Are we on track to meet the MDGs by 2015?

So far there are significant advances together with important set-backs. Every region faces particular challenges but has the opportunity to work together in order to achieve the MDGs. Although there is a long way to go, we know that the goals are achievable with global political support, strong partnerships and coordinated efforts. We also know that if some trends persist, some of the goals will be very difficult to reach.

Progress so far:
[Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report - 2005]

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger
Global poverty rates are falling, led by Asia. But millions more people have sunk deep into poverty in sub- Saharan Africa, where the poor are getting poorer.

Progress has been made against hunger, but slow growth of agricultural output and expanding populations have led to setbacks in some regions. Since 1990, millions more people are chronically hungry in sub- Saharan Africa and in Southern Asia, where half the children under age 5 are malnourished.

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Five developing regions are approaching universal enrolment. But in sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than two thirds of children are enrolled in primary school.

Other regions, including Southern Asia and Oceania, also have a long way to go. In these regions and elsewhere, increased enrolment must be accompanied by efforts to ensure that all children remain in school and receive a high-quality education.

Goal 3: Promote gender equality & empower women
The gender gap is closing — albeit slowly — in primary school enrolment in the developing world. This is a first step towards easing long-standing inequalities between women and men. In almost all developing regions, women represent a smaller share of wage earners than men and are often relegated to insecure and poorly paid jobs.

Though progress is being made, women still lack equal representation at the highest levels of government, holding only 16 per cent of parliamentary seats worldwide.

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Death rates in children under age 5 are dropping. But not fast enough. Eleven million children a year — 30,000 a day — die from preventable or treatable causes. Most of these lives could be saved by expanding existing programmes that promote simple, low-cost solutions.

Goal 5: Improve maternal health
More than half a million women die each year during pregnancy or childbirth. Twenty times that number suffer serious injury or disability. Some progress has been made in reducing maternal deaths in developing regions, but not in the countries where giving birth is most risky.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases
AIDS has become the leading cause of premature death in sub-Saharan Africa and the fourth largest killer worldwide. In the European countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and parts of Asia, HIV is spreading at an alarming rate. Though new drug treatments prolong life, there is no cure for AIDS, and prevention efforts must be intensified in every region of the world if the target is to be reached.

Malaria and tuberculosis together kill nearly as many people each year as AIDS, and represent a severe drain on national economies. Ninety per cent of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where prevention and treatment efforts are being scaled up. Tuberculosis is on the rise, partly as a result of HIV/AIDS, though a new international protocol to detect and treat the disease is showing promise.

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Most countries have committed to the principles of sustainable development. But this has not resulted in sufficient progress to reverse the loss of the world’s environmental resources. Achieving the goal will require greater attention to the plight of the poor, whose day-to-day subsistence is often directly linked to the natural resources around them, and an unprecedented level of global cooperation. Action to prevent further deterioration of the ozone layer shows that progress is possible.

Access to safe drinking water has increased, but half the developing world still lack toilets or other forms of basic sanitation. Nearly 1 billion people live in urban slums because the growth of the urban population is outpacing improvements in housing and the availability of productive jobs.

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
The United Nations Millennium Declaration represents a global social compact: developing countries will do more to ensure their own development, and developed countries will support them through aid, debt relief and better opportunities for trade. Progress in each of these areas has already begun to yield results. But developed countries have fallen short of targets they have set for themselves.

To achieve the Millennium Development Goals, increased aid and debt relief must be accompanied by further opening of trade, accelerated transfer of technology and improved employment opportunities for the growing ranks of young people in the developing world.