keypad.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The Signature Series added a digital vacuum fluorescent instrument cluster, trip computer, and standard alloy wheels. The Cartier Edition was fitted with the same features as the Signature Series, adding a JBL-branded sound system with an amplifier, a security system, alloy spoked wheels, and other details, such as cloth and leather seats. In a departure from tradition, starting in 1990, Cartier Designer Edition Town Cars were no longer available in a single color combination yearly, but in several different interior/exterior combinations. In addition, aside from gray lower body trim offered as an option for Signature Series Town Cars, Cartier Editions became the only two-tone versions of the Town Car.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In addition to the three standard trims of the Lincoln Town Car, various special edition option packages were produced by Lincoln (excluding dealer-produced versions).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Jack Nicklaus Signature Series (1992-1997)The Jack Nicklaus Signature Series was a special-edition option package for the Town Car Signature Series that was featured a green exterior with a white top; the interior consisted of white leather with green accents. Another version of the package was sold with a white exterior and a standard roof; the interior trim was similar, with white leather seats and green carpets and trim.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Most Jack Nicklaus editions have ornaments and wording on the exterior trimmed in gold including green and gold "Golden Bear" badges on the front fenders. Options included on the 1992 to 1997 Jack Nicklaus Signature Series included: Memory Seats with Power Lumbar/Recliner, Leather Seats and Monotone Paint.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Regatta Edition (1994)The Regatta Edition was a maritime-themed special-edition option package for the Signature Series, with approximately 1,500 produced. The package consisted of White Oxford leather seats (with optional blue seat piping), with regatta blue carpeting; the doors and instrument panel featured matching blue-color trim.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The package was often paired with a white oxford vinyl carriage roof featuring embroidery on the "C" pillar near the opera windows.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Spinnaker Edition (1995)Replacing the Regatta Edition, the Spinnaker Edition option package featured tri-coat paint, two-toned leather seats, the Spinnaker logo on the floor mats, and 16" spoked aluminum wheels.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Diamond Anniversary Edition (1996)To commemorate the 75th anniversary of Lincoln in 1996, the division sold a Diamond Anniversary Edition of the Town Car Signature Series (alongside the Continental and Mark VIII). Featuring a unique accent stripe, leather seats, wood instrument panel trim, window badging, cellular telephone, power moonroof, JBL audio system, auto electrochromatic dimming mirror with compass, and traction assist, the Diamond Anniversary Edition included nearly every available option on the Lincoln Town Car.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Cypress Edition (1996)The Cypress Edition of the Signature Series featured Cypress Gold Frost exterior paint, a two-toned leather interior, and red Cypress tree badging.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: At its 1990 redesign, the Lincoln Town Car was offered with relatively few options, with nearly all features as standard equipment. On the Signature Series, the only options were leather seat trim, a moonroof, a 10-disc CD changer, a JBL sound system, a security system, and an onboard telephone.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The redesign highlighted several new features that had never been available before on the Town Car. A two-position driver's memory seat was standard on Cartier Editions (optional on Signature Series); the memory seats featured an 8-way adjustment for both seats and inflatable lumbar support. While technically a carryover feature from 1989, the Electrochromic Dimming Mirror was redesigned for the much wider rear window of the new Town Car.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: A number of advances were made in the safety features available for the Lincoln Town Car, with ABS becoming an optional feature in 1990. Following the return of 4-wheel disc brakes to the Town Car in 1991 (for the first time since 1979), ABS became standard in 1992. Initially, the 1990 Town Car came with dual airbags as standard equipment. However, due to a March 14, 1990 fire at the facility where the passenger airbag's propellant was produced, the passenger airbag essentially became a delete option, with a credit on the window sticker issued for the price of the missing airbag. Upon the owner's request, for the price of the issued credit, the passenger airbag would be installed once supply became available. By the beginning of the 1992 model year, all Town Cars come equipped with dual airbags from the factory.