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Future goals

In September 2000, a UN summit set a series of targets to improve lives worldwide by tackling disease and extreme poverty. The Millennium Declaration, adopted by all member-states, has eight broad goals, with specific targets mostly to be achieved by 2015 using 1990 as a benchmark.

The Millennium Development Goals include: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; reducing child mortality and combatting HIV/Aids. Targets include halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water.

A five-year review takes place in 2005, but sub-Saharan Africa has already been singled out as the region showing "almost no progress" across the entire breadth of goals. It has been estimated that at the current rate, primary education for all would not be provided until the year 2130, and other targets such as halving poverty would take even longer.

Progress towards goals.


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