Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Brussels (Agenzia Fides) - A report on the Millennium Development Goals, "MDG 2010: Keeping the promise" will be released this afternoon. Made public a few months before a meeting of world leaders in September in New York, the Report will present progress made but also commitments not yet achieved. The eight MD Goals to be reached by 2015, ranging from halving extreme poverty, stopping the spread HIV/AIDS and guaranteeing universal elementary school instruction, were agreed by all countries and all the most important institutions for development. Although many countries are making progress, five years from the deadline for achieving the commitments made in 2000, every minute in the world a woman dies from complications connected with pregnancy or childbirth, and for every woman who dies, 20 are affected by some illness; every day about 29,000 children die before reaching the age of 5, mostly from preventable diseases; every year tuberculosis
HIV/AIDS and malaria kill more than five million people at a cost of millions of dollars for the economies of these already poor countries.
Much has been done to meet the needs of the poorest of the poor. Among the various initiatives, in 2002 Kofi Annan launched a Campaign, today present in more than 50 different countries, to reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Goal. Situations differ according to country and locally these Campaigns act to increase awareness in government and in the people regarding the principal goals for the different. Whereas for example in Europe the principal goals include increasing Public Aid for Development, eliminating the debts of poor countries, changing the rules of international trade in favour of poor countries, transferring technology, in African countries the goals are about guaranteeing education and food security. (AP) (23/6/2010 Agenzia Fides)
