millennium goals
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PROGRESS ON THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)

ASK PRESIDENT OBAMA TO TAKE THE LEAD ON MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Tell President Obama we need a real development strategy that addresses the
root causes of poverty. In just weeks, world leaders will meet as part of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit to discuss how to end hunger, send kids to school and keep women healthy the world over.

But without a concrete strategy from the United States to go beyond the MDGs, we’ll never reach them—leaving millions without a way out of poverty. Ask President Obama to take the lead in making sure the world meets—and exceeds—these goals.

The stark reality is that for millions of people around the globe—every night, millions of people go to bed hungry. Every morning, people wake up without water to bathe or cook with. Every day, families have young children die from completely preventable diseases.

Issues like hunger, poverty, health—these are the things the Millennium Development Goals are meant to address. But today, we are vastly off the mark towards reaching these goals by 2015, the date set by world leaders to eradicate this kind of debilitating poverty.

And, without a real global development strategy from the United States—one that serves as a compass for efforts to end global poverty—we will come up short. President Obama must lead the world in providing a clear, comprehensive strategy, one that will maximize our ability to reach the Millennium Development Goals by
2015.

So today, tell President Obama – take it up a notch!

Fighting poverty and its root causes is no small task. But with the right strategy in place, we can make real changes to the way we tackle issues like hunger, poverty, and health.

Source of Information: Oxfam America.



The overarching goal of reducing absolute poverty by half is within reach for the world as a whole:

—In all but two regions, primary school enrollment is at least 90%.

—The gender parity index in primary education is 95% or higher in six of the 10 regions, including the most populous ones;

—Deaths from measeles fell from over 750,000 in 2000 to less than 250,000 in 2006, and about 80% of children in developing countries now receive a measles vaccine;

—The number of deaths from AIDS fell from 2.2 million in 2005 to 2.0 million in 2007, and the number of people newly infected declined from 3.0 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2007;

—Malaria prevention is expanding, with widespread increases in insecticide-treated net use among children under five in sub-Saharan Africa: in 16 out of 20 countries, use has at least tripled since around 2000.

—The incidence of tuberculosis is expected to be halted and begin to decline before the target date of 2015;

—Some 1.6 billion people have gained access to safe drinking water since 1990;

—The use of ozone-depleting substances has been almost eliminated and this has contributed to the effort to reduce global warming;

—The share of developing countries' export earnings devoted to servicing external debt fell from 12.5% in 2000 to 6.6% in 2006, allowing them to allocate more resources to reducing poverty;

—The private sector has increased the availability of some critical essential drugs and rapidly spread mobile phone technology throughout the developing world.