Global Development: UN report on progress in meeting the first Millennium Development Goal

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-suzman/global-development-a-glas_b_719731.html

In Accra, Ghana, an abundance of locally produced fruits, roots, and vegetables for sale speaks to a remarkable achievement: Ghana reduced hunger by nearly 75 percent between 1990 and 2004. This is an astonishing improvement mirrored in the reduction of the extreme poverty rate, which fell from 51 percent to 30 percent over the same period.

And while Ghana is one of the best performers when it comes to achieving the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) -- it's on track to meet MDG 1 of halving poverty and hunger by 2015 -- it is not alone in its progress. As the world reflects on the tenth anniversary of the MDGs -- eight time bound, measurable goals from halving hunger and poverty to ensuring universal primary school enrollment adopted by every member of the United Nations in 2000 -- we can see countries all over the world and across every goal that have made remarkable progress. At a headline level, a remarkable 1.3 billion people have been lifted out of poverty over the past two decades.

While much of the success has taken place in China and India, new data and analysis in two reports by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), one of Britain's leading independent development think-tanks, shows clearly how even some of the world's poorest countries are making dramatic progress across nearly every goal.

The first report offers a goal-by-goal and country-by-country assessment of progress toward the MDGs. The second profiles the achievements of six countries across multiple dimensions of development (another 18 case studies will be available in the coming months). Both pieces of research are available at www.developmentprogress.org. (The report card was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UN Millennium Campaign; the case studies were funded by the foundation.)
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The report itself is at: http://www.developmentprogress.org/sites/default/files/mdg_report_-_master_13-09-10.pdf

"The past two decades have delivered unprecedented progress in the quality of life across the developing world. Progress has not been uniform, and there have been setbacks and is disappointments. But, overall, the rate of progress in reducing poverty and increasing access to basic health, education, water and other essential services has been without precedent in many countries’ histories.

It reveals the remarkable achievements of countries like Ethiopia, where the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 61% to 29% in 18 years and primary enrolment increased from 22% to 72% in 16 years. It highlights Angola and Niger, which have reduced their under-five mortality ratios by more than 100 per 1,000 deaths in less than two decades. It details the success of India and China – the world’s most populous countries. But it also highlights where countries are falling short of meeting their targets. It goes beyond the MDG targets to show that progress on a number of indicators masks inequity within countries, in some cases rising inequity. It reveals the countries where the poorest members of society are losing out to wealthier groups despite big strides towards meeting the MDG targets.

The key message from the years of working towards the MDGs is that progress is possible. In every aspect of development – even on the MDGs where the least success has been seen, on hunger and maternal and child health – a significant number of countries have made real achievements."