By MANGOA MOSOTA
A progress report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) shows that two-thirds of developing countries are on track or close to meeting key targets for tackling poverty and hunger.
"Among developing countries that are falling short on MDGs, half are close to becoming on-track."
The report, Global Monitoring Report 2011: Improving the Odds of Achieving the MDGs, released on Saturday, adds that with improved policies and faster growth, these countries can still achieve the targets in 2015 or soon after.
Developing countries, majority of them in Africa, will also achieve the MDGs for gender parity in primary and secondary education and for access to safe drinking water.
However, the report shows that African countries are struggling to halve their population living in extreme poverty.
The report released by the World Bank states that close to 20 countries, have half of the population living in abject poverty.
Set targets
But, progress is slow and targets may be missed on others.
"Among developing countries, 45 per cent are far from meeting the target on access to sanitation; 39 per cent and 38 per cent are far from the maternal and child mortality targets, respectively," states the report.
In some poor countries, it will be important to focus on support for the world’s socially marginalised groups.
They include indigenous people as well as ethnic and minorities.
Most MDGs indicators among these groups are far worse than in the general population, especially in terms of income poverty.
Early last week, the bank released a report, World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development, where it stated that fragile countries lag behind in achieving the developmental goals.
The population living below the poverty line in Kenya has reduced from about 56 per cent in 2000 to about 45 per cent.
MDGs are set targets that were put forward by world leaders, in 2000, in New York, US and are aimed at achieving human development for the world’s poor by 2015.
They provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.
The MDGs also provide a framework for the entire international community to work together towards a common end making sure that human development reaches everyone, everywhere.