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The third generation of the Lincoln Town Car was unveiled at the 1997 New York International Auto Show, going on sale in November 1997. For the 1998 model year, all three Panther-platform sedans underwent complete exterior and interior redesigns, with the Town Car given the most extensive revision. Shifting away from the straight-lined design language used by full-size Lincoln sedans for over 35 years, the 1998 Town Car adopted the rounded exterior of the Lincoln Mark VIII and 1995 Lincoln Continental. The third-generation Town Car was introduced nearly concurrently with the Lincoln Navigator, the first SUV sold by the Lincoln division.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The third generation of the Town Car marked several major changes within Lincoln-Mercury. From 1999 to 2002, the Lincoln-Mercury division became a brand of Premier Automotive Group, a division of Ford created to manage its premium automotive brands acquired during the 1990s; following organizational difficulties (leading to Lincoln once again falling behind Cadillac in sales by 2000), Lincoln-Mercury was restored under its previous divisional structure during 2002. As part of The Way Forward, the 2007 closure of Wixom Assembly Plant was announced, initially putting the future of the Town Car at risk. To continue the Town Car, for the 2008 model year, production of the Town Car was transferred to the St. Thomas Assembly plant in Canada, alongside the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For its redesign in the 1998 model year, the Lincoln Town Car retained the Ford Panther platform that had underpinned its predecessor. To improve the cornering stability of the Town Car, a Watt's linkage was fitted to the solid rear axle suspension (a change also seen in its Mercury and Ford counterparts). The front brake calipers were changed to a larger dual-piston design; 16-inch wheels became standard.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 2003, the chassis of the Town Car was extensively redesigned and changes were made to the tuning of the suspension. The steering system was changed from a recirculating-ball to a rack-and-pinion configuration.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In the redesign, the Lincoln Town Car carried over its Modular V8 (shared with the Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis). For the first time since its 1991 introduction, the 4.6 L SOHC V8 saw an increase in output, rising to 200 hp in Executive/Signature models; dual exhaust Town Cars produced 220 hp in Cartier trim with 239 hp in Signature Touring versions. In 2000, the V8 was retuned to 200/215 hp, rising to 220/235 hp in 2001. For 2003, the powertrain would get a final power increase, rising to 224/239 hp.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: From 1997 to 2002, the Town Car used the 4R70W 4-speed automatic that was introduced in 1994. From 2003 onward, the heavier-duty 4R75W replaced it.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: While three inches shorter than its 1997 predecessor, the 1998 Town Car gained two inches in width and an inch in height (becoming the tallest Lincoln sedan in 40 years). In a major break from Lincoln styling tradition, the Town Car abandoned many of the straight-edged lines of its predecessor. Adopting styling cues of the outgoing Mark VIII and the 1995 Continental, the Town Car adopted a curved design scheme in place of the previous straight-lined body. While the radiator grille was retained, its rectangular shape was changed to oval (its waterfall pattern was adopted by the Lincoln Navigator introduced alongside it), and the hood ornament was deleted.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The curved design scheme carried further to the rear of the Town Car, in the C-pillar (losing its opera windows) into the trunklid. To differentiate from its Mercury counterpart, the Town Car switched to individual taillamps, deleting the filler panel on the trunklid; a large chrome surround was used on the trunklid to mount the license plate.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In 2001, the stretched Town Car L was introduced, with a six-inch stretch in its wheelbase. To produce the variant at a lower cost, the B-pillar was widened on 2001-2002 versions to use the existing rear door glass of the standard Town Car. In 2003, the Town Car L was redesigned, giving it model-specific doors proportioned to the longer roofline; these versions are distinguished by wider rear quarter glass in the doors.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In 2003, coinciding with the chassis redesign, the body of the Town Car underwent a number of changes. To bring it in line with contemporary Lincoln vehicles, the lower body was squared off; the oval grille was redesigned in the style of the Lincoln LS; the hood ornament made its return after a 5-year absence.