Millennium Development Goals Report 2005 issued

A United Nations global report released in June profiles a world that has achieved unprecedented gains against poverty in Asia, but also one where mothers and children in many parts of the world are dying from causes which are treatable and preventable, and where half of the developing world lacks access to simple sanitation.

“The year 2005 is crucial in our work to achieve the Goals”, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his foreword to the report. “Instead of setting targets, this time world leaders must decide how to achieve them”.

Five years after adoption of the Millennium Declaration, where the Millennium Development Goals were first enunciated, and a decade before most of the goals and targets come due, the United Nations General Assembly will review progress on all areas of the Millennium Declaration at a summit to be held in September (see page 1).

The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen off by 130 million worldwide since 1990, according to the new report, even with overall population growth of more than 800 million in the developing regions since then.

This reduction of humanity’s ancient enemy was led by countries of Eastern, South-Eastern and Southern Asia.

The report finds also that progress in reducing mortality rates of children and mothers is unacceptable by any reasonable standard. Data indicate that fewer women are dying during childbirth in many developing countries, but maternal mortality rates are among those for which it is most difficult to obtain accurate statistics. In developing countries, the rate is about 450 maternal deaths out of 100,000 births, while in the developed world, it is 14. In countries where women have many children, most women face this risk many times. Over a lifetime, a woman in a developing country is 63 times more likely to die due to childbirth than one in the developed countries.

In the Asian and Pacific region, the report was launched by ESCAP’s Executive Secretary Mr. Kim Hak-Su at a roundtable briefing for journalists on 15 June.

Note: A regional MDG II Report prepared jointly by UNESCAP, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be launched on 7 September at ADB Headquarters, Manila.