Fourteen years ago, the Millennium Declaration articulated a bold vision and established concrete targets for improving the existence of many and for saving the lives of those threatened by disease and hunger. There has been important progress across all goals, with some targets already having been met well ahead of the 2015 deadline. All stakeholders will have to intensify and focus their efforts on the areas where advancement has been too slow and has not reached all.
Major achievements include:
The world has reduced extreme poverty by half. In 1990, almost half of the population in developing regions lived on less than $1.25 a day. This rate dropped to 22 per cent by 2010, reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by 700 million.
Efforts in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis have shown results. Between 2000 and 2012, an estimated 3.3 million deaths from malaria were averted due to the substantial expansion of malaria interventions.
Access to an improved drinking water source became a reality for 2.3 billion people. Over 2.3 billion people gained access to an improved source of drinking water between 1990 and 2012.
Disparities in primary school enrolment between boys and girls are being eliminated in all developing regions. Substantial gains have been made towards reaching gender parity in school enrolment at all levels of education in all developing regions.
The political participation of women has continued to increase. In January 2014, 46 countries boasted having more than 30 per cent female members of parliament in at least one chamber.
Development assistance rebounded, the trading system stayed favourable for developing countries and their debt burden remained low.
Challenges include:
Major trends that threaten environmental sustainability continue, but examples of successful global action exist.
Hunger continues to decline, but immediate additional efforts are needed to reach the MDG target.
[Summary adapted from source]