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: As with its predecessors, the 1998 Lincoln Town Car visibly shares few common interior parts with its Ford and Mercury counterparts (aside from its steering column, radio, and climate controls). To improve ergonomics, power seat controls on Signature and Cartier models are relocated from the seat to door panel (Executive Series, in 1999). Seat-mounted side airbags become standard on all Town Cars for 1999. In the same year, the Executive Series regained its rear-seat center armrest (initially deleted in a cost-cutting move). A new in-vehicle telematics system, called "RESCU", included a rearview mirror with integrated microphone and SOS and roadside assistance buttons, and replaced the previous in-car telephone with a portable Motorola Timeport cellular telephone that now featured voice recognition. The system was discontinued after the 2003 model year.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For its 2003 redesign, the interior of the Lincoln Town Car saw extensive changes. To differentiate the Town Car from the Mercury Grand Marquis, the radio and climate controls were integrated into a single unit with an analog clock; the interior was given a model-specific wood trim bordered by satin metal. The redesign included new seats, distinguished by taller head restraints. Alongside the Lincoln LS, the 2003 Town Car introduced a DVD-based satellite navigation system designed by Pioneer; it was later paired with THX sound processing. On all Town Cars except for Executive Series, ultrasonic park assist was standard, alongside a power-open/close trunk lid.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 2004, the "Soundmark" standard stereo system is redesigned to offer dual-media capability (AM/FM/cassette/CD). For 2005, for the first time since 1996, the Town Car received a redesigned steering wheel. For 2006, the instrument panel was redesigned, with the Town Car gaining a tachometer alongside its Ford and Mercury counterparts; The Town Car was one of the last American-market vehicles sold without one.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: As part of the 2008 shift in assembly plants, to streamline production, Lincoln deleted or standardized many features of the Town Car, leaving only four remaining options: HID headlamps, whitewall tires, polished 18-spoke wheels (in place of 10-spoke "machine-finish" wheels), and a trunk organizer.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: At its redesign for 1998, the Lincoln Town Car was produced in three trim levels: Executive Series (primarily for fleets and livery sales), Signature Series, and Cartier Designer Edition. From 1998 to 2002, Lincoln offered the Signature Series Touring; essentially the Lincoln counterpart to the Handling and Performance Package option for the Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis, the Signature Series Touring offered suspension upgrades to optimize handling.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 2002, the Town Car line was expanded as Lincoln introduced a Premium option package for the Signature Series, Cartier, and Signature Touring; the Premium option package is distinguished by a glass sunroof.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 2003, the Town Car was redesigned to have a new look and the Executive became the base model. The Signature was the next step up, and then the Cartier and Cartier L. A new "SoundMark" premium audio system, featuring nine premium speakers (including a rear deck-mounted subwoofer, coaxial front and rear speakers, and an amplifier), became available, and was paired with a dual-media AM/FM stereo radio with integrated cassette and CD players. A trunk-mounted CD changer was still available, though an AM/FM stereo radio with an in-dash CD player replaced the cassette-only unit (the standard sound system still featured four speakers mounted in the front doors and rear deck of the Town Car).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 2004, several shifts were made to the model line, with the Executive becoming available solely for fleet/livery customers and the Cartier discontinued altogether. To replace the Cartier, Lincoln introduced the Town Car Ultimate. Ultimate buyers could now opt for "upgraded" leather seat trim. A touchscreen GPS navigation system radio became available for the first time, available on the new Ultimate trim. For 2005, the Ultimate was replaced by the Signature Limited (first introduced as an option in 2000) along with the Designer Series in 2006-2007. Also in 2005, Signature Limited models equipped with the GPS navigation system radio also came equipped with a new THX Certified premium audio system, adding tweeter speakers in the upper corners of the front door panels, and a more powerful amplifier, and all Town Car models could be paired with Sirius Satellite Radio, regardless of radio option. Effectively replacing the Cartier, the Designer Series offered a two-tone interior with "Provence" leather and adjustable head restraints; the exterior was distinguished by chrome wheels and B-pillar trim.