UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2010

UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2010

November 4, 2015

Annual assessment of global progress towards the Millennium Development Goals

Highlights

  • Progress on poverty reduction is still being made, • despite significant setbacks due to the 2008-2009 economic downturn, and food and energy crises.
  • The developing world as a whole remains on track to achieve the poverty reduction target by 2015.
  • The overall poverty rate is still expected to fall to 15 per cent by 2015, which translates to around 920 million people living under the international poverty line—half the number in 1990.
  • Major advances have been made in getting children into school in many of the poorest countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Remarkable improvements in key interventions—for malaria and HIV control, and measles immunization, for example—have cut child deaths from 12.5 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008.
  • Between 2003 and 2008, the number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy increased tenfold—from 400,000 to 4 million—corresponding to 42 per cent of the 8.8 million people who needed treatment for HIV.
  • Major increases in funding and a stronger commitment to control malaria have accelerated delivery of malaria interventions. Across Africa, more communities are benefiting from bed net protection and more children are being treated with effective drugs.
  • The rate of deforestation, though still alarmingly high, • appears to have slowed, due to tree-planting schemes combined with the natural expansion of forests.
  • Increased use of improved water sources in rural • areas has narrowed the large gap with urban areas, where coverage has remained at 94 per cent—almost unchanged since 1990. However, the safety of water supplies remains a challenge and urgently needs to be addressed.
  • Mobile telephony continues to expand in the developing • world and is increasingly being used for m-banking, disaster management and other non-voice applications for development. By the end of 2009, cellular subscriptions per 100 people had reached the 50 per cent mark.