UN Releases Progress Report on Millennium Development Goals

On July 7 the United Nations released its 2011 Millennium Development Goals Report. The report notes that while “significant strides” have been made in some areas, the “world’s poorest are being left behind.” Among the highlights of the report: despite some setbacks from economic, food, and energy crises, the global poverty rate is on track to fall below 15 percent; new HIV infections steadily declined; malaria deaths worldwide declined by 20 percent between 2000 and 2009; and more than 1 billion people in urban areas gained access to improved drinking water sources from 1990-2008. However, the report also notes that the number of urban residents living in slum conditions has gone up, the poorest children have made the slowest progress in terms of improved nutrition, full and productive employment for women in the developing world remains low, and more than 2.6 billion people still lack access to forms of improved sanitation.

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/MDG2011_PRa_EN.pdf