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 2008 through 2011, the Signature Limited became the sole trim available on the standard-wheelbase Town Car along with the long-wheelbase Signature L; the Executive Series remained in production for fleet and livery sales. The dual-media cassette and CD player radio was replaced with a six-disc, in-dash CD changer unit, and both the trunk-mounted CD changer and GPS navigation radio were discontinued, as was the THX Certified premium audio system.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: TouringIntended to enhance the driving appeal of the Lincoln Town Car, the "Touring/Touring Sedan" was an option package for Signature Series Town Cars from 1998 to 2002. Essentially the Lincoln counterpart of the Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis Handling and Performance Package, the Touring option package featured a dual-exhaust 239 hp V8, heavy-duty KONI shocks, revised suspension bushings, wider 16-inch wheels with 235 mm tires, a 3.55 rear-axle ratio, and revised steering tuning. Town Cars with the option package featured a black-painted grille, exterior chrome delete, black wood interior (fitted with perforated leather seats, and a JBL sound system).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Limited EditionIn 2003, Lincoln offered a Limited trim; having Limited badges on the C-pillar, fog lights, heated and memory seats, as well as Arden inserts in the rims and grille. For 2005, the Limited offered two-tone paint schemes (in addition to two-tone seats) with Limited badges on the C-pillar as well, but no fog lights.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Pro SeriesOffered in 2004, a special Pro-series badge was placed on the C-pillars; having the background of a golf course. This badge was stitched onto the front seats, in addition to having chrome 9-spoke rims and a two-tone color scheme.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: 25th Anniversary EditionLincoln commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Town Car by offering a 25th Anniversary Edition package on the 2006 Signature Limited. The package included chrome B-pillar and door handles, unique Eucalyptus wood applique and matching steering wheel with wood inserts, scuff plates with "25th Anniversary Edition" and "25th anniversary" badging, Provence leather individual 40/20/40 lounge seating with individual comfort, shirring, contrast piping and rear seat adjustable headrests, fog lamps, and 9-spoke chrome wheels.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Continental EditionOffered in 2010 and 2011 was the Continental Edition package; available as an option only on the Signature Limited trim. The package added Continental badging, chrome 17-inch wheels, and accents to the B-pillars. On the interior, the Continental name was embroidered on the front seats and front floor mats.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The Lincoln Town Car was the first production sedan in the world to receive US five-star crash ratings in every category.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: "National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 2003 Lincoln Town Car Crash Test Ratings (with side airbags)"


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: "National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 1998* Lincoln Town Car Crash Test Ratings (with side air bags)"


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Featuring a standard V8 engine, body-on-frame design, rear-wheel drive and large exterior and interior dimensions, the Town Car became popular in livery and commercial service. In commercial service, the typical Lincoln Town Car saw a life expectancy of well over 400,000 miles. Its basis on the Ford Panther chassis gave it powertrain and suspension commonality with the Mercury Grand Marquis and the Ford LTD Crown Victoria (later the Crown Victoria). This design made them durable even in the rough conditions taxi and livery cars are subjected to, and easy and cheap to repair when they did suffer damage.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: The Lincoln Town Car was popular as a stretch limousine donor chassis; it was the most commonly used limousine and chauffeured car in the United States and Canada. Hearses and funeral cars were also built on the Town Car chassis, through Ford's QVM program; the chassis was modified by coachbuilders for use in the funeral business, though Cadillac has always dominated in this market.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: A 1989 Lincoln Town Car was commissioned by United States President George H. W. Bush as the Presidential State Car of the United States to succeed the 1983 Cadillac Fleetwood used during the Ronald Reagan administration. The Presidential Town Car limousine arrived in 1989 and was the state car for the entire presidency of George H. W. Bush. It was succeeded by a 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood, used by his successor, Bill Clinton. As of 2021, the 1989 Lincoln Town Car is currently the last Lincoln vehicle to have served as a Presidential State Car.