Mixed picture for UN Development Goals

A new UN report has found that inequalities are responsible for slowing progress on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon on launching the report highlighted that, "Mothers will continue to die needlessly in childbirth, and children will still suffer and die from preventable diseases due to lack of adequate sanitation or nutrition."

The UN report divides up the developing world into nine regions, with two in Africa, four in Asia, plus Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Caucasus and central Asia. There are eight main ‘goals’ that were set: Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, gender equality and empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating disease, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

The report shows the progress towards these targets in each of the nine regions, and generally there has been at least some progress on each of the goals, but many are improving too slowly to meet the 2015 deadline.

Some regions have faired better than others. Of the 16 specific targets listed, North Africa is expected to meet nine of these, and has moved backwards on only one of these targets, whereas the Oceania region is losing ground on five of its targets and expected to be meeting only one. Perhaps the biggest improvement comes from Eastern Asia, which will meet 12 of the targets. It is a mixed picture.

Of the targets themselves, some have made excellent progress, whilst other goals have been missed miserably. Improvements have been made across the board in primary school enrolment for girls, productive and decent employment, reducing child mortality and maternal health, and internet usage.

On the other hand, no region will meet their targets for women’s equal representation in national parliaments, and only 1 region will meet its target in achieving universal primary schooling or access to reproductive health.

The report states that, “meeting the remaining targets, while challenging, is possible ─ but only if Governments do not waiver from their commitments made over a decade ago”.

Ban Ki-moon says, “The current economic crises besetting much of the developed world must not be allowed to decelerate or reverse the progress that has been made. Let us build on the successes we have achieved so far, and let us not relent until all the MDGs have been attained”.