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