I
n 2000, nations around the world renewed their
commitment to creating a better, freer, safer world. As
part of this commitment, developed and developing
countries agreed to the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). The MDGs identify key areas of human development,
provide a framework for coordinated action, and set clear
targets to measure progress. As we near the 2015 deadline,
many developing countries have already made extraordinary
progress, improving the lives of millions of people.
But not all countries or all regions of the world are on track
to meet the MDGs. As a region, sub-Saharan Africa is off track
on every goal.1 The news is not all bad: for example, Malawi
is making progress against child mortality and Ghana against
hunger. But successes like these can become obscured by a
tendency to see sub-Saharan Africa as a monolith rather than a
region of 47 individual countries.
Strong economic growth in India means that it—and the
broader South Asia region—has already achieved the poverty
goal. Far less progress has been made on other goals, in particular reducing child mortality and improving maternal health.
In Latin America, several of the MDGs have already been
met, notably ensuring universal primary school enrollment
and empowering women (generally in the sectors of education,
business and politics). The region has not made progress on
other MDGs, though, such as halting and reversing the spread
of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
Around the world, only East Asia has made progress toward
MDG #7, ensuring environmental sustainability. Six other
regions are off track or making no progress toward this goal.2
Developing nations face many challenges to achieving the
MDGs. Some are specific to individual countries or regions,
others broadly shared. These challenges make development
substantially more difficult and raise the likelihood that some
countries will not be able to meet the MDGs. Another factor
that exacerbates all of these conditions is the sudden increase
in food and fuel prices.
Common challenges can be grouped into the following
categories:
• Poor Starting Conditions: Countries whose human
development indicators are at the lowest levels must
make the greatest investments to achieve the MDGs.
Not surprisingly, though, these are the countries with the
fewest resources and the least capacity for rapid scale-up
of programs in sectors such as health and education.
• Weak Governance and Institutions: Governments in
developing countries have primary responsibility for promoting equitable, sustainable economic growth and human development. Governments that are unaccountable,
inefficient, and/or do n ot respect human rights make
growth and human development much more difficult.
• Conflict and Instability: Conflict not only stops development but reverses progress, exacerbating hunger, poverty,
2 Briefing Paper, February 2008
UN Millennium Development Goals for 2015
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people
whose income is less than one dollar a day
Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people
who suffer from hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls
alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no
later than 2015
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Target 5: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the
under-five mortality rate
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Target 6: Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the
maternal mortality ratio
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Target 7: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread
of HIV/AIDS
Target 8: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence
of malaria and other major diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Target 9: Integrate the principles of sustainable development
into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of
environmental resources
Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
Target 11: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in
the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Target 12: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, nondiscriminatory trading and financial system
Target 13: Address the special needs of the least developed
countries
Target 14: Address the special needs of landlocked developing
countries and small island developing States (through the
Program of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small
Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second
special session of the General Assembly)
Target 15: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of
developing countries through national and international measures
in order to make debt sustainable in the long term
Target 16: In cooperation with developing countries, develop and
implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth
Target 17: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide
access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
Target 18: In cooperation with the private sector, make available
the benefits of new technologies, especially information and
communications