Foreword

Six years ago, leaders from every country agreed on a vision for the future – a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment; a world in which developed and developing countries worked in partnership for the betterment of all. This vision took the shape of eight Millennium Development Goals, which are providing countries around the world a framework for development, and time-bound targets by which progress can be measured.

This report shows where we stand in 2006 in achieving these goals. The challenges the Goals represent are staggering. But there are clear signs of hope. The data on the following pages and other evidence suggest that providing every child with a primary school education is within our grasp. The handful of countries in sub-Saharan Africa that

are successfully lowering HIV infection rates and expanding treatment demonstrate that the war against AIDS can be won. Step by step, we see that women are gaining in political participation that will one day result in their full equal rights. Developed countries have confirmed their commitment to the Goals through increased aid and enhanced debt relief. Collectively, the developed and developing countries mustered the political will to find a solution to the destruction of the ozone layer – a demonstration that we can work together on global environmental challenges.

Yet we also know that disparities in progress,
both among and within countries, are vast, and that the poorest among us, mostly those in remote rural areas, are being left behind. Much more can and must be done, both by developed countries in increasing their support and by developing countries in using foreign assistance and their own resources more effectively.

This publication embodies the collaborative efforts of agencies and organizations within and outside the United Nations system, working through the Inter-agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators. It contains the latest and most comprehensive figures available through improved data collection and monitoring worldwide. Similar data will be collected and presented each year until 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals, in an effort to give further direction and focus to international cooperation and national action.

The present report shows that some progress has been made. This should provide the incentive to keep moving forward. But as the following pages also show, there is still a long way to go to keep our promises to current and future generations.

JOSÉ ANTONIO OCAMPO

Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs

Read the report