Are We On Target to End Extreme Poverty?
July 2007 marks the halfway point in the global plan to end poverty. A new report from the UN sheds light on whether we are on track to meet these targets.
In September 2000, 189 countries committed to ending extreme poverty by 2015 through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals focus on areas like gender equality, eradicating disease, environmental sustainability and universal access to education.
(More information on these goals is available on the UN's MDG website .)
Progress Being Made
The United Nations update, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007 , notes that achieving the MDGs remains "possible in most countries," and that progress is being made. Some key highlights include:
- The proportion of those living in extreme poverty dropped from almost a third to under one fifth of the world's population between 1990 and 2004.
- Worldwide primary-school enrolment increased from 80 per cent in 1991 to 88 per cent in 2005.
- The tuberculosis epidemic seems to have plateaued and may be about to decline.
Still a Ways to Go
While these signs of improvement are encouraging, the same report states "the MDGs will be attained only if concerted additional action is taken immediately and sustained until 2015."
Sobering statistics in the report prove that the journey's end is still a long way off. Some of these stats include:
- More than 500,000 women continue to die every year from preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
- The number of people that died from AIDS rose to 2.9 million in 2006. Measures to prevent the disease are not keeping pace with the spread of the AIDS epidemic.
- Half of those living in the developing world do not have access to basic sanitation.
To see real progress on the MDGs, further change is needed. Developing countries must address issues like lack of employment opportunities, gender inequality, urbanization, the scarcity of clean water and high rates of HIV infection.
Developed World Needs to Act
Leaders of developed countries also have an important role—not only in channeling money to international development but also by enacting economic and social policies that are fair for all, not just for their own citizens. That was the clear message of the Make Poverty History Campaign and LIVE 8 concerts.
While the world remains committed to this message, world leaders are not always getting it. Rock star and activist Bono commented on the G8 leaders' latest commitments on Africa saying, "They say that they want to keep their pledges. But it is remarkable—in a 25-page document, we can't see any evidence… It is a maze."
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