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: A new "L" designation was used for extended-wheelbase Town Cars from 2000 to 2011. The L editions offered an additional of rear-seat legroom, as well as remote access audio and climate controls mounted in the rear center armrest. Also included was a two-way travel switch for the front passenger seat base (a feature shared with the extended-wheelbase Jaguar XJ). The L designation was applied to the top-of-line Cartier (2000–2003), Ultimate (2004 only), and Signature (2005–2011) trim levels. Fleet buyers received it under the Executive L trim designation.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: For 2000–02 versions, the "L" edition is identified by a widened B-pillar, bearing the Lincoln "star" ornament; maintaining parts commonality with the standard Town Car. The 2003-2011 "L" editions had longer rear doors, featuring wider versions of the fixed windows.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Starting in 2003, the Lincoln Town Car had been available featuring ballistic protection from the factory. Adding nearly $100,000 to the base price, the armored body and bulletproof glass raised the curb weight of the Town Car to nearly 7,000 pounds. Other changes included the suspension and brakes. Only a few dealers in the US were authorized to sell this series.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In China, FAW produced a licensed version of the Lincoln Town Car rebadged as the "Hongqi CA7460(红旗,Red flag CA7460)" and "Hongqi Qijian(红旗旗舰,Flagship)" from November 10, 1998 to 2005. The limousine version is currently called the Hongqi Limousine L1, L2 and L3 respectively. Pricing in 1998 was at 690,000 RMB (109,710 USD) while limousines were added to the range. The L3 was introduced in 2001 and had a wheelbase of 3,190 millimetres (125.6 inches). For 2002, the L1 was introduced and had a wheelbase of 3,990 millimetres (157.1 inches) and the L2 was introduced in 2003 and had the longest wheelbase out of the three with 5,339 millimetres (210.2 inches). Pricing for the limousine variant was 1,350,000 RMB (214,650 USD).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: During the 2000s, in spite of declining sales, the Town Car remained one of the highest-selling American-brand luxury sedans. Outside of retail markets, it was the most used limousine and chauffeured car in the United States and Canada.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: In 2006, as part of The Way Forward, Ford considered ending production of Lincoln's largest model as part of the 2007 closing of the Wixom Assembly Plant. Industry observer George Peterson said "It blows everybody’s mind that they are dropping the Town Car. Just think what Ford could do if they actually invested in a re-skin of Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, and Town Car." Ultimately, Wixom Assembly was closed following the 2007 model year, with the production of the Town Car consolidated with the Ford Crown Victoria, Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, and Mercury Grand Marquis in Canada at St. Thomas Assembly; the first Canadian-produced Town Car was assembled on January 10, 2008.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: Following the 2007 model year, however, the Town Car was discontinued for retail sale in Canada, available exclusively for fleet and livery customers afterward. In 2009, the fate of all three Panther-platform models was determined when Ford announced the 2011 closure of the St. Thomas Assembly Plant. For the limousine and livery markets, Ford had promised availability of the Town Car through the 2011 model year; retail sales continued on a limited basis in the United States and for export. In 2010, Ford announced the closure of the Mercury brand at the end of the year, effectively making the Town Car the final model line sold for retail sale produced by St. Thomas Assembly (retail sales of the Crown Victoria ended after 2007).


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: On August 29, 2011, the final Town Car rolled off the assembly line, without any fanfare or announcement from Ford; St. Thomas Assembly produced its final vehicle (a 2012 Crown Victoria for export) on September 15, 2011.


title: Lincoln Town Car

text: While Lincoln has not developed a direct successor to the model line following its 2011 discontinuation, the use of the nameplate returned for 2012, denoting a variant of the Lincoln MKT designed for limousine/livery use. The MKT was discontinued after the 2019 model year without a direct replacement, marking the final use of the Town Car name; the nameplate was in use for 49 continuous years by Lincoln (30 as a distinct model line, 11 as a sub-model of the Continental, 8 of the MKT).


