Foreword

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been the most successful global anti-poverty push in history.

Significant and substantial progress has been made in meeting many of the targets—including halving the number of people living in extreme poverty and the proportion of people without sustainable access to improved sources of drinking water. The proportion of urban slum dwellers declined significantly. Remarkable gains have been made in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis. There have been visible improvements in all health areas as well as primary education.

We are now less than 1,000 days to the 2015 target date for achieving the MDGs. This year’s report looks
at the areas where action is needed most. For example, one in eight people worldwide remain hungry. Too many women die in childbirth when we have the means to save them. More than 2.5 billion people lack improved sanitation facilities, of which one billion continue to practice open defecation, a major health and environmental hazard. Our resource base is in serious decline, with continuing losses of forests, species and fish stocks, in a world already experiencing the impacts of climate change.

This report also shows that the achievement of the MDGs has been uneven among and within countries. Children from poor and rural households are much more likely to be out of school than their rich and urban counterparts. Wide gaps remain in basic knowledge about HIV and its prevention among young men and women in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been hardest hit by the epidemic.

In more than a decade of experience in working towards the MDGs, we have learned that focused global development efforts can make a difference. Through accelerated action, the world can achieve the MDGs and generate momentum for an ambitious and inspiring post-2015 development framework. Now is the time
to step up our efforts to build a more just, secure and sustainable future for all.

Ban Ki-moon

Secretary-General, United Nations

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