World 'still struggling to reduce poverty'

Halfway through a 15-year global development plan, the world is failing to sufficiently cut hunger, maternal mortality and infant death rates, the United Nations said today.

Progress in reaching the Millennium Development Goals – set by global leaders in 2000 to alleviate world poverty, disease and hunger – has so far been mixed, the UN report from Geneva said.

Some countries, such as China, have made great strides over the past seven years, the report says. But success has remained elusive in other places, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where no country is on track to meet goals of halving extreme poverty, ensuring universal primary education or stemming the Aids pandemic by 2015.

The results in the report suggest “success is still possible in most parts of the world. But they also point to how much remains to be done,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “Millions of lives quite literally hang in the balance.”

:: The proportion of people living on less than 50 pence a day in the developing world has declined to 19.2%, from 23.4% in 1999. In sub-Saharan Africa more than 40% of people still live in extreme poverty. The UN said it was on track to meet its goal of bringing the global rate down to 15.8% by 2015, but will fail to reach the 23.4% benchmark set for African countries;

:: 27% of children under five in poorer countries are underweight – a key statistic in measuring global hunger – down from 33 percent in 1990. The UN still hopes to halve the 1990 figure. Progress in Eastern Asia has been offset by sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, where 46 percent of infants are underweight;

:: The number of African children receiving primary education has risen to 70 percent from only 57 percent at the start of the decade. Globally, 12 percent of children are still out school, a number that is “unacceptably high,” according to the report, which said girls were excluded more often than boys;

:: The number of people living with Aids has risen by 6.6 million since 2001, to 39.5 million. Annual deaths have risen by 700,000, to 2.9 million. Anti-malaria efforts need more funding if they are to turn the tide in sub-Saharan Africa. Progress on tuberculosis is not fast enough to halve rates by 2015, especially south of the Sahara, the only region of the world where prevalence has increased this decade;

:: The child mortality rate in poorer countries has come down 16% since 1990. World leaders in 2000 pledged to cut the rate 67% by 2015.