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These were based on the OECD DAC International Development Goals agreed by Development Ministers in the "Shaping the 21st Century Strategy". The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) succeeded the MDGs in 2016.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: All 191 United Nations member states, and at least 22 international organizations, committed to help achieve the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015:


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Each goal had specific targets, and dates for achieving those targets. The eight goals were measured by 21 targets. To accelerate progress, the G8 finance ministers agreed in June 2005 to provide enough funds to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to cancel $40 to $55 billion in debt owed by members of the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) to allow them to redirect resources to programs for improving health and education and for alleviating poverty.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Interventions evaluated include (1) improvements required to meet the millennium development goals (MDG) for water supply (by halving by 2015 the proportion of those without access to safe drinking water), (2) meet the water MDG plus halving by 2015 the proportion of those without access to adequate sanitation, (3) increasing access to improved water and sanitation for everyone, (4) providing disinfection at point-of-use over and above increasing access to improved water supply and sanitation (5) providing regulated piped water supply in house and sewage connection with partial sewerage for everyone (Hutton, G. Evaluation of the Cost and Benefits of Water and Sanitation Improvements at the Global Level, 2004 WHO-Geneva)


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Critics of the MDGs complained of a lack of analysis and justification behind the chosen objectives, and the difficulty or lack of measurements for some goals and uneven progress, among others. Although developed countries' aid for achieving the MDGs rose during the challenge period, more than half went for debt relief and much of the remainder going towards natural disaster relief and military aid, rather than further development.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: As of 2013, progress towards the goals was uneven. Some countries achieved many goals, while others were not on track to realize any. A UN conference in September 2010 reviewed progress to date and adopted a global plan to achieve the eight goals by their target date. New commitments targeted women's and children's health, and new initiatives in the worldwide battle against poverty, hunger and disease.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Among the non-governmental organizations assisting were the United Nations Millennium Campaign, the Millennium Promise Alliance, Inc., the Global Poverty Project, the Micah Challenge, The Youth in Action EU Programme, "Cartoons in Action" video project and the 8 Visions of Hope global art project.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Following the end of the Cold War, a series of UN‑led conferences in the 1990s had focused on issues such as children, nutrition, human rights and women, producing commitments for combined international action on those matters. The 1995 World Summit on Social Development produced a Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development with a long and complex list of commitments by global leaders, including many adapted from the outcomes of previous conferences. But international aid levels were falling and, in that same year, the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD set up a reflection process to review the future of development aid. The resulting 1996 report, "Shaping the 21st Century", turned some of the Copenhagen commitments into six monitorable "International Development Goals", which had similar content and form to the eventual MDGs: halving poverty by 2015; universal primary education by 2015; eliminating gender disparity in schools by 2005; reductions in infant, child and maternal mortality by 2015, universal access to reproductive health services by 2015 and adequate national strategies for sustainable development in place everywhere by 2015.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: In late 1997, the UN General Assembly envisaged a special Millennium Assembly and forum as a focus for efforts to reform the UN system. A year later, it specifically resolved to hold not only the Millennium Assembly but also a Millennium Summit, and mandated the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to come up with proposals for "a number of forward-looking and widely relevant topics", thus opening the possibility of going beyond the institutional questions of UN reform. Annan's report, when published in April 2000 under the title "We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century", framed the questions of UN reform within the larger challenges facing the world, the chief of which was identified as "to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world’s people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor". In the report Annan urged the forthcoming Millennium Summit to adopt certain key goals and objectives on many of the issues raised in the Copenhagen summit, other conferences of the 1990s, and the recently-published Brahimi Report on international peace and security.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The Millennium Summit and the General Assembly in September 2000 issued a Millennium Declaration echoing the agenda that Annan had set out. This declaration did not specifically mention "Millennium Development Goals", but it does contain the substance – and much of the same wording – as the eventual goals. A process of selecting and refining the Goals from the content of the Declaration continued for some time. A crucial moment here was unification between discussions under the auspices of the United Nations and approaches being followed by the OECD based on "Shaping the 21st Century"; this unification was agreed at a meeting convened by the World Bank in March 2001. In September 2001, Annan presented to the General Assembly a "Road map towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration" which did contain a section specifically about "the Millennium Development Goals", enunciating some of them in their eventual wording, and indicating the remaining issues in formulating a definitive set.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: David Hulme and James Scott note that the process of creating the MDGs was diffuse, having no single architect and "no clear start or end". They also comment that the process was driven by rich states rather than the countries that would be more the subject of MDG interventions.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The MDGs emphasized three areas: human capital, infrastructure and human rights (social, economic and political), with the intent of increasing living standards. Human capital objectives include nutrition, healthcare (including child mortality, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and reproductive health) and education. Infrastructure objectives include access to safe drinking water, energy and modern information/communication technology; increased farm outputs using sustainable practices; transportation; and environment. Human rights objectives include empowering women, reducing violence, increasing political voice, ensuring equal access to public services and increasing security of property rights. The goals were intended to increase an individual's human capabilities and "advance the means to a productive life". The MDGs emphasize that each nation's policies should be tailored to that country's needs; therefore most policy suggestions are general.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: MDGs emphasize the role of developed countries in aiding developing countries, as outlined in Goal Eight, which sets objectives and targets for developed countries to achieve a "global partnership for development" by supporting fair trade, debt relief, increasing aid, access to affordable essential medicines and encouraging technology transfer. Thus developing nations ostensibly became partners with developed nations in the struggle to reduce world poverty.(GOAL 8 TO DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT)


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The MDGs were developed out of several commitments set forth in the Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000. There are eight goals with 21 targets, and a series of measurable health indicators and economic indicators for each target.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: General criticisms include a perceived lack of analytical power and justification behind the chosen objectives. Some of the indicator definitions, baselines and targets were changed after their first adoption, to suggest that progress had been better than was really the case.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The MDGs lack strong objectives and indicators for within-country equality, despite significant disparities in many developing nations.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Iterations of proven local successes should be scaled up to address the larger need through human energy and existing resources using methodologies such as participatory rural appraisal, asset-based community development, or SEED-SCALE.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: MDG 8 uniquely focuses on donor achievements, rather than development successes. The "Commitment to Development Index", published annually by the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C., is considered the best numerical indicator for MDG 8. It is a more comprehensive measure of donor progress than official development assistance, as it takes into account policies on a number of indicators that affect developing countries such as trade, migration and investment.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The MDGs were attacked for insufficient emphasis on environmental sustainability. Thus, they do not capture all elements needed to achieve the ideals set out in the Millennium Declaration.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Agriculture was not specifically mentioned in the MDGs even though most of the world's poor are farmers.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The entire MDG process has been accused of lacking legitimacy as a result of failure to include, often, the voices of the very participants that the MDGs seek to assist. The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, in its post 2015 thematic consultation document on MDG 69 states "The major limitation of the MDGs by 2015 was the lack of political will to implement due to the lack of ownership of the MDGs by the most affected constituencies".


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The MDGs may under-emphasize local participation and empowerment (other than women's empowerment). FIAN International, a human rights organization focusing on the right to adequate food, contributed to the Post 2015 process by pointing out a lack of: "primacy of human rights; qualifying policy coherence; and of human rights based monitoring and accountability. Without such accountability, no substantial change in national and international policies can be expected."


