The United Nations (UN) released a report on July 12 on the progress made thus far on the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs include: end poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, and global partnership. To learn more about the MDGs, go to http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/. Key highlights of the report are:

Positive Impacts

• Targeted interventions have succeeded in reducing child mortality
• Increased funding and control efforts have cut deaths from malaria
• Investments in preventing and treating HIV are yielding results
• Effective strategies against tuberculosis are saving millions of lives
• Effective strategies against tuberculosis are saving millions of lives
• Poverty continues to decline in many countries and regions
• Some of the poorest countries have made the greatest strides in education

Areas lagging behind

• The poorest children have made the slowest progress in terms of improved nutrition
• Opportunities for full and productive employment remain particularly slim for women
• Being poor, female or living in a conflict zone increases the probability that a child will be out of school
• Advances in sanitation often bypass the poor and those living in rural areas
• Improving the lives of a growing number of urban poor remains a monumental challenge
• Progress has been uneven in improving access to safe drinking water

Additional coverage: UN report paints mixed picture of global progress on MDG goals