U.N. anti-poverty goals help billion, still need

UNITED NATIONS – A 15-year effort to implement eight goals adopted by world leaders at the start of the new millennium has helped lift more than 1 billion people out of extreme poverty, enabled more girls to go to school than ever before, and brought unprecedented results in fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, the U.N. chief said Monday.

In the final report on the Millennium Development Goals, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the global mobilization to implement the goals by the end of 2015 has produced “the most successful anti-poverty movement in history.”

But he said inequality persists, with 80 percent of the people living on less than $1.25 a day residing in two regions – southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – and 60 percent in just five countries, India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh and Congo.

“Too many people have been left behind, particularly the poorest and those disadvantaged because of their sex, age, disability, ethnicity or geographic location,” Ban said. “Too many women and children continue to die during pregnancy or from childbirth-related complications. And too many people lack adequate sanitation facilities, especially in rural areas.”

Ban said other dangers have intensified since 2000.

“Conflicts have forced almost 60 million people to abandon their homes – the highest level of displacement since the end of World War II, with staggering consequences for human development,” he said. “Climate change has become an existential peril, environmental degradation is undermining development gains – and both are affecting poor people the most.”

Ban said global efforts now have to focus on these gaps.

World leaders are set to adopt a new set of goals at a summit in September. But this time there will be 17 goals with 169 targets to be achieved by 2030.

The report, compiled by over 28 U.N. and international agencies, was produced by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.