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: MDG 2 focuses on primary education and emphasizes enrollment and completion. In some countries, primary enrollment increased at the expense of achievement levels. In some cases, the emphasis on primary education has negatively affected secondary and post-secondary education.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: A publication from 2005 argued that goals related to maternal mortality, malaria and tuberculosis are impossible to measure and that current UN estimates lack scientific validity or are missing. Household surveys are the primary measure for the health MDGs but may be poor and duplicative measurements that consume limited resources. Furthermore, countries with the highest levels of these conditions typically have the least reliable data collection. The study also argued that without accurate measures, it is impossible to determine the amount of progress, leaving MDGs as little more than a rhetorical call to arms.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: MDG proponents such as McArthur and Sachs countered that setting goals is still valid despite measurement difficulties, as they provide a political and operational framework to efforts. With an increase in the quantity and quality of healthcare systems in developing countries, more data could be collected. They asserted that non-health related MDGs were often well measured, and that not all MDGs were made moot by lack of data.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The attention to well being other than income helps bring funding to achieving MDGs. Further MDGs prioritize interventions, establish obtainable objectives with useful measurements of progress despite measurement issues and increased the developed world's involvement in worldwide poverty reduction. MDGs include gender and reproductive rights, environmental sustainability, and spread of technology. Prioritizing interventions helps developing countries with limited resources make decisions about allocating their resources. MDGs also strengthen the commitment of developed countries and encourage aid and information sharing. The global commitment to the goals likely increases the likelihood of their success. They note that MDGs are the most broadly supported poverty reduction targets in world history.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Achieving the MDGs does not depend on economic growth alone. In the case of MDG 4, developing countries such as Bangladesh have shown that it is possible to reduce child mortality with only modest growth with inexpensive yet effective interventions, such as measles immunization. Still, government expenditure in many countries is not enough to meet the agreed spending targets. Research on health systems suggests that a "one size fits all" model will not sufficiently respond to the individual healthcare profiles of developing countries; however, the study found a common set of constraints in scaling up international health, including the lack of absorptive capacity, weak health systems, human resource limitations, and high costs. The study argued that the emphasis on coverage obscures the measures required for expanding health care. These measures include political, organizational, and functional dimensions of scaling up, and the need to nurture local organizations.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Fundamental issues such as gender, the divide between the humanitarian and development agendas and economic growth will determine whether or not the MDGs are achieved, according to researchers at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The International Health Partnership (IHP+) aimed to accelerate MDG progress by applying international principles for effective aid and development in the health sector. In developing countries, significant funding for health came from external sources requiring governments to coordinate with international development partners. As partner numbers increased variations in funding streams and bureaucratic demands followed. By encouraging support for a single national health strategy, a single monitoring and evaluation framework, and mutual accountability, IHP+ attempted to build confidence between government, civil society, development partners and other health stakeholders.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Further developments in rethinking strategies and approaches to achieving the MDGs include research by the Overseas Development Institute into the role of equity. Researchers at the ODI argued that progress could be accelerated due to recent breakthroughs in the role equity plays in creating a virtuous circle where rising equity ensures the poor participate in their country's development and creates reductions in poverty and financial stability. Yet equity should not be understood purely as economic, but also as political. Examples abound, including Brazil's cash transfers, Uganda's eliminations of user fees and the subsequent huge increase in visits from the very poorest or else Mauritius's dual-track approach to liberalization (inclusive growth and inclusive development) aiding it on its road into the World Trade Organization. Researchers at the ODI thus propose equity be measured in league tables in order to provide a clearer insight into how MDGs can be achieved more quickly; the ODI is working with partners to put forward league tables at the 2010 MDG review meeting.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: The effects of increasing drug use were noted by the "International Journal of Drug Policy" as a deterrent to the goal of the MDGs.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Increased focus on gender issues could accelerate MDG progress, e.g. empowering women through access to paid work could help reduce child mortality. In South Asian countries babies often suffered from low birth weight and high mortality due to limited access to healthcare and maternal malnutrition. Paid work could increase women's access to health care and better nutrition, reducing child mortality. Increasing female education and workforce participation increased these effects. Improved economic opportunities for women also decreased participation in the sex market, which decreased the spread of AIDS, MDG 6A.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Another way in which women can be empowered is through access to paid work. Kabeer states that this access increases women's agency in their households, it does so in the economic and political spheres as well. A study of women in rural Mexico found that those of them engaged in industrial work were able to negotiate and obtain a greater degree of respect in their households. Additionally, another study from Tanzania found that increased access to paid work led to a long-term reduction in domestic violence. Lastly, Women's employment and access to financial resources increased their political participation. Data from Bangladesh indicates that longer membership in microfinance organizations have many positive effects including higher levels of political participation and improved access to government programs.


title: Millennium Development Goals

text: Although the resources, technology and knowledge exist to decrease poverty through improving gender equality, the political will is often missing. If donor and developing countries focused on seven "priority areas", great progress could be made towards the MDG. These seven priority areas include: increasing girls' completion of secondary school, guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health rights, improving infrastructure to ease women's and girl's time burdens, guaranteeing women's property rights, reducing gender inequalities in employment, increasing seats held by women in government, and combating violence against women.