At the dawn of the new millennium, world leaders pledged to tackle poverty, disease, ignorance and inequality - and went beyond generalities to commit themselves to specific goals. Progress has been made over the past decade, but many countries are still struggling to meet the 2015 target. On Monday, another summit will open in New York to review what has, and hasn't, been done. “These Millennium Development Goals are a promise of world leaders,” says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who invited leaders of the 192 UN member nations to the three-day summit. “They're a blueprint to help those most vulnerable and poorest people, to lift them out of poverty. This promise must be met,” he said in an interview with the AP. But recent reports show that the world's poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have made little headway in eradicating poverty. Here, from UN figures, is the status of progress on some specific goals: l Overall the world is on track to halve the numbers of people in extreme poverty, though some critics say it's mainly because of tremendous improvements in China and India. The proportion living on less than $1 a day in developing countries fell from 46 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2005 and should reach the target despite the economic crisis. But even so, the UN said, about 920 million people will still be living on less than $1.25 a day in 2015. l Primary school enrollment rose from 83 percent in 2000 to 89 percent in 2008, which means 70 million children worldwide are not in classrooms. That pace of progress is not sufficient to ensure the goal of universal primary education by 2015. l Reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters and child mortality by two-thirds has lagged. The World Health Organization said there has been a 34 percent decline to 358,000 deaths in 2008, less than half the goal set in 2000. Ban said this was because so much effort has gone into eradicating poverty and disease. He promised a new initiative at the summit. l The goal of halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic is unlikely to be met. While the number of new infections has fallen from a peak of 3.5 million in 1996 to 2.7 million in 2008, UNAIDS said five people are becoming infected for every two who start